1. Taylor’s University
7 september 2011,
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Bio-diversity, ethno-
diversity and food cultures
How to face the world food challenge
Jean-Pierre Poulain
sociologue et anthropologue,
Professeur à l’Université de Toulouse 2,
CERTOP UMR-CNRS 5044
Master Sciences sociales appliquées à l’alimentation

2. Seminary content
 The awakening of diversity
 The biodiversity
 The Ethno-diversity
 The diversity as a patrimony/heritage
 Feeding humankind: the world food challenge
 Thomas Malthus theory
 Demographical transition and population health
 Back on Malthus traces
 The food models: Central resources of ethno-diversity:
 Social food space/ environment
 Sustainable development
 The role of cultural diversity in sustainability
2

3. The emergence of ecological thoughts
 Revealing/Highlighting the notion of
« eco-systems » and « world
system »
 Interdependence of vegetal and
animal species and their
contribution toward the cycle of life
 The biodiversity is seen as a human
heritage
3

4. Consequences
 “Sanctuarization” of certain locations
and certain species
 Natural parks, African animal reserves,
(example of Malaysia- Sipadan and
Sempurna national park)
 Designation of protected species ( Wales,
tuna, sharks, Elephants, Wolfs)
 Apparition of wild life protection
associations (WWF)
 Development of Eco-tourism
4

5. The drivers of this awakening
 The oil crisis and the warnings thrown by
the forecasters (club of Rome 1972)
 The duality of the modern man over nature
 The emergence of a “world system”
 Internationalization (mondialization) and
Globalization
5

6. Rio Earth Summit
 This conference ended with:
 The creation of the action plan for the XXI ST
century (Agenda 21),
 The United Nations Framework Convention on
Climate Change (UNFCCC)
 The convention on bio-diversity and
 The convention to combat desertification
6

7. The integration of cultural diversity
 The consideration of societies behaviours as
a component of biodiversity.
 It is the concept of Ethno-diversity and the
consideration of local knowledge, as stated in
the article 8 of the biological diversity
convention signed in Rio in 1992.
7

8. The ethno-diversity
 The cultural differences
are based on the
framework of bio-diversity.
 They represent as many
witness of the diversity
and wealth of humanity
8

9. Various conceptions of Ethno-
diversity
 For the first conception: it is the most astonishing
expression of humankind and therefore an element of a
living heritage, as much as bio-diversity.
 For the second: it is in line with the cultural ecology
perspective, it is the result of a co-evolution between
societies and their environments. It shows some original
adaptations that represent the « print/impact » of the past
and present bio-diversity of the planet on the human
species.(J. Steward, 1955).
 Finally, for the last conception, more “utilitarianism” it is
the local usages that have allowed the biodiversity to be
what it is today. Hence, describing and preserving those
knowledge and local practices is the best mean to protect
the biodiversity itself. (Roussel, 2003 ; Chouvin et al, 2004).
9

10. Consequences of ethno-diversity
 Broadening of the notion of heritage
 The cultural differences are brought to the
rank of heritage
 They are no more considered as weirdness
due to the arbitrary power of cultures, but
the sign of the originality of the links
between one human group and its natural
environment.
 Therefore, those heritages need to be
protected
 We move from biological interdependence
to cultural interdependence 10

11.  The Slow Movement began with a protest against the opening of a
McDonald's restaurant in Piazza di Spagna, in Rome (Italia).
 Slow Food is a non-profit, eco-gastronomic member-supported
organization that was founded in 1989 to counteract fast food and fast
life, the disappearance of local food traditions and people’s dwindling
interest in the food they eat, where it comes from, how it tastes and
how our food choices affect the rest of the world.
 To do that, Slow Food brings together pleasure
and responsibility, and makes them inseparable.
Today, it have over 100,000 members in
132 countries
Carlo Petrini Founder and
President of the Slow Food
movement

12. Slow Food is a non-profit, eco-gastronomic member-
supported organization that was founded in 1989 to
counteract fast food and fast life, the disappearance of
local food traditions and people’s dwindling interest in
the food they eat, where it comes from, how it tastes
and how our food choices affect the rest of the world.
To do that, Slow Food brings together pleasure and
responsibility, and makes them inseparable.
Today, we have over 100,000 members in 132 countries.

13. GOOD
• It tastes good and gives
us pleasure to eat it

14. CLEAN
• The way it’s produced respects the
environment, animal welfare and our health

15. FAIR
• Those who produce it should receive compensation
and recognition for their work

16. Seminary content
 The awakening of diversity
 The biodiversity
 The Ethno-diversity
 The diversity as a patrimony
 Feeding humankind: the world food challenge
 Thomas Malthus theory
 Demographical transition and population health
 Back on Malthus traces
 The food models: Central resources of ethno-diversity:
 Social food space/ environment
 Sustainable development
 The role of cultural diversity in sustainability
16

17. Malthus’ theory
17

18.  Population grows following a geometrical function: 1, 2,
4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512…
 When the means of surviving follow an arithmetical
function: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10…
18

