Interview > Valdely Kinupp - Valdely Kinupp, professor at the Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Amazonas, talks about his work and life experience with Wild Edible Plants (WEP). He discusses the main obstacles, challenges and opportunities to enlarge the knowledge, use and consumption of WEP and how this can improve the biodiversity conservation.
Valdely Ferreira Kinupp
Could you tell us a bit of you and the work you have been doing?
I come from a mountainous region of Rio de Janeiro. I lived on a small farm with my family and participated in agricultural activities until the age of 19. The land was not ours and the house had no electricity, so I was used to study with lamp or candles. We were never landowners and my father worked as a laborer also for neighbors, although we had our own a large garden where we grew a diversity of crops. We produced food for self-consumption, to feed animals (chickens, goats, pigs, fish) and used to sell the surplus, usually to merchants.
Later I started taking some of our products (eg. Sweet potatoes) to sell it myself in the local market. All our production was ecological and my father, even without ever having studied, knew how to manage the manure and organic materials in general. Even the sawdust was used as mulch in the garden, minimizing excessive growth of weeds (mostly edible).
As a child I used to eat some wild vegetables and fruit, for instance, serralha (Sonchus spp.), taioba (Xanthosoma spp.), araticum (Annona spp.), araçás (Psidium spp.), joá-de-capote (Physalis pubescens), maracujás-do-mato (Passiflora spp.) and many other species.
I studied biology at the State University of Londrina (UEL / PR). Following graduation, I worked in botany at the herbarium of the institution (FUEL), dedicating myself to floristic studies in the optic of promoting the sustainable management of the Brazilian biodiversity.
Later, I did my Masters in Botany at INPA (National Research Institute Of Amazon/Manaus, Amazonas - 2002) and then started working as a temporary teacher at UFRGS (Porto Alegre / RS - 2002-2004), lecturing the courses Economic Botany and Botanic Field.
There I met enthusiastic colleagues, whom were researching the use of edible plants. For example, my friend and professor Bruno E. Irgang; Andréia Carneiro and the notorious Edward H. Rapoport. Under their influence I got increasingly interested in edible plants and I started researching and reading more about the subject. I went on the look out for unique plants in the field, at markets and gardens and created visual records of my findings, prepared unusual recipes; eating and sharing with my colleagues some of these delicacies.
My repertoire of edible plants grew beautifully and continues to grow every day. I pushed my research further with my PhD thesis done at the Faculty of Agronomy at UFRGS (Plant Science - 2004-2007) under the supervision of the enthusiastic professor Dr. Ingrid B.I. de Barros. In my thesis, I listed 311 native plant species of the Brazilian biodiversity with nutritional potential. It is one of the most downloaded thesis in the UFRGS Digital Bank of Dissertations and Thesis.
Since then, the interest on Wild Edible Plants (WEP) has grown throughout the Rio Grande do Sul state, as well as throughout Brazil.
I have been working as a professor at the Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Amazonas, Manaus Campus-East Zone (IFAM-CMZL) since 2008, where I continue researching, and carry on cultivating, eating and spreading my knowledge of WEP at a national and international scale. We even launched courses for high school students called Unconventional Horticulture on our campus.
I am currently writing a book on WEP in Brazil and developing partnerships with local and national chefs with the aim of promoting the value of using WEP in cooking.
How could the consumption of WEP contribute to biodiversity conservation?
We only work at preserving what we know well and especially what we use on a daily basis. That’s the reason why domesticated plants are the most commonly grown crops and this explains why they are widespread. Unknown plants for which we have little knowledge, have little or no commercial value.
We hear very often that Brazil is one of the world’s most biodiverse country, but when we look at our everyday plates we see very little of the flavor, aroma and texture of Brazilian indigenous plants on the menus. People must feel connected to nature and biodiversity in order for them to understand its real value. As food is one of our most basic needs, bringing biodiversity to the plate is a way of working at preserving it.
In urban areas, WEP need to be available at farmer’s markets, supermarkets as well as being featured on menus in restaurants. There is little knowledge about the WEP. Thus, to broaden the consumption of native plants currently regarded as wild, we need to grow them properly and provide adequate commercialization. Naturally, the WEP that are regionally distributed can be easily grown in backyards and have great potential for urban agriculture because they are rustic and many are even spontaneous.
The actual use of “neglected” plant species may contribute not only to the preservation of the specie itself, but also to their habitats and their associated biodiversity. For example, if the Taboa (Cattail - Typha spp.) were not considered a weed and promoted as a delicacy, with its tasty palmettos, its versatile and nutritious pollen and other multiple uses, farmers would not destroy it, neither would they drain swamps to cultivate other exotic species. Instead, with appropriate management, they could derive a supplemental income from the cultivation of Taboa.
Even new plantations of Taboa could be implemented, contributing to the conservation of birds, cavies and other animals that live in these hydromorphic environments, preserving water as well. This already happens with some species more widely used, such as the pequi (Caryocar brasiliense) from the Brazilian savanna.
What is the importance of WEP in the Brazilian’s diet? Is the situation the same throughout the country or do we find regional differences?
Generally speaking, I think almost no importance, because the Brazilian people eat very little of the so called WEP. Our food is globalized from North to South, East to West, with the exception of rare regional peculiarities that still do not have the economic and gastronomic expression that should and could have. Often the use of WEP is restricted to very few people that have the knowledge about it or few markets. In very few places you can find these kinds of plants, even regionally. Unfortunately, this seems to be the case not only in Brazil, but throughout the world.
