| Native American Food Entrepreneurs Find Curiosity and Customers In Other Countries By Therra Cathryn Gwyn (Choctaw, Munsee) |
| It’s over 9000 miles from Albuquerque, New Mexico, to Singapore and some staples of the Native American diet made that impressive journey in April 2008, courtesy of Joseph Jaramillo, owner/founder of Native Natural Southwest Native Foods. Jaramillo, 65, who hails from Isleta Pueblo near Albuquerque, offered his company’s most requested food items at the Food and Hotel Asia 2008 convention: blue corn meal, parched blue corn, the unique anasazi beans (thought gone forever but re-cultivated in the 1980s) and New Mexico’s own signature red chile powder. He attended the convention with Native food representatives and colleagues Nathan Natoh (American Indian Foods) Michael Mithlo, Sr (Mighty Good Bison), and Jim McCool (Red Lake Nation Foods). They have banded together several times, working through the Billings, Montