Grant for the publication of the book Wat is eetbaar? Een reis door de wereld van voedseltaboes en eetculturen (What is edible? A journey through the world of food taboos and food cultures)
Adel P. den Hartog, the former secretary of the van Dam Foundation and former professor of the Division of Human Nutrition and Health of Wageningen University, The Netherlands, unfortunately passed away in 2012 but left a manuscript in the Dutch language entitled: Wat is eetbaar? (What is edible?). This manuscript comprised a description of why people eat what they from a social-geographic and anthropological perspective. It describes some taboos in some cultures related to eating, for example, insects or horse meat but also about diets during slavery. An exceptionally interesting topic that is rarely described in other publications. The wife of dr Adel Den Hartog handed over the manuscript to Dr. Annemarie de Knecht-van Eekelen and Jan Verriet. They reviewed and updated the manuscript and prepared it for publication. The book is published by Wageningen Academic Publishers and is available in open access at the site of the Publisher. https://doi.org/10.3920/978-90-8686-920-6
Project THE ETHIOPIAN FOOD-BASED DIETARY GUIDELINES; Increase diet quality including diversity and food safety for optimal health by Julie Abraham and Pauline Kolton
In May 2021 Julie Abraham and Pauline Kolton delivered their final report and the results of the project (a Food Guide, a Methodology book, a Research book, an educational tool for Children and an Educational tool for teachers). The project was much delayed by the corona pandemic and its related regulations and limitations. However, both designers continued to work with their Ethiopian colleagues online to finalize the documents. The project deliverables were highly appreciated by the National Working Group, a multistakeholder expert group in charge of development of the Ethiopian Based Dietary Guidelines. Julie and Pauline also presented their project at the Food and Agriculture Organization (online) and FAO colleagues were specifically interested in the methodology book, which could be used to inform other countries of possible ways to develop visualizations for food-based dietary guidelines. The Ethiopian guidelines are launched at the end of March 2022. https://paulinekolton.com/E-A-THIOPIA
Figure 1: developed materials such as Food Guide and education materials . ©Julie Abraham and Pauline Kolton
Figure 2: Page from the methodology book depicting the search for commonly used colours in Ethiopia to be used to develop visualizations for the guidelines. ©Julie Abraham and Pauline Kolton
Grants for participation in online workshops at WUR (Wageningen)
Van Dam Foundation awarded to Mrs. Sarala Khaling and Mr Ahmed Mohamed Nor a grant to participate in the online course: Food Systems for Sustainable and Healthier Diets” held 15 February – 26 March 2021 at Wageningen Centre for Development Innovation – Wageningen University & Research.
Sarala is Regional Director, Management working Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and Environment in Gangtok, India. Sarala has been working on natural resource management, biodiversity and ecosystem conservation, climate change, sustainable livelihoods and more recently on sustainable and healthy food system in the Himalayan regions in India, Nepal and Bhutan.
“Working in this new sector of Food Systems for the past one and a half years has been interesting. I have also been working in sustainable agriculture for a long time, but only on the production side. Recently I have also started working on the consumption side and for this the course is of utmost importance. I realized that I need to strengthen the theoretical underpinnings of the work I have been doing for effective results and impacts. During the course I gained knowledge, tools and exchanged practices to be able to adapt and design plans and tweaking them to my context and deeply appreciating the innovation these bring. In addition, the theoretical concepts and applicability of sustainable and healthy food systems became clear, and I am ready to apply this to my own research and action designs”.
Mr. Mohamed Ahmed Nor is a nutritionist working for the Modern Agriculture Development organization in Somalia.
Van Dam Foundation awarded a grant to Fazal Jalal and Abdelrahman Ismail Adam Saliha to participate in the online course: Making Agriculture work for Food and Nutrition Security – 17 May – 25 June 2021 at Wageningen Centre for Development Innovation – Wageningen University & Research.
Mr Fazal. PhD, is a Lecturer at the Department of Agriculture of the Faculty of Chemistry and Life sciences of Agriculture of Abdul Wali Khan University in Mardan, Pakistan. His research area is Biochar application in management, sustainable crop production/organic forming and cropping system. Presently he is working as a lecturer in the department of agronomy at Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan, Pakistan.
Mr Abdelrahman Ismail Adam Saliha works at the Faculty of Environmental Sciences and Natural resources, Sudan.