In many places there are fruit or vegetable, which are used as a decoy by the media, for advertisements, but in reality they are not easily available (in terms of quantity, quality and regularity) for sale and consumption in restaurants, pizzerias and supermarkets.
In many instances, WEP are easier to grow because they are adapted to local conditions and at the same time hold great nutritional value. Nevertheless, lettuce and tomato are still the main components of a “Brazilian salad”. Why?
This is a broad and complex question to answer and I will not be able to give here all the explanation concerning this matter. At university, I focused on this issue in my thesis. It is a vicious circle: the WEP are not available because there`s no market for them and there is no market because they are not available.
For instance, some species may be known regionally or nationally as food, but as they are not on the market, the lack of raw materials undermines basic and applied research, minimizing the supply of this kind of food in restaurants. What children do not see their parents eating regularly and what is not available at school for lunch tends to be gradually forgotten.
This certainly began with colonization, where the Eurasian colonizers, "civilized", "intelectual", supplanted eating habits of Native Peoples. So we have been living under the influence of a certain “food and gastronomic imperialism”, where we value what is foreign; or what is seen as exotic. This is perpetuated both at a personal, institutional and public policy level. Research on regional foods has historically been somehow marginalized, punctual and developed by few researchers with modest resources.
Unfortunately, I am unaware of specific funding for projects to work on developing food products that come from the Brazilian biodiversity. We need to research our native edible plants to select varieties, produce seeds and seedlings (practically non-existent in the market and under continuous risk of loss and genetic erosion) and encourage and promote its culture, its management and its domestication.
The Brazilian research institutions and extension agricultural and federal ministries (Ministry of the Environment; Ministry of Sustainable Development, etc) linked broadly to the industry have to revise their concepts and lines of research, extension, training and development of human resources. Otherwise, we will continue to talk about our biodiversity (abstract and unknown), but keep researching, teaching, spreading and EATING the biodiversity of others.
What are the main obstacles to the current Brazilian public policies and laws concerning unconventional edible plants? Are we making any progress?
There are bureaucratic obstacles that need to be eliminated as soon as possible. For instance the excessive restrictions to basic ethnobotanical studies, especially regarding the use of agrobiodiverse food. Ethnobotanical studies of food plants, which are rare in Brazil, always bring out new food plants and / or new ways of preparing and consuming them, as well as ways of managing and / or propagating different species.
The Brazilian government needs to encourage, help and support national institutions and young Brazilian students researching the national socio-biodiversity. There were promising initiatives, but very few were specific or developed with the aim of applicability, eg, the beautiful Project Plants for the Future of the Ministry of Environment.
During your work in the Amazon, how did you see the relation between local communities and WEP? Has this relation been changing?
There are typical species from the Amazon region and / or from the indigenous culture that are well known and effectively consumed on a daily basis or frequently according to the seasons, and many of them are kept on the dinner table even in big cities like Manaus. I'll talk more specifically about the urban area where I know more.
Unfortunately, most people do not actually know about WEP or if they know, they don`t consume them because of the lack of accessibility and because of the change of habits that come with the food globalization. But today there is great interest in organic food and locally produced food. If municipalities’ rural production departments of the Amazon states were effectively involved and were aiming at encouraging and fomenting the sustainable cultivation and management of plants adapted to the soil and climate of the Humid Tropics, it would be possible in a few years time to educate and enhance the Amazonian agricultural matrix.
Unfortunately, politicians and even technicians of the federal ministries because of a lack of knowledge are continuously trying to homogenize the agroecosystems in all regions of Brazil. The Amazonian WEP produce viable seeds or propagules that are highly resilient, unlike conventional species, which require the acquisition of new seeds every harvest and come from other regions or even other countries, therefore unsustainable from an ecological and economic perspective.
The United Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) has several projects and programmes, including in Brazil, which aims to support and strengthen agro biodiversity, as well as the production and consumption of edible plants of the local biodiversity. Have you noticed any concrete impacts of these actions on the ground?
Good to know. These initiatives are important, even if it still seems too theoretical and with very little impact on the ground. Currently we have a Brazilian biologist involved with the UN Convention on Biological Diversity. Maybe we`ll have some effect in Brazil in the near future. Currently I do not see any real impact of such programs in the Amazon and in Brazil as a whole.
However, Brazilian municipal, state and federal governments should effectively appropriate themselves these programs and projects and transpose these into longer term projects and not just use this as political propaganda in the aim of gaining popularity as it is happening in the run to the 2014 World Cup and the Olympics (2016). Until now I did not notice any functional impact, except in the case where bureaucrats in positions of power benefit financially from these practices.
What strategies should be promoted to expand the use and knowledge of WEP?
In order to effectively expend the use and knowledge of native plants products classified as wild, the main strategy is to invest in basic and applied research of native flora and stimulate the production of seeds and seedlings for distribution to traditional farmers, as it is done today with conventional vegetables. These plants are categorized as wild exactly because we don`t consume them enough in our daily diet.
Programs such as PAA (Acquisition of Food Products from the Government) should also focus on the acquisition of indigenous food, stimulating ecological cultivation and / or rational extraction. Thus, some of these plants could become better known and commonly consumed (even with some seasonal variation, which is even desirable) in a few years time. Then they will be considered conventional food plants, but native, rustic and adapted.
Read Kinupp's PhD thesis: Plantas alimentícias não-convencionais da região metropolitana de Porto Alegre, RS
Valdely Kinupp can be contacted at valkinupp@yahoo.com.br
Interview: Heitor Teixeira
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