United Nations book contributors were brought together by Kitchen Connection, an online platform for cooking classes and education
The United Nations (UN) has launched the cookbook “A Cookbook in Support of the United Nations: For People and the Planet” with 70 “delicious” recipes that reduce carbon emissions.
The book, whose pages are made of wood fibre, presents the recipes together with reflections and stories, including those of indigenous communities and farmers, explained the UN on its digital portal.
Topics such as food systems, biodiversity, consumption, sustainable production and climate change, food waste and information on the carbon footprint of each dish are part of the cookbook chapters.
The document, which includes guidance on macronutrients from the World Health Organization (WHO), “underlines the importance of our food choices and the impact they can have on the surrounding environment, we cook where we cook”.
The book’s contributors were brought together by Kitchen Connection, an online platform for cooking classes and education. Ska Mirriam Moteane, a cook from Lesotho, presented, for example, a recipe for a dandelion salad tower that emits 87.58% less carbon than an average meal in high-emitting countries.
“This dish promotes biodiversity by incorporating dandelion, a nutritious vegetable that grows in the wild and in the fields around your home,” the agency explained.
Kitchen Connection founder Earlene Cruz highlighted Indigenous chef Rosalía Chay Chuc’s black bean recipe as being the lowest-issue line in the book. “Beans, when eaten with other grains, provide us with complete proteins that are wonderful for human and planetary health. Plus, they’re gentle on the soil and don’t need a lot of water to grow. Nature itself provides the best ‘recipe’ and formula for human and planetary health,” she explains.
Another author, Dani Nierenberg, a food systems expert, shared the “Make do ratatouille” recipe, which reduces food waste by using “imperfect ingredients” to make a “perfect dish” in the most delicious way.
“And Chef Pierre Thiam has contributed a fonio recipe using a grain that has been ‘rediscovered’ and has completely revitalized the economy of Senegalese farmers in the region where fonio is grown, historically a place where people are emigrated to Europe in search of a better life without recognizing the wealth that already existed in the land they were fleeing from,” Cruz highlighted.
Why is this book important?
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), food systems contribute to and are affected by extreme weather events associated with climate change, land degradation and biodiversity loss.
“Addressing these challenges requires an approach to food systems that addresses variety and complexity in a holistic and sustainable way. Initiatives like this cookbook are meant to support the response,” the UN stressed.
The cookbook is available in major bookstores and online, and “will soon be available for purchase at the United Nations Headquarters Visitor Center in New York.”