19. 19

20. 20

21. The sad prediction of Thomas Malthus
21

22. Feeding humanity:
a recurrent question
 Anton Zischka, Bread for 2 billions humans, 1942.
 Josué de Castro, Geography of hunger
 FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization)
 Joseph Klatzman, Feeding humankind, 1991
 2008, Hunger riots
 2011, Starvation in the horn of Africa
22

24. Food security risk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=8FM1Xct7JA0
http://www.1billionhungry.org/jeanpierrepoulain/
24

25. Development and transformation of
food consumptions
25

26. Supposed causes
of food insecurity return
 Bad harvest in 2007
 Raising production of
Bio-fuel
 Financial speculation
26

27. Food security had disappeared…behind
obesity
27

28. 28

29. The double burden theory...
29

30. Frank Notestein at the
Rockefeller foundation
 Conceived by Frank Notestein 1945.
 Model of population change based
upon effects of economic
development and based on the
experience of the Western world.
 It was used for decades as a model to
predict what should/would happen to
developing countries eventually.
 All countries are supposed to pass
through four or five stages to reach
the state of maturity.

31. The Demographic Transition

32. 32

33. Alimentation role in the epidemiological transition
Steps Mortality causes Life expectancy Alimentation role Social differentiation
and death rate process
The epidemic Infectious diseases +- 40 years old Rare and uncertain food The abundance and the
Deficiency High infant mortality Strong ecological outsourcing as a social
and famine
Parasitic diseases High mortality dependence distinction process
period
A
Transition Parasitic, deficiency and Life expectancy gains Food availability Taste esthetization
phase infectious diseases - 60 years old increase Big as a social position sign
regression, Infant mortality fall Scheduled redistribution
B Degenerative diseases
appearance
Setting up Infectious mortality Life expectancy Food abundance Leanness appearance as a
C Quasi-disappearance extension +70 years old distinction sign
Mortality degenerative
setting up
Degenerative Chronicle diseases Life expectancy Food overabundance Diffusion of slimness esthetic
Settling between 45 and progression increase Diffusion on nutritional model
diseases
54 years old and knowledge Slimness = health
management Regression between 55
and 75 years old
Sociopathies Suicides and violent death Life expectancy Food overabundance Slimness model
Growth, AIDS progression decrease Food anomie intensification
Eating disorders and “ deregulation” Fat persons stigmatization
obesity

34. Epidemiologic transition: Definition
 The epidemiologic transition is that process by
which the pattern of mortality and disease is
transformed from one of high mortality among
infants and children and episodic famine and
epidemic affecting all age groups to one of
degenerative and man-made diseases (such as
those attributed to smoking) affecting principally
the elderly. Encyclopedia Britannica
 Abdel Omran. The Epidemiologic Transition: A Theory of the epidemiology of population change. Milbank
Quarterly. 1971;49:509-538
34

35. Health transition: mortality rates (US, 1910-1970)
(up to >1000 earlier)
600
Death rate per 100,000 population
Infectious diseases
500
Heart disease
400 Cancer
300 Stroke
Violent/accident
200
Infancy disease
100
Tuberculosis
0
1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 IUMSP-GCT

36. Life expectency
36

37. Back on Malthus’ trace
 Food production depends on:
 Exploitable agricultural areas
 Water supply
 Sunlight
 Agrarian techniques
 Inputs (fertilizers.)
 Agricultural machinery
 Energy supply
 ...
 Food requirement depends on :
 The number of individuals to feed
 What people consume = FOOD MODELS
37

38. 38

39. 39

40. 40

41. Food and Carbon footprint

42. Seminary content
 The awakening of diversity
 The biodiversity
 The Ethno-diversity
 The diversity as a patrimony
 Feeding humankind: the world food challenge
 Thomas Malthus theory
 Demographical transition and population health
 Back on Malthus traces
 The food models: Central resources of ethno-diversity:
 Social food space/ environment
 Sustainable development
 The role of cultural diversity in sustainability
42

43. The stakes of sustainability
 From 3 dimensions.... To 4 dimensions
Cultural
Social
Environment

44. socio-anthropological
framework
Cultural
Social
Environment
Economic and ecological
frame work
44

45. Perspective Perspective
Economico-ecological socio-anthropological
Key concepts Priority to environment Priority to humanbeings
Ecological print, (km/food), Fair-trade, AMAP, Slow food,
CO2 community supported agriculture
Orientation and Universality of global ecological Specificity of social and culmtural
evaluation criteria stakes situations
Inter-generational equity Inter-generational equity
What kind of planet will we Solidarity with the victims of health
leave to our children? scandals.
System evaluation Mathematical modelization Case study, experience feedback
modality
Market relation The market is set, it is required The market is a social and political
to understand how it works construction. It is necessary to act
toward what is favorable.
Consummers places Consumers make choices Consumers are actors of the systems
Science princeps Econometry, ecology, Anthropology, sociology, sciences of
agronomy development
D’après P.M. Stassart ULG,

46. Argentina Colombia Portugal
japan
Rwanda
46
Source : Malassis et Padillat

47. 47

48. Food Social Space: The social dimensions of food
(Condominas, 1980; Poulain, 1997 et 2002)
Cultures
Room of Freedom
Social
Physiological and Ecological
Dimensions constraints
biological constraints
of Food
Impact of the Impact of the
culture on the
• Edible/ Inedible culture on the
biotope
genetic structure of • Food System
population
• Culinary
• Consumption Patterns
• Food Temporality
• Social Differentiation

49. Interaction Culture-Biology, but relative
cultural autonomy
 « Our conception of the social food space accept the
idea of interactions , meanwhile underlining the
existence of cultural autonomy, as long as it does not
shakes (too much) the vital processes…..It insists on
the fact that the elements of the natural environment
only become resources if they completely belong to
the cultural system.» (Poulain, 2002)
We join the conception developed by Jean Baechler :
« We have the right to affirm that the natural conceptions always involve as
answers by yes or by no to questions asked by actors situated in a given context.
… Nature doesn’t impose anything, but it makes possible or impossible some
actions conducted in a given context… » (Baechler, 2001, 469-470)

50. What is a food model?
 A specific configuration of the social space
 A body of technological knowledge accumulated from
generations to genrations, allowing the selection of
resources in a natural environement, to prepare them to be
food, then dishes and to consume them.
 It is also, some symbolic codes’ systems showing the
values of a human group participating to the construction
of cultural identities and to the internal processes of
differenciation.
Jean Pierre Poulain, université de Toulouse 50

51. Food models
 They are complex social constructions that functions
unconsciously and allow:
 To deal with food cognitive ambivalences
 To articulate the various horizons of food act: pleasure, health and
symbolic order
 The construction of social identities through internal and external
processes of identifications and differentiation / through processes of
identifications and internal and external differentiation
 To ease decision making
 They are living heritages leaving and
evolving/transforming/morphing with societies.

52. The inventory of food models

53. Relocation and environment
 The awakening of the
environmental impact
contributes to the
relocation

54.  The present food production
could be sufficient for 12
billion people
 There are 6.3 billion of us on
the face of the earth and more
than 1 billion suffer from
malnutrition and hunger
 More than half of the food we
produce is thrown away

55.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyptY24Ub
QM
55

56. Components of food systems
FOOD UTILISATION
• Health safety perception
• Order of edible
• Nutritional Value
• Social Value
• Food Safety
DISPONIBILITY
• Agricultural production ACCESS
• Transformation
• Conservation • Affordability
• Transport • Allocation
• Mise sur le marché • Preference
Production
• Distribution
• Exchange
From GECAFS 56

57. Determinants of Food Systems
FOOD UTILISATION Meal frequencies
Dietary patterns
Nutritional Value, Customs, tastes & trends
Social Value & Food Social bonding and solidarity
Safety Skills, education, & knowledge
Storage, processing & cooking techniques
Waste disposal & management
Bioavailability & bioefficacy
Contamination and toxins
FOOD AVAILABILITY Nutrient content FOOD ACCESS
Production, Distribution Nutrient balance Affordability, Allocation
& Exchange Hygiene & Preference
Mobility
Financial & social assets Support services
Supply chain infrastructure Advertising & media
Labour availability & productivity Customs, tastes & trends
Land tenure & exclusive economic zones Financial & social assets
Market policies (prices, credit & subsidies) Prices & household budgets
Trade policies (border controls, int’l Food standard regulations
agreements) Employment, wages & incomes
Distribution infrastructure (storage, transport)
Natural resource base & productivity Food quality and quantity
Plant and animal pests & diseases Seasonality
Post-harvest management Appearance
Primary processing Preparation
Technology
Germplasm
Red = socioeconomic determinants From GECAFS Green = biophysical determinants

58. « Through the choice of his food the
individual choses the kind of man he
wants to be…
By reducing bread to calories, wine to a
drug, sex to hygiene, we deny the
affective role of flesh et we proclaim
that our science is sufficient to give a
meaning to life, we leave the spiritual
and sacred to the rank of barbarian
vestiges.
Jean Trémolières, The big of nutrition (Le grand livre de la
nutrition), Laffont, 1973.

59. Pour en savoir plus
 J.-P. Poulain, Sociologie de l’obésité, PUF, 2009.
 J.-P. Poulain, Sociologies de l’alimentation, PUF, 2005, traduit
en italien Alimentatione Cultura e societa.
 J.-P. Poulain et E. Neirinck, Histoire de la cuisine et des
cuisiniers, Lanore, 2004.
 J.-P. Corbeau et J.-P. Poulain, Penser l’alimentation, entre
imaginaire et rationalité, Privat, 2002.
 J.-P. Poulain, Manger aujourd’hui, Attitudes, normes et
pratiques, Privat, 2001.
 J.-P. Poulain, « Eléments de sociologie de l’alimentation et de la
nutrition », in A. Basdevant, M. Laville et E. Lerebours, Traité de
nutrition clinique, Flammarion, 2001.
 « French gastronomie, french gastronomies », in Goldstein D. et
Merkele K., 2005, Culinary cultures of Europe Identity, Diversity
and dialogue, Éditions du Conseil de l’Europe, p. 157-170.

60.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AM_PSqjI
F0o
60