45 Mediterranean Diet of Chefchaouen 1
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
MEDITERRANEAN DIET OF CHEFCHAOUEN 45 MEDITERRANEAN DIET OF CHEFCHAOUEN 1 Mediterranean Diet of Chefchaouen Introduction to a UNESCO recognized highly nutritional gastronomic culture and food practice 2 MEDITERRANEAN DIET OF CHEFCHAOUEN Book published under the “Municipal Tourism’s Strategy Support Program for the communes of Chefchaouen, Tétouan, Tangier, Assilah, Larache & Kasar El Kebir” funded by the Andalusian Agency for International Development Cooperation (AACID) and FAMSI. PROGRAM COORDINATOR EMILIO RABASCO JIMENEZ JOSÉ LUIS CORRIONERO SERGIO CASTAÑAR ESPACIO PUBLISHED COORDINATION EVA GALLARDO AUTHORS MOHAMMED ATER EL RHAFFARI LHOUSSAINE JESÚS FRANCISCO RODRÍGUEZ HUERTAS CONCEPCIÓN M. AGUILERA GARCÍA MARIA DOLORES MESA GARCÍA MANUEL MARTÍNEZ PEINADO PABLO ÁVILA ZARAGOZA JORGE QUEIROZ DESIGN AND PRINTING LITOGRAF IMPRIMERIE PHOTOGRAPHY ADNAM HAKOUN AZIZ ASSAOUD LEGAL DEPOSIT : 2017MO0716 ISBN : 978-9954-39-608-7 Published by FAMSI –Municipal Fund of Andalusia for International Solidarity Tangier, January 2017 www.chefchaouen.com www.andaluciasolidaria.org www.an-mar.org MEDITERRANEAN DIET OF CHEFCHAOUEN 3 INDEX CHAPITER 1. COUNTRYSIDE, LOCAL PRODUCE AND MEDITERRANEAN DIET IN CHEFCHAOUEN .............. 6 CHAPITER 2. THE GASTRONOMICAL CULTURE IN CHEFCHAOUEN: A DISTINCTIVE FEATURE OF THE MEDITERRANEAN DIET .................................................................................................... 14 CHAPITER 3. NUTRIENT FOODS OF THE MEDITERRANEAN DIETE IN CHEFCHAOUEN: A SCIENTIFIC BASIS FOR THEIR EFFECTS ON HEALTH .............................................................. 22 CHAPITER 4. MEDITERRANEAN FOOD AS A SUSTAINABLE FOOD SYSTEM. DIFFERENCES AND SIMILARITIES BETWEEN THE TERRITORIES OF ANDALUSIA AND CHEFCHAOUEN ..................................................................................................................... 30 CHAPITER 5. CULTURE ET REGIME, AFFINITES ET DIFFERENCIATION ............................................................ 36 4 MEDITERRANEAN DIET OF CHEFCHAOUEN Along with the cities of Soria in Spain, Cilento in Italy and Coron in Greece, our city were recognized in 2010 as an Iconic Community within the Mediterranean Diet, as well as one of the intangible cultural heritages of UNESCO. Since 2013, other territories of the Mediterranean basin have also got this prestigious distinction such as the cities of Tavira in Portugal, Agros in Cyprus as well as the islands of Brac and Hvar in Croatia. This recognition has helped our municipality to become aware of the richness of its intangible heritage; that is the distinctive way of life of Chefchaouen as well as all the knowledge, customs and habits that have lived on in the local culture over the centuries. As a result, our municipality approved the Chefchaouen Mediterranean Diet Action plan in 2013; this plan is divided into four major areas of work: 1) Safeguarding & Developing the local heritage, 2) Reinforcing the capability of local stakeholders, 3) Awareness & Communication and 4) Governance. Various partnership agreements have been signed ever since with local associations as well as regional, national and international organizations and thanks to them, we were able to put many activities into action in this field. For example, we can name a few activities such as creation of Mediterranean Diet Museum with the support of APDN (about to complete) as well as recent rehabilitation of traditional community ovens in the old city. The arrangements suggested to craftsmen, identifying the Mediterranean Diet theme based tour or the local quality label creation process for “Chefchaouen - Mediterranean Diet”. This has been an initiative of great scale by way of its impact on the various sectors such as tourism, craft industry and agro-food industry as much as the quantity of stakeholders mobilized and the extent of its magnitude on the entire territory of Chefchaouen province. This achievement was apparently bolstered with other added initiatives and together they have allowed us to address one part of this vast cultural intricacy, namely the Mediterranean Diet. We have subsequently described here the aspects related to Chefchaouen’s food culture, its gastronomy and nutritional value. We were privileged to get this information thanks to our collaboration with the academics and the subject matter experts as well as FAMSI. Their support and involvement has helped to materialize this project as well as few other projects related to the topic which holds great importance for our community. We therefore look forward to extending our efforts in safeguarding and revealing the virtues of our way of life, and hope that this article sparks some great interest to our readers. Mohamed Sefiani Mayor - Chefchauen MEDITERRANEAN DIET OF CHEFCHAOUEN 5 The cooperation between FAMSI and Chefchaouen Town-hall has been cemented over the past decade by their shared efforts. They came up with an assistance program during this period, which was materialized via multiple projects on a variety of subjects such as municipal management’s modernization, strategic planning, promotion of local economic development, citizens’ participation or promotion of transparency among others. These projects focus on training, negotiation processes, transfer of innovative methodologies, experience sharing, technical aid or even sophisticated equipment - designated officials (such as municipal technicians), stakeholders of various associations and weaker population groups could profit from these things. The promotion of local economic development is without any doubt the one sector that stands out within the framework of cooperation with Chefchaouen over last four years. The local administration has designed “Local Economic Development” as the method to promote the actions that aim at improving the quality of life and social cohesion within the territory. These actions have resulted from a planning activity which was approved by the majority of people, and they help to integrate the environmental, economic and social prospects. We are relying on Local Economic Development thus far within the framework of this cooperation. It is because neither economic growth nor its sustainable development is conceivable without environmental protection & diversity, development of endogenous resources, innovation and job creation. So, in spite of everything there is no development if we do not consider cultural diversity, heritage and local habits. This is why we have been supporting the creation and operation of Chefchaouen Municipal Development Agency (AMDC) since 2012. It is an operative mechanism to help Chefchaouen Town-hall define the participatory strategies and local development plans for the improvement of local production system as per sustainable development, innovation and quality standards. From this perspective, AMDC has defined the following scopes: Tourism, Craft industry, Agro-food industry as well as Creative & cultural industry. So, it’s not surprising that it’s in fact AMDC that operationally manages Mediterranean Diet Development Plan after Chefchaouen was recognized by UNESCO as an iconic community within the Mediterranean Diet. Discussing Mediterranean Diet is incomplete without discussing the intangible heritage that has been conceived as a cross-cultural intricacy and holistic life style where local manners, knowledge and traditions are very important. The Municipal Tourism Strategy’s Support Program (financed by AACID FAMSI) for the communes of Chefchaouen, Tétouan, Tangier, Assilah, Larache and Kasar El Kebir is a fruit of the relation between Local Economic Development and Mediterranean Diet. The support to Chefchaouen city features among the scopes of this program, whether in terms of implementation of the initiatives of Chefchaouen Tourism Observatory, creation of “Chefchaouen - Mediterranean Diet” local quality label as well as promotion of Mediterranean Diet through this book. This is why the book in your hands has given us the opportunity to work in collaboration with the experts of University of Granada (Spain), Abdelmalek Essaadi University of Tanger and Errachidia University (Morocco) and European Institute of Mediterranean Food (IEAMED) as well as the Town-hall of Tavira (Portugal). Our aim was to look deeper into certain food and gastronomy related aspects of this intangible heritage. Even though this heritage is common to the Mediterranean people but in Chefchaouen it has its own character. Ignacio Caraballo Chairman - FAMSI 6 MEDITERRANEAN DIET OF CHEFCHAOUEN CHAPITER 1. COUNTRYSIDE, LOCAL PRODUCE & MEDITERRANEAN DIET IN CHEFCHAOUEN Mohammed Ater Professor, Director - LDICOSYB Laboratory (Laboratory for Diversity & Conservation of Biological Systems) Abdelmalek Essaâdi University (Morocco) Introduction : Despite the extensive media coverage Mediterranean diet got after UNESCO listed it among the Humanity’s Intangible Cultural Heritages in 20101, this concept is still far from being considered as an innovation. It was in fact recognized as a special diet in the Sixties when few epidemiologic studies had shown its beneficial effects on health and specifically its contribution to better protect against certain pathologies such as cardiovascular diseases.2 This recognition conversely gave new dimensions and light to the Mediterranean diet by regarding it not only as a healthy way to eat but as a way of life as well as a set of cultural traits as well. This new perception has revived this concept and helped to highlight the bonds between food as diet as well