Kamal Mouzawak founded
Beirut’s first farmers’ market, Souk el Tayeb, to support small farmers, offer
high quality organic products, and unite religious groups along shared culinary
traditions. Through Kamal’s leadership, Souk el Tayeb has expanded into a network
of over 100 members with weekly farmers markets throughout Lebanon. Kamal has
partnered with international organizations to coordinate Food & Feast
festivals that celebrate the heritage and culture of regional foods. Along with
his appointment as a Synergos Social Innovator, Kamal was named a “New Heroes-
Worldwide” in 2009 by Monocle Magazine, and his work was featured in the New
York Times. in 2009, Kamal founded Tawlet, the farmers’ kitchen, with ladies
from different region cooking their traditional cuisine, that expanded since in
different locations, Bekaa, Jezzine and a cafeteria with syrian refugee ladies
cooks at UNHCR
Nowadays, more than half the world’s population lives
in urban areas and this trend is accelerating more and more: in 2030 the 70% of
the world’s population will live in an urban context. Taken into account the
obvious consideration that a city does not cultivate food, it leads to
above-mentioned unavoidable realities and issues. Economic activities have changed
over the past decades and short-sighted financial policies have resulted in a
spasmodic and sometimes aberrant research to reduce production costs, with
focus on labor costs, resulting in products’ standardization. Today, there is a
generalized situation in which many countries of the Old Continent have less
and less competitive industry. The food industry also undergo the effects of
globalization, thus outsourcing its production to countries with lower labor
and energy costs, with two negative results: rising unemployment in our
countries and the increase of greenhouse gas emissions due to the greater
distances in food transportation. Yet the food industry has, in recent years,
undergone significant reconfiguration of the workforce and professional
profiles – fact linked both to the industrial sector and agricultural
production. Let us take, for instance, the conversion of farms into
multifunctional companies characterized by a high share of young employment.
However, agriculture is a sector that experiences a large influx of unskilled
labor for seasonal employment opportunities: in our countryside and on our
fishing boats, the number workers from other countries–especially from
Mediterranean countries-is increasing. Therefore, on the one hand we have
innovation, new job profiles, “rejuvenation”, while on the other hand heavy
migration of unspecialized labor, which is often uncontrolled, constitutes a
burden. In European countries, food industry is now more often linked to the
concept of “nutrition” rather than “feed”: and food is no longer just quantity,
but also and above all quality. This fact and the relevant acknowledgement,
typicality and nutritional values of food are the key elements in the future of
Mediterranean-style agriculture. The growing awareness of the relationship
between nutrition and health leads us to consider the influence that dietary
guidelines have on the food production and consumption (take for example the
inclusion of larger amounts of fish in diets).The city eats. It eats food, but
also it consumes the land needed to produce it. The flows created by an urban
settlement in relation to its food requirements are very intense, important and
of course inevitable Sustainability regards all aspects ranging from
production, processing, distribution and logistics. It is not merely a
quantitative aspect: let’s think about CO2 emissions; we have access to foods
that originate thousands of miles away. The valorization of local production
(the concept of zero km) certainly entails a reduction of greenhouse gas
emissions and the promotion of the local economy. This, however, also leads to
a reduction of the variety and, to some extent, the culture of food. An
irreconcilable contradiction? read more here.
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