Over 110 professionals from various countries have signed a declaration following its public introduction today at the ‘Food 4 Thought / Alimento para Pensar’ congress. This event was organized by a municipality in the district of Aveiro and the Porto Metropolitan Area to celebrate its designation as a UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy.
The statement of principles was crafted by Pedro Graça, Director of the Faculty of Nutrition and Food Sciences at the University of Porto and a researcher at the Food Policy Lab; Gil Ferreira, a musician and city councilor overseeing Culture, Education, Youth, and Tourism in the Câmara Municipal da Feira, who has been the executive director of the street arts festival Imaginarius since 2014; and Olga Cavaleiro, an author of numerous gastronomy books and an educator at various hospitality schools within Portugal’s tourism network.
“Tradition did not emerge fully formed and complete but was developed through adjustments that reflect the changes experienced by societies. Migration, climate change, biological evolution, and advancements in knowledge and access to techniques and products were factors that conditioned it, constantly adjusting needs and resources,” the three authors begin in the Manifesto for Creativity in Culinary Tradition.
Just as technology has popularized the use of microwaves, and food preservation methods like salting and smoking have been replaced by freezing, the document argues that culinary tradition has always been “open to changes in lifestyle,” currently facing more intense time pressures due to factors such as climate instability.
“These changes are increasing uncertainties regarding the volume and price of certain food products, particularly fresh produce that was traditionally affordable and now is becoming less accessible,” explains the manifesto.
“The speed of climate change has also reshaped consumer perception of certain foods, whose production or transport has implications for greenhouse gas emissions or water use,” it states.
For humans, new conditions are imposed by an average life expectancy that has risen from 50 to 85 years within a few decades. “This means that diseases rarely mentioned at the start of the 20th century — such as diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, or cancer, with a strong dietary influence — are now the leading causes of death in our aging society,” it notes.
From a slow adaptation process, largely driven by the “holders of ancestral food knowledge, often residents of areas where the food was grown,” we have shifted to an evolution so rapid it endangers the grassroots and geographically proximate culinary knowledge — “especially if long-standing processes and products are placed under protection without scope for alteration.”
Recalling that much culinary tradition has always reflected circular economies, promoting resource optimization and avoiding waste in a “creativity and innovation against scarcity” and “survival logic,” the manifesto calls the community to action through three missions: to value food culture as a central element of a society’s identity and its relationship with nature and health; to document knowledge and practices from each regional recipe, identifying their distinctive characteristics; and to encourage the adaptation of this gastronomy to contemporary times, “incorporating new realities without losing its defining elements.”
“Innovation can ensure tradition by using scientific and technological knowledge to promote improvements in existing resources and enhance their quality and quantity,” asserts the declaration of principles signed in the Feira.
