Prince Charles may go virtual, Regional Gastronomy creates new opportunities!
DIRK BRENTJENS
Vice President of the Academy of Regional Gastronomy
The Academy for Regional Gastronomy is concerned about the impact on global warming. Indeed since her founding this society without purpose of gain studies our food culture as a part of our culture within regions which will certainly be affected by the threat of global warming. Within its structure ideas, studies about our food history have been published. Concerned about the changes to come not only studies have been published but study tours have been worked out for a broader public.
Within this 5th annual International Colloquium the Academy is eager to invest knowledge and opportunities creating a large consensus between governments, local food producers, industries, farmers, cooks, hotel and catering schools, universities and tourist boards. Money won’t be the only key factor changing attitudes, a wide communication trespassing mental and physical boundaries will be compulsory.
Within its objectives the Academy for Regional Gastronomy studies regional gastronomy. Confronting farmers with industries. Mankind has always created new crops, altering the food supply chain, cellars were built to preserve food, methods were created to nourish our needs.
Our main field of interest lies within a superb region confronting landscapes within the great rivers Scheldt, Maas and Rhine: the main gates for food supply for Europe. More than 700 million tons are transported to and from ports lying in a fertile region, once created by monks. In the years to come handling tonnage will be doubled. Indeed this land belonged to the seas, river beds sought their way to meet the sea. Marshes, huge river sponges, changed into meadows. Is the sea going to conquer this land once more?
Floods created new safety regulations. Flemish and Dutch governments dealing with the problem, generate new Delta schemes to protect our land. Controlled flooding areas are changing these low lands once more. The Academy is just a small body but within a Flemish-Dutch heritage platform. It is creating small cultural stepping stones, facing the opportunities to come with respect for our heritage.
Skimming our publications it would be better to present a case study. As research officers working within different regions of Flanders and the Netherlands the Academy wants to enlarge sustainability within a region which is highly industrialized. Study tours have been organized, papers have been published, books written.
The port of Antwerp covers an area of approximately 13,500 hectares. Skimming this area you may not find any cultural relics. Along the banks of the river Scheldt you may find the biggest chemical cluster in the world after Houston Texas. Situated in the bustling heart of Europe quite a lot of cargo is generated through this port. This port is the main fruit port of Europe, has a huge storage capacity for herbs, cacao beans, coffee, frozen food, sugar, crush sensitive products, barley, rice, malt, etc. If we are facing regional gastronomy and cultural heritage then a port will give you a bad carbon foot print. Lots of cargo is conveyed to Europe via ports. A refrigerated vessel can carry more than 300,000 boxes of bananas, a tanker carries more than 14,000 tons of frozen concentrated fruit juice. A constant food supply chain nourishes the European Market. It would be easy to outburst, condemn this constant flow of goods and stick to Prince Charles’World.
HRH The Prince of Wales has been a tireless campaigner for the protection of the British countryside and its rural way of life. He has promoted the concept of sustainable development and has focused attention on issues relating to modern farming methods and the importance of organic agriculture and other mechanisms that reduce the environmental impacts of food production.
Indeed the Academy has the choice to follow HRH point of view. Are we going to eat less bananas and by doing so reduce our carbon footprint? As a society without purpose of gain the Academy faces the impact of global warming and shows her deep concern for declining fish stocks and the impact of the fishing industry on marine birds. The society wants to create a dialogue between governments, local heritage platforms, global industries interested in genetic modification, while doing so the Academy becomes a small voice of conscience. She joins the heritage force. It will be the still small voice, facing reality. She doesn’t want to be ambiguous, but will support and study numerous conservation and environmentally concerned organizations. Some of these organizations include ecological farming, botanic gardens conservation, marine conservation, conservation of plants and gardens.
Conservation is good, prosperity and development might be another thing. While chemical plants - and now we are back in the port - are producing methionine, a sulphur-containing amino acid that is found in most proteins and an essential constituent of human diet, lycopene is found in tomatoes and used in ketchup and makes vegetable and sauce healthy.
Biotechnology is a key technology of the 21st century. It provides society with opportunities that include nutrition, agriculture, fine chemicals and bio based plastics. The knowledge of the world of genes and proteins is increasing day by day. Amflora is a genetically optimized starch potato for industrial use. Pulp is being used as feed. Positive evaluations of Amflora from the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) repeatedly stated that Amflora is for humans, animals and the environment as safe as any conventional potato.
Indeed safety authorities should safeguard and carefully monitor production processes. Chemical clusters are now more than concerned with sustainable development. Our simple potato has changed the world and it is still going to. The Academy studied its ancestor, as a forgotten vegetable: parsnip, but can not disregard modern technology either.
Back to the port we are confronted with the production of polyphenols. Brewing beer has been an old craft for ages. New technologies however are used nowadays. Although master brewers still respect the German ‘Reinheitsgebot’ which stipulates that only barley, hops and water can be used in brewing beer. No chemical seasoning or preservatives are allowed in brewing beer.
