Where Our Food Comes From

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Along the Silk Road of Central Asia, Pamiri farmers have for centuries grown seeds and fruits irrigated by the ice-cold waters drained from glaciers capping the mountains known as the Roof of the World. But today, those glaciers are melting at unprecedented rates, and the local climate of each Pamiri valley has been shifting dramatically since World War II. Some seed crops such as wheat and barley are now being grown nearly 1200 feet higher than they were grown when Nikolay Vavilov first visited the region in 1915. This is because the growing season is several weeks longer than it once was, and farmers have locally-adapted seeds first brought in from Afghanistan to be better fitted to these warmer conditions. But at the same time, many of their fruit and nut trees have stopped bearing, for they no longer receive the number of “cold days” required to trigger flowering and fruiting.

Rather than letting their trees remain barren, and giving up on fruit production altogether, Pamiri orchard-keepers have begun to gather other heirloom varieties from nearby villages, to plant in what is known as “common gardens,” for they are a mix of selections from both lower and higher elevations, distant and near. As these trees mature, farmers can see which bear fruit more consistently under their changing conditions. Rather than suffering as passive victims of climate change, they are experimenting with options that might help them keep their farming traditions alive over the long haul.

In oases hidden within the hottest, driest reaches of the Sahara in western Egypt, Berber and Bedouin farmers still maintain most of the date palm and olive varieties that have served them well for centuries. But beneath the canopies of these tree crops, they grow an ever-increasing variety of vegetables, some adapted to shade, some to full sun; some tolerant of alkalinity, others requiring sweeter water. From a distance, their palm groves look much the same as they did to camel caravans that traveled the Spice Trail from the Middle East to Morocco a thousand years ago; up close, the oasis agriculturalists are constantly shifting the mix of annual crops in their polyculture plantings. In addition, they are now collaborating with non-profits like Slow Food International to get top dollar for their exquisitely tasting dates, olives and hibiscus flowers, for their delicious varieties are found nowhere else in the world.

For such small-scale farmers, seed and fruit diversity is not an abstraction, something to be stored away in gene banks for future use in crop improvement. Diversity is their bread and butter, and must constantly be renewed in the field if it is to reach the kitchen table for nourishment and for pleasure. The traditional farmers and cooks of the world remain the stewards of the world’s food diversity, from potatoes and dates in the field to sourdough yeast and cheese mold and bacteria cultures in the kitchen and cold cellar.

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