Women Feed the World: Biodiversity and Culinary Diversity/Food Security and Food Sovereignty

Abstract

For millennia throughout the world women have been the preparers, cooks and conservers of food, as well as the primary gatherers of wild edible plants and growers of much of the plants eaten by their families and communities. Indeed, it is likely that women as food-gatherers developed early agriculture, deliberately cultivating wild grains that they had gathered from the hills since 'time immemorial' in the Fertile Crescent (Fernand Braudel 2002, 40). Reports from early European settlers in Australia described how Aboriginal women in their role as food-gatherers did exactly this: "From their woven dilly bags (they) sprinkled seed food over the ground with repeated applications of water to make them grow" (cited in Pascoe 2014, 30).Because indigenous, rural and peasant women have had to depend on what was locally available, and in their role as food preparers and cooks for their families, they have, over many millennia, developed ways of preparing, preserving and detoxifying plants to make them safe, nutritious and palatable. This has involved ingenuity, keen observation and memory, the knowledge and skills involved in this taking at least one-third of a lifetime to learn (Howard 2003a). The constraints of having to make use of what is locally available has resulted in a reciprocal relationship between food preparation and local biodiversity, both of which women have traditionally been the custodians. Women have grown, harvested and gathered local plants, both wild and cultivated, devising countless ways

Exploring Gender and Climate Change Nexus, and Empowering Women in the South Western Coastal Region of Bangladesh for Adaptation and Mitigation

“…As a result, they are not able to cope with hazards. Long-term climate change effects like Sea level rise, droughts or flooding are likely to affect women more negatively than men in situations where their means, capacities, and opportunities are unequal [58][59][60][61].…”

“…Food is vital in people's everyday lives. Women are part of the food supply chain from the beginning, as gatherers of seeds, leaves and eggs; growing plants in gardens and raising animals for family and income; cooking, and collecting fuel [61]. However, although women contribute to half of the world's food production, they face more obstacles than men to reach resources such as land, credit, and agricultural inputs and services [60,62].…”