Modern beer production is a highly demanding production process. Constant quality should be well monitored keeping into consideration storage life, product safety and hygiene. A bottle of beer can be kept in the fridge or a cool cellar for about six months. After that period beer can not be consumed any longer.
Master brewers at chemical plants create fine chemicals to stabilise beer. After a storage process beer will be purified to have it preserved. As a study society the Academy helps to communicate, but still respects the German Reinheitsgebot.
Back to the port, an area where landscapes meet, where there is friction, where sustainability is sought. Following the banks of the river people are confronted with brackish marshland. Just crossing the street a unique land in Western Europe is shown, an overwhelming nature reserve, a sponge system swallowing million tons of salt and brackish water. Is there still any fish in the water? Bob Dylan may have sung that the times were changing. For the chemical cluster they have. Forty years ago our rivers were heavily polluted. Nowadays the river is full with fish. There is pikeperch in the port area, sole in the river, in a heavily industrialized area!
The river basin of the Scheldt is located in three countries. The water management in each of these countries is different. To improve the water quality of the Scheldt and her tributaries every country has taken measures. During the last decade it became clear that three different ways of water management would not have the desired effect. Therefore in 1994 The Netherlands, Wallonie, Vlaanderen, het Brussels Hoofdstedelijk Gewest and France signed a treaty. This lead to the foundation of the International Commission for the Protection of the Scheldt. This commission, along with other commissions, tries to get to a better harmony in water management.
While discovering new opportunities the Academy detects and registers. She meets scientists and draws papers. Communication to a broader platform will put everything into prospective. Preserve nature is one thing: the river remains a remarkable cradle. It is undergoing a natural recovery process. Create safety is another thing. Strolling along the dikes, following the fairway, people find out that this river is fed by fresh water. The land has to be protected from inundation. Higher dikes are constructed, barriers can protect low lands, a new land of valuable nature reserves swings along the curves of the river.
To avoid floods polder land is levelled, tidal basins have to protect our low lands: once more a threat for our heritage, but a necessity to preserve a densely populated area. Obstruction is met, farmers see their land turned into new wetlands. A port surrounded by orchards, rich fields with crops of wheat, beet sugar, corn,… Milk cows grazing in the meadows. A main port placed under the European Birds’ directive with little tidal fishing ports. A small spine of a church tower gazing towards a dazzling container site: the gate to Europe at its best. Where is our cultural heritage? It isn’t gone: a port’s nomad wanders about dikes, strolls around with his flock of Flemish sheep, long lost but now a living breed of 1,000 animals, protecting dikes, eating salty plants. Their meat becomes salty: the ‘pré sellé’ of Flanders!
This dazzling port area is constantly referring to a rich history. Once conquered by the French, the Spanish, the Dutch, occupied by the Germans and liberated by the Allies. Toponyms carry their own story about a land which disappeared, about meadows filled with madder, a carrot which is dried and grinded and used as dyestuff. Even now you will find farmers growing flax in the vicinity of the port.
Within its boundaries old fortresses rise up, little islands surrounded by industries and cargo handling companies. Old parts of villages protected by the Flemish government still tell their own stories. Biscuit bakeries were found behind brick walls in the fortress of Lillo. Windmills are protected by chemical plants, church spires rise up between huge warehousing facilities. The pounding heart of Europe unveils a rich patrimony. A port area which deals with its ecological footprint trying to reduce the carbon dioxide emissions. But even in this Delta region CO2 will be conveyed through pipelines and reused in glasshouses. Indeed a port carries its history although its constantly changing. A huge triangle and a river running in between. A river filled with fish, surrounded by marshes, cities which have to be protected from floods. The Academy creates cultural stepping stones while skimming this area, presenting a chemical cluster, confronting visitors with their way of living, facing reality with a firm view to safeguard our cultural heritage.
Not only our soil but also our seasons will reduce our carbon footprint. Respecting the seasons and the region we live and see to it that less goods will be transported, but running errands in a supermarket tell us another story about shrimps which are coming from Asia, strawberries from Israel sweeten our pies and pastries, green beans are coming from Afrika, living eel is flown to Belgium ready to be used as a regional product! It is a strange world we live in, master Jack. While pondering with our port’s shepherd, his flock of sheep grazing, we enter a truckers’ restaurant. We order lamb stew and a bowl fresh soup made of Belgian endive. I know that at least this Belgian endive with its typical flavour is coming out of a Flemish region. Flavouring is done with shrimps coming from Zeeland. I hope they were not peeled in Marokko! Nearby fishing boats still carry fish, shrimps and eel. Lamb stew tastes delicious because our cook made the stew with the sweet carrot of parsnip. The story of eel caught in the mud flats of the river Scheldt flavours our recipe and refers to our heritage.
