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CSE's Publications
Renewing
America's Food Traditions:
“[These peoples of America
are] much inclined Where have all these heirloom vegetables and heritage breeds gone? When Gaspar Pérez de Villagrá wrote about visiting the Pueblos of New Mexico in 1598, diversity on the farm and on the table was the norm—not the exception—across most of North America. Today, roughly four hundred years later, two-thirds of the distinctive seeds and breeds which then fed America have vanished. One in fifteen wild, edible plant and animal species on this continent has diminished to the degree that it is now considered at risk. These declines in diversity bring losses in traditional ecological and culinary knowledge as well. Consequently, we have suffered declines in the food rituals which otherwise link communities to place and cultural heritage. To reverse such devastating trends and to save and revitalize what remains, the RAFT Coalition formed in the fall of 2003 to develop and support strategies for Renewing America’s Food Traditions. The coalition is dedicated to documenting, celebrating, and safeguarding the unique foods of North America—not as museum specimens, but as elements of living cultures and regional cuisines. The coalition members have a proven track record for providing promotional, technical, and marketing assistance to food producers’ collectives and micro-enterprises across the country. The RAFT campaign will explore novel means to support traditional ethnic communities that are striving to make these foods once again part of their diets, ceremonies, and local economies. In short, we aim to protect and restore vitality to the remaining culinary riches unique to this continent, and support those who are reintegrating them into the diversity of cultures that are rooted in the American soil. To advance this work, the Coalition is proud to present to you the List of America’s Endangered Foods, as well as profiles of America’s Top Ten Endangered Foods and Top Ten Success Stories of advancing food recovery. Our hope is that by viewing and studying this diverse inventory, you will be inspired by these profiles, and encouraged to strengthen efforts to rescue, maintain, restore or promote these distinctively American contributions to global cuisine. The List includes the culinary mainstays of the last three millennia on this continent, both cultivated and wild. It celebrates the diversity of native and heirloom vegetables and fruits, heritage livestock breeds, wild roots, herbs and seeds, as well as fish and shellfish, wild game birds, mammals and reptiles. More than 700 distinctively American foods are now listed, including many from ancient and indigenous cultures such as Mandan, Arikara, Hidatsa, Seminole, Iroquois, Cherokee, Sahaptin, Chumash, O’odham, Cocopa, Quechan, Hopi, Navajo, Santo Domingo, and Taos. Foods from place-based immigrant cultures are also included, such as Amish, Mennonite, Hutterite, Cajun, Creole, Hispanic, Connecticut Yankee, Florida Cracker, Pennsylvania Dutch, and Appalachian Scots-Irish.
Designed by Michelle Laughter
Published
and copyrighted by the Center for Sustainable Environments at Northern
Arizona University on behalf of the RAFT Coalition and its founding
organizations, with generous support from the Lillian Goldman
Charitable Trust, C.S. Fund, and Cedar Tree Foundation. This
information may not be incorporated into other publications or used on
other websites without express written permission.
Download the entire RAFT
book (PDF, ~375k)
Buy it from
the NAU
Bookstore If you would like to purchase copies to sell in your bookstore, please contact Julye Evans at Julye.Evans@nau.edu or (928) 523-0602.
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From the introduction by
Gary Paul Nabhan:
Inside the book: