M
aria Canabal is one of the most influential
women in gastronomy. The award-winning
journalist and author founded Parabere
Forum in 2014, a not-for-profit aimed at
addressing the gender imbalance in food by giving
women’s voices a global platform.
“We need women’s voices to be heard and women’s
talents to be deployed, so that we can construct a vision
of the future based on the values of sustainability and
equal opportunity,” says Canabal.
Now in its fifth year, the organisation has
launched its first book,Cooking up a Better Food Future:
A Women’s Vision, which Canabal describes as a
manifesto of hope for the future of food. The work,
which is the first in a planned series called Parabere
Essays, features 100 short essays by women from
Parabere’s global network, many of whom also happen
to be food royalty: chefs Christina Tosi, Dominique
Crenn and Elena Arzak; educators and activists
Stephanie Alexander and Alice Waters; writers Joanna
Savill, Licia Granello and Laura Esquivel; and women in
the highest places of policy such as the United Nations
Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food Dr Hilal Elver.
Canabal tasked contributors with answering the
question: “How can women change the future of
food?” In their responses these women share their
insights, experiences and revelations with a great
sense of urgency and passion.
Chido Govera, a farmer and entrepreneur based
in Zimbabwe, promotes mushroom cultivation as a
means for food security and financial independencefor women living in poverty in her own country and
beyond. Govera believes women being part of the food
value chain and responsible for production, and not
just the cultural or domestic side of food, is essential.
Australian chef Christine Manfield, meanwhile,
wants to see more women supporting each other
to combat inequality. Lara Gilmore, co-owner of
Osteria Francescana in Modena, Italy, and co-founder
of Food for Soul, wants to remove gender all together
from food. She wants more open conversations about
where our food comes from, with both men and
women asking the sticky questions.
US food writer Ruth Reichl believes that one
answer is to ditch “kids’ meals” and teach our
children to eat well. Alice Waters agrees. The
Slow Food proponent and owner of Berkeley’s
Chez Panisse restaurant has launched The Edible
Schoolyard Project to put the love back into food
from a child’s perspective, focusing on how we treat
the land and the producers and cooks who nourish
us, and thinking of the food system as doing more
than simply “feeding” us.
And Canadian filmmaker Maya Gallus argues that
women are socialised to be feeders, responsible for
nourishing not only babies, but also entire families
and communities. She wants women’s appetites to
be celebrated and accepted, too.
These women are among the voices included
inCooking up a Better Food Future: A Women’s Vision.
In the following pages, they each speak to what an
equal and sustainable food future could look like.➤the scale
How can we create a more
equal food system? Parabere
Forum opened the floor to
leading women to find out.
Parabere
Forum founder
Maria Canabal.GOURMET TRAVELLER 59