Slow-food
movement advocated
By
PATRICIA DONOVAN
Contributing Editor
Seneca
Nation historian John Mohawk is up to his knees in ancient white corn.
Associate
professor and co-director of the Center for the Americas, Mohawk is
a staunch advocate of the slow-food movement, a worldwide effort to
safeguard and support the use of traditional, unprocessed foods that
digest very slowly—which means they're better for you.
Among
them is a white corn, once a staple of the Native American diet, that—in
a display of slow-food entrepreneurship—Mohawk roasts, grinds and
sells to upscale restaurants throughout the country.
Slow
foods play a unique role in preventing, reducing and even reversing
degenerative illnesses, particularly diabetes, which plagues indigenous
populations, says Mohawk, a Turtle Clan Seneca who is internationally
recognized as a spokesperson for indigenous values and culture.
He
explains that slow foods include many ancient crops that are absorbed
by the body slowly and have been found to be very useful in reducing
and even reversing degenerative diseases, particularly the diabetes
rampant among Native Americans.
He
says these foods, which include squash, watermelon, ancient varieties
of corn and a dense, tough desert bean called pepary, were commonly
grown and eaten by the general population before the 19th-century agricultural
revolution.
"Because
they digest very slowly in the body, they keep the blood sugar level
and keep us feeling full, whereas processed foods disperse sugar rapidly
into the bloodstream, raise blood sugar, then insulin levels and promote
fat storage.
This
shift from "natural" foods—which, he says, now has become a politicized
term—to foods that have been meddled with by modern science has
been marked by a rise in heart and circulatory problems, tooth decay,
obesity and diabetes.
"Among
those most vulnerable to these degenerative diseases are indigenous
peoples." Mohawk says.
"In
some regions of this country, for instance, native communities have
a diabetes rate of 80 percent. It's been found that when such people
go back to eating what we might call their traditional diet, more wild
leeks or berries or cactus, they can count on a reduction and even a
reversal of these conditions."
Mohawk
explains that the slow-food movement, which has thousands of supporters
in the United States and Europe, is part of a general movement to address
health issues through behaviors like food choice and exercise.
It
promotes the reintroduction of many previously unavailable food items
that are neither elitist nor expensive. They are grown by native and
non-native farmers, then put through minimal processing and sold for
general consumption.
Mohawk's
non-profit White Corn Project is funded by the First Nations Development
Institute and headquartered on the Cattaraugus Seneca Indian Reservation,
where he lives.
Mohawk
and his colleagues do not grow ancient white corn themselves but purchase
it from farmers. They then roast and stone grind the corn before selling
it to restaurants, including a number of high-end establishments like
Bobby Flay's acclaimed Mesa Grill in Manhattan
"We
actually have a full-scale white-corn flour manufacturing operation
out here in our little cabin in the fields," says Mohawk, who adds that
their flour is of the highest quality and appeals to restaurateurs looking
for unusual, high-quality items to add to their menus.
The
White Corn Project also operates a slow-food café in the log cabin
that otherwise serves as the manufacturing center. It serves traditional
whole foods, combined with more recent additions to the American diet.
The
café's menu includes gourmet corn soup, buffalo chili (that's chili
made with buffalo meat), corn bread and the occasional special, says
Mohawk, like a casserole loaf that might feature corn flour, garlic,
squash, onions and sausage. This theoretical casserole, he says, would
have an "interesting" flavor and texture that you wouldn't get with
wheat flour or barley.
The
café, open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturdays, is located at 13466
Fourth Mile Level Road (Route 438).
