UB’s Food Lab partners with Kashmiri poet to celebrate Indigenous green

As highly processed foods make their way into the Himalayan region of Kashmir, UB researchers have taken a creative approach to raise awareness of haak (hāk), an important Indigenous green in the region that has been around for centuries. They’ve partnered with noted Kashmiri poet Zareef Ahmad Zareef as part of a public health campaign being shared in the region.

Food systems are increasingly recognized as a lever for promoting public health. Yet, the potential of Indigenous and community-based food systems for public health is often overlooked. Indigenous food systems are all the material and non-material relationships and resources — including the land, air, water, soil and culturally important plant, animal and fungi species — that have sustained Indigenous peoples over millennia.

The UB Food Systems Planning and Healthy Communities Lab (UB Food Lab) is working with partners at the Sher-i-Kashmir Agricultural University of Science and Technology (SKUAST-Kashmir) to document, preserve and plan for stronger Indigenous and community-based food systems. In particular, the UB Food Lab — housed within the School of Architecture and Planning — is focused on documenting and preserving ways to protect haak, a type of kale (brassica oleracea var. varidis) that has been grown in Kashmir and sustained the population.

Research partners at SKUAST-Kashmir, led by Khalid Masoodi, point to preliminary in-vitro results that suggest that haak may offer protections against particular diseases; kale contains polyphenols, carotenoids, glucosinolates’ hydrolysis products and vitamins C and E that show antioxidant activity.

An affordable, nutritious and culturally celebrated green, haak has served as a nutritional safety net during times of conflict in the region, a fact documented by a Food Lab team including Samina Raja, Alex Judelsohn, Athar Parvaiz and others in the Journal of the American Planning Association (Raja et al, 2023).

Despite its cultural importance and public health potential, haak is competing with the arrival of (less healthy) hyper-processed foods via globalized food chains in Kashmir. Indeed, preliminary data from the research team suggests the frequency of consumption of haak among younger generations is lower than that among older generations — a trend the interdisciplinary team aims to counter with a new public education campaign that draws on the power of poetry.

Commissioned by the UB Food Lab, a new poem, titled “Haake Naame,” or “An Ode to Haak,” by Zareef Ahmad Zareef draws attention to the historical and cultural significance of haak. An award-winning writer, poet and environmentalist, Zareef has a significant following among Kashmiris, including tens of thousands of followers on social media.

Although he has composed widely on Kashmir’s history and culture, Zareef notes he had not written about haak. But two years ago, conversations with the UB Food Lab team inspired him to write about haak.

Says Raja: “I am grateful for Mr. Zareef’s unmatched creativity and understanding of Kashmiri foodways. His poem will draw Kashmiris’ attention to the public health potential of haak in ways that a scientific journal article cannot. Art and science have to collectively work to promote health and food equity.”

Written and recited in the Kashmiri language for a Kashmiri audience, “Haake Naame” draws attention to haak’s centrality to Kashmiri life and well-being. The video is available on YouTube.