Decolonisation through a plant-based plate
The choice of what we put on our plate is very powerful. Our food fuels us - it gives us physical energy and has the power to empower ourselves and others. What we cook and eat can be a representation of who we are - from ancestry to values to wealth and many more factors. You probably don’t contemplate any of these factors consciously whenever you put food on your plate but if you take time to reflect, you might just make some connections.
Food is power.
And taking away that power by influencing and adapting the food that cultures and communities grow, cook and eat has been a direct outcome of colonisation. Many of us are not even familiar with what would have been the food of many cultures, including our own, before colonisation.
The food of my roots
Growing up eating mainly Indian food at home whilst my peers all ate ‘traditional’ food, I craved to be normal and eat like them. I didn’t want to smell like curry, I didn’t want to be the only one without sandwiches in my lunch box. My father’s food singled me out as different. I already had the strange name and brown skin, I didn’t need any more markers. I wanted to be called Sarah instead of Sareta. I tried to lighten my skin with talcum powder. I wanted chips not curry.
Fast forward to my 20s and 30s and all I want to eat is South Asian food! There is an inexplicable link between the death of my father and a move to engage more with my Indian heritage - often I think too little, too late. But it is also a realisation that it is a vital part of who I am, who my ancestors were and the power that food has. My food choices had the power to keep my ancestors alive and create their legacy.
My life had been whitewashed for too long but I have the power to decide what I eat and cook. This realisation and engagement with my culinary ancestry was the start of a longer process in decolonising my diet which I can now reflect is inextricably linked to my decision to go vegan six years ago.
Plant-based plates
When I turned vegetarian at the age of eight my dad was slightly put out as he now had to cook two different meals for my sister and me but he had a respect for it too it seemed. He would tell me of the popularity of being ‘pure veg’ in India, something often linked to religion and caste. Pure veg is typically a vegetarian diet that also omits eggs. Lord Krishna in the Hindu fame is known for being offered vegetarian food and Siddharta Gautama - the prince that went on to become Buddha - was also vegetarian.
Connecting with Indian vegetarian foods has been an important part of connecting with my heritage and ancestry. However, the dominance of vegetarianism was impacted by colonisation and capitalisation over the ages with the tastes of the British Raj bringing many new dishes and eating habits to the subcontinent.
The colonisation of food
Animal agriculture - particularly on scale - was brought to many countries through colonisation and imperalism in a bid to grow and cook the food that the colonisers preferred to eat, instead of indigenous foods. Across Africa, for example, the pre-colonial diet relied heavily on vegetables, beans and grains. Animals were hunted but would not have been eaten daily and rituals were common as a means to say thank you to an animal for giving their life for people to eat.
Where livestock was kept it was often impacted by colonisers. In Kenya in the early 20th century, indigenous crops were burnt and livestock killed as a means to control the native people - a form of divide and rule that has been more commonly associated with racial or religious divides. The arrival of masses of white settlers would result in the land use changing to produce the crops the settlers wanted, whilst also pushing the native people to less fertile lands. Being on less arable land meant that traditional crops like millet and sorghum were less prosperous and were soon overtaken by maize.
As settlers created international markets for crops the focus for all communities would turn to cash crops (those that you can sell and are usually produced en masse) over subsistence crops (those you need for your own survival and which don’t decimate land or species). This situation still plays out across the world today where 25% of the population are food insecure despite 70% of food being produced by small farmers and $1 trillion worth of food is wasted every year.
Many food items that we eat today in the west - dairy, gluten, sugar - are the results of colonisation. A decolonised plate will often lean towards a whole food plant-based plate reflecting the ingredients and food of our ancestors. These represent a time when communities could create all manner of dishes from a few simple, natural ingredients. There is now such a disconnect with indigenous foods, that people no longer question what they eat. If you look towards the USA where people live on native lands, you struggle to find cuisines of the indigenous. Needless to say in the land that created global capitalism as we now know it.
Erasure of identity through food
Food is not just what nourishes us physically and mentally. It is a source of creating bonds and passing on traditions. Changing the farming and eating habits of generations has led to many dishes, techniques or stories dying out.
Even in modern-day Britain, you will often find a sense of disconnect amongst second or third-generation diaspora communities between them and the food of their heritage. Where they are familiar with it, they might not actually be able to cook it or be able to pass on their knowledge and skills to future generations. There has also been a widespread dilution of food and a loss of distinctiveness. Caribbean food has been homogenised as a few popular flavours and dishes however each island has it’s only distinct flavour palette and signature dishes.
Decolonising food through a plant-based plate
India isn’t the only country that has a strong history of plant-based foods that has since been affected by colonialism and capitalism. Ethiopia, Japan and Jamaica are some of the many countries that have strong roots in plant-based eating. In South Africa, Zimbabwean plant-based chef Nicola Kagoro is on a mission to highlight the history of veganism rooted in southern Africa through her work including her platform African Vegan on a Budget.
In a piece on colonisation, food and the practice of eating, Food Empowerment Project highlighted that the sedentary lifestyle of colonisers is what brought dairy farming to communities across Latin America, many of whom are genetically lactose intolerant - as is the case across parts of Asia, Africa and the Pacific: all communities that would traditionally not have farmed animals for dairy.
There are, of course, many communities that have historically survived on animal produce. Often in harsher conditions where less plants grow - from the Artic circle to native, arid lands in the Americas.
Food in a neocolonialist world
Direct colonial and imperialist rule may be over (well, let’s not forget the 17 countries that are still Non-Self Governing Territories) but the impacts run deep and we are now in a neocolonial world where developed countries still exert control over developing nations through multiple factors including food supply and food production.
In many countries traditional farming continues to be pushed to the side to make way for industrial farming to feed the ever-growing global population. This impacts what is grown as well as the health and wellbeing of farmers and local communities. Many farming communities live alongside high pollutants through the chemicals used on crops, or they live in cramped conditions, work long days for minimal pay, and have underlying health conditions.
This all stems from a complete lack of food sovereignty: having power over the food you grow and the means that it produces. Enabling food sovereignty is one of the central steps in decolonising our plates, our communities and our identities.
Big businesses run rampant in the Amazon - the lungs of our planet - destroying habitats and communities in the farming of cows destined for a Mcdonalds happy meal. A vegan lifestyle or plant-based diet is the most crucial step that can be taken to not only protect our planet and save animal lives but also provide a stepping stone towards reclaiming the land and food of our ancestors.