The Return of Traditional Cuisine in the Food Policies of FAO, 1980–2010

This paper examines a fundamental turn in the policy of the UN Food and Agricultural Organization, especially at its regional seat in Santiago de Chile.  Long a champion of the green revolution, of trade, and of greatly increased protein consumption as measures to solve nutritional problems in the Latin American Republics, the organization has recently taken other approaches. Small scale production is encouraged once more, the virtues of traditional cuisines are valorized.

The roots for this change reach deep into the past, as since the immediate post-war period, there were significant Latin American nutritionists who objected to the proposed radical changes in local diets through. While for decades, their calls went unheaded, the evident failures of modernization policies have prepared the way for other approaches. 

Taking, among others, the example of the "Chefs contra el Hambre" campaign, the paper will provide some explanations for these policy changes, inquire about their depth, as some of the new program sit uneasily between a model of "multi-cultural neoliberalism" and more radical food sovereignty movements.