Impression of the First Fair Food Seminar
Conviviality, a politics of mutual nurturing
15 June 2023
In the first Fair Food Seminar (two more to follow this year), Dr. Ra煤l Matta (Research Institute for Development, Paris) gave a lecture on 鈥淐onviviality, a politics of mutual nurturing鈥. Exploring what he called 鈥渃onvivial foodscapes鈥, he focused on several initiatives in Berlin (for instance REFU-EAT), in which food trucks and mobile kitchens were used to bring communities (newcomers and those who had lived here for long) around the table and negotiate the social and racial differences still very strong in this city. Also he analysed how a term like conviviality could not only help us to open our eyes to the unseen peoples of our cities, but also, through food and foodways, he spoke of how in for example Peru, the renewed attention for native societies happened though their understanding of the earth and what it could offer us. This makes conviviality not just a key term for improving social inclusiveness, but just as much for improving the relationship with non-human earthlings (animals, plants, the earth). In their comments, UU colleague Prof. Dr. Ajay Bailey wondered if food was not too easily romanticized, whereas Dr. Manpreet Janeja also wondered whether these initiatives would in the end lead to structural change.
After the lecture, artist, writer and cook Alejandro Ramirez shared with us the intriguing stories of tamales, the corn-based snack with many long histories in South America, and today also of the greatest cultural importance to the many different communities in the Mississippi delta. With a taste of a Columbian version of the tamales, he fostered a discussion not only on the history and present of food culture but also of its future, very much in line with how Matta brought this to the table earlier. In the upcoming two Fair Food Seminars (fall 2023), the aim is to explore the history of fair food, and the idea of Global Health, in more detail. In sum, these sessions aim to give us a first general overview of how Fair Food is studied in academia today and how the issues raised can bring Utrecht 木瓜福利影视 colleagues together.