The Renewing America's Food Traditions Alliance
WHY RAFT?
There is an urgent need to maintain the incredible food diversity of North America because of the important ecological, culinary, cultural, and health benefits of biodiversity.
Ecological Benefits: Plant and animal diversity sustains healthy ecological relationships and sustainable agricultural practices. This diversity also encourages resistance to pests and diseases, ensuring our food security.
Culinary Benefits: Inherent in a diversity of foods is a variety of aromas, textures, and flavors that increase pleasure and help us along in our pursuit of happiness.
Cultural Benefits: Our daily meals come from the strong hands and creative minds of individuals in food-producing communities. Traditional agricultural and culinary knowledge has been passed on by story from one practitioner to the next. This knowledge about how to harvest and cook the plants and animals around us is key to our survival as a species and worth documenting and celebrating.
Health Benefits: Getting nutrients from whole foods that are adapted to the regions in which we live and work helps our resistance to disease, particularly diabetes and heart disease.
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