Off to the studio to hang the art show opening officially on Thursday night... doors open tomorrow, Wednesday at midday actually. Much to do.
This news is just out... from homage to the seed Facebook page ...you can read what's happening at the Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance - AFSA Website and stay tuned for more.
This image, which graces the cover of the People's Food Plan Working Paper, is the work of Brisbane-based artist Sophie Munns (http://sophiemunns.weebly.com/). It is part of her 'Homage to the Seed' project, launched in 2010 and now in its fourth year. We are really excited to be able to present Sophie's work to a new audience and very grateful that she has given us permission to use this beautiful work of art.
An invitation to be one of the changing series of artisan/artists promoting work in the window display of Skyring Architects has coincided wonderfully well with the upcoming art show "From one small seed - Encounters in Bio-cultural Diversity"..
Skyring Architects are in the nearby suburb of Bardon ... quite close to the Gallery where I am based in a studio and showing work from Wednesday this week. The wonderful people at Skyrings were indeed helpful on Friday when the display was assembled.
This kind of promotion is a reminder of what is essential in telling the story of one's project and focus. Its a wonderful place to present the work as the atmosphere in this business is quiet and focused yet clearly highly creative and productive. When one opens the door on the right the first thing one notices is the ping pong table.
These photos were taken late evening.
One's project encapsulated in four posters, several art works, a small seed collection and the story is out there. Its been a hugely busy few weeks preparing for the show and this from of promotion is interesting.I wonder who might connect with the project and come by. Will have to wait and see!
To read more details on the Paddington Exhibition and Biodiversity Dialogue series do visit the website and see the previous post here.
Recently I've been quite preoccupied with arrangements and studio time in preparation for this upcoming exhibition in Paddington, Brisbane.
With my studio underneath Percolator Gallery in Paddington its a pleasure to be planning a show for the upstairs Gallery... due to open in 2 weeks time ... from Feb 13th to 24th. Opening night kicks off at 6pm, Thursday, 14th of February. Today I've finished lining up all the presenters for the two dialogue evenings and have posted on the website where I will add updates and more info re speakers.
ALSO watch the Homage to the Seed Facebook Page for updates over the next few weeks. If you want to make an outing of it and cant make the evening events note that the daytime cafes nearby are wonderful and I am keen to have you come visit and share a coffee from across the road or make cups of tea in the gallery!
Being in the gallery from midday to 5 pm over ten days is a prime opportunity for cups of tea and good conversation. Even if we haven't met come and introduce yourself... galleries are perfect places for connection and conviviality!
on “Abandoned mines and biodiversity in Australia.”
Presentations from Jutta Godwin on Biodiversity Protection :
challenges for a suburban catchment group.
Denise Rivers on ‘Seeds and the habitat, a volunteer’s perspective’.
Caz O’neill on ‘The relationship of Seeds and Wildlife in bringing plants to life’.
Thursday Feb, 21st : Seeds, Agrobiodiversity and food systems
Guest speaker : Dr Carol Richards, UQ Sociology
on ‘Seeds, Supermarkets and Sovereignty: The Often Wicked Story of Food’
Presentations from Nancy Kent of Urban Ag project ‘The Inspiration Garden’
and, by special request, Rozy Eslami, offering exquisite tastes + stories from her
home country of Iran... a tribute to the Bio-Cultural Diversity of our planet.
This is a free event organised to coincide with the February Art show. You are invited to attend Opening night : Feb 14 from 6pm, visit the gallery over the 2 week period (check times on website) or to come along to hear the artist's talk about the artwork. The Biodiversity dialogue program kicks off at 7pm sharp, but to ensure a seat RSVP here or phone : 0430 599 344.
For a comprehensive outline and info re speakers please visit the website : sophiemunns.weebly.com
Note: ALL ARTWORK IS FOR SALE! Please do share this invite with friends!
NB:On Tues, 19th Feb and Thurs, 21st FebtheGallery will be open for evening viewings at 6 pm.
At6.15 pm Sophie will give a brief talk about the artwork, her 2012 Residencies and the range of ideas around bio-cultural-diversity and seeds which inform the ongoing project and artwork.
Drinks will be available from 6.30 pm and the
formal program commences at 7 pm (till 8.30 pm).
* Please share this flyer if you wish!
Its practical for me to leave this post up for the next few weeks... so I might not look in here for a bit. All comments come to my email so posting a comment will reach me... always! Visit the other blogs for visual postings of the show and find me on twitter, tumblr etc in the top right hand navigation box here at this blog.
So much has been written about bread... so much history, such a variety of grains, across so many cultures... so many traditions, recipes and variations of recipes.
Its hugely political for a host of reasons ... debate rages over seeds and copyright, seed sovereignty, costs and availability, health properties, what's in the bread and how its made, who's missing out on their daily bread, and why!
There are updates coming in as to where bread-making might have begun and for how long humans have been cultivating grain for flour to be used for bread-making.
Now we have Molecular research adding layers of knowledge... and bringing more debate... and then there's the archeological research spectrum. There's a museum for bread and certainly the popularity of bread has not waned so much as been challenged for the fact it is not everyone's best friend!
In the West we thought we could rid ourselves of labour by having our bread come from huge factories. Sliced and ready. Well it speeded things up but it took away taste and nutrition too.
Some, by necessity or choice, make their own bread or if able to afford the option, buy from artisans bringing us quality breads. We've often tasted breads from around the world and delighted in leaving behind some of the more bland offerings that might have shaped our childhoods, if we could.
What is your daily bread? Where do the grains come from? Do you know whats happening with seeds and 'wild relatives'?
In my new book in planning I want to bring some focus to the place of bread in our lives. Its a big story... and there is plenty to think about!
A woman carries quinoa in Bolivia. The 'pseudo-grain' may be the most nutritious foodstuff in the world. Photograph: Laurent Giraudou/Corbis
A burst of colour on a monochromatic panorama, a field of flowering quinoa plants in the Bolivian desert is a thing of beauty. A plant ready for harvest can stand higher than a human, covered with knotty blossoms, from violet to crimson and ochre-orange to yellow.
Quinua real, or royal quinoa, flourishes in the most hostile conditions, surviving nightly frosts and daytime temperatures upwards of 40C (104F). It is a high-altitude plant, growing at 3,600 metres above sea level and higher, where oxygen is thin, water is scarce and the soil is so saline that virtually nothing else grows.
The tiny seeds of the quinoa plant are the stuff of nutritionists' dreams, sending demand soaring in the developed world. Gram-for-gram, quinoa is one of the planet's most nutritious foodstuffs. Once a sacred crop for some pre-hispanic Andean cultures, it has become a five-star healthfood for the middle classes in Europe, the US and increasingly China and Japan.
That global demand means less quinoa is being eaten in Bolivia andPeru, the countries of origin, as the price has tripled. There are concerns this could cause malnutrition as producers, who have long relied on the superfood to supplement their meagre diets, would rather sell their entire crop than eat it. The rocketing international price is also creating land disputes.
Royal quinoa, which only grows in this arid region of southern Bolivia, is to the grain what beluga is to caviar; packed with even more protein, vitamins and minerals than the common variety.
Averaging $3,115 (£1,930) per tonne in 2011, quinoa has tripled in price since 2006. Coloured varieties fetch even more. Red royal quinoa sells at about $4,500 a tonne and the black variety can reach $8,000 per tonne. The crop has become a lifeline for the people of Bolivia's Oruro and Potosi regions, among the poorest in what is one of South America's poorest nations.
It is quinoa's moment on the world stage. This year is the UN'sInternational Year of Quinoa as the UN Food and AgricultureOrganisation recognises the crop's resilience, adaptability and its "potential contribution in the fight against hunger and malnutrition".
Evo Morales, the Bolivian leader whose government suggested the special recognition for the grain, said: "For years [quinoa] was looked down on just like the indigenous movement To remember that past is to remember discrimination against quinoa and now after so many years it is reclaiming its rightful recognition as the most important food for life."
However, there are concerns the 5,000 year-old ancestral crop is being eaten less by its traditional consumers: quinoa farmers. "They have westernised their diets because they have more profits and more income," says Mejia, an agronomist. "Ten years ago they had only an Andean diet in front of them. They had no choice. But now they do and they want rice, noodles, candies, coke, they want everything!"
Daysi Munoz, who runs a La Paz-based quinoa farming collective, agrees. "As the price has risen quinoa is consumed less and less in Bolivia. It's worth more to them [the producers] to sell it or trade it for pasta and rice. As a result, they're not eating it any more."
Bitter battles are being fought over prime quinoa-growing land. Last February dozens of people were hurt when farmers fought with slings and sticks of dynamite over what was once abandoned land.
Many people who migrated to cities in search of a better life are now returning to their arid homeland to grow royal quinoa, says Mejia. Most land is communally owned, she adds, so "the government needs to set out the boundaries or there will be more conflicts".
In the village of Lacaya, near Lake Titicaca, the farmers have recently sown quinoa. It grows faster in the wetter conditions but the varietyquinua dulce is less sought after than royal quinoa.
Under the perpendicular rays of the intense altiplano sun, Petrona Uriche's face is heavily shadowed by her felt bowler hat. She says in the three years her village has been farming quinoa it has become the biggest earner. "We produce quinoa just for export, it's more profitable," she said. An 11.5kg arroba sack of quinoa can fetch eight times more than it did a few years ago, around $2 a kg, she adds.
But the Bolivian government – which like its neighbour Peru is heavily promoting quinoa nationally to combat malnutrition – insists Bolivians are eating more of the grain. Annual consumption per person has increased fourfold from 0.35kg to 1.11 kg in as many years "in spite of the high international prices", Victor Hugo Vásquez, Bolivia's vice-minister for rural development and agriculture, said.
Previous government figures, however, indicated domestic consumption had dropped by a third in five years.
Judging by the supermarket shelves in Bolivia's de facto capital, La Paz, where quinoa-based products from pizza crusts and hamburgers to canapes and breakfast cereals are displayed, Bolivia's growing middle class appear to be the principal consumers.
Meanwhile in the Peruvian capital, Lima, shoppers at food markets complain quinoa is becoming a luxury product. Selling at around 10 Peruvian soles per kg (£2.44) it costs more than chicken (7.8 soles per kg) and four times as much as rice. Official figures show domestic consumption has dropped.
"Unfortunately in poorer areas they don't have access to products such as quinoa and it's becoming more and more expensive," Peru's vice-minister for agriculture, Juan Rheineck, said at a breakfast for under-fives at the Casa de los Petisos children's home in Lima. The children are fed boiled eggs and quinoa and apple punch, part of a government programme to promote nutritious breakfasts. "That's what we have to avoid, we have to produce better and more," he said.
Peru's telegenic first lady, Nadine Heredia, is championing a colourful campaign to promote the Andean diet, of which quinoa is a key element, to combat infant malnutrition. In 2012 Peru banked nearly $35m from quinoa exports, tripling what it earned three years ago. In Bolivia exports tripled to around 23,000 tonnes, contributing some $85m to the country's economy,Vásquez said.
But experts say both countries need to boost production to meet the rising external demand and provide the grain at lower prices for internal consumption. Bolivia, which produces nearly half the global supply, says it has given more than $5m in credits to 70,000 quinoa producers and wants to industrialise production to bring added value rather than just exporting the raw material.
Hydrocarbons and minerals are Bolivia's two key exports, but Mejia believes if the country aggressively promoted quinoa agriculture "in 10 years it could easily surpass the income from gas and minerals".
What is quinoa?
Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa willd) is actually a "pseudo-grain", not belonging to the true grass family but a member of the goosefoot plant family, which includes spinach and sugarbeet.
Its exceptional nutritional qualities led Nasa to include it as part of its astronauts' diet on long space missions. A 1993 Nasa technical paper says: "While no single food can supply all the essential life sustaining nutrients, quinoa comes as close as any other in the plant or animal kingdom."
Quinoa is the only plant food that contains all 10 essential amino acids for the human diet. Its protein content (between 14%-18%) surpasses that of wheat, rice, maize and oats, and can be a substitute to animal protein. Its calorific value is greater than that of eggs and milk and comparable only to that of meat.
It is a source of vitamin E, vitamin B2 (riboflavin) and contains more minerals such as calcium, potassium, magnesium and phosphorus than other grains.
Recent research found quinoa contains phytoestrogens, which are said to prevent or reduce osteoporosis, arteriosclerosis, breast cancer and other conditions that can be caused by lack of oestrogen after the menopause.
• This article was amended on 15 January 2013 to remove the following line: Studies at Kings College London have shown quinoa helps coeliacs (people intolerant to gluten) to regenerate gluten tolerance. This was removed because there is debate about the accuracy of the statement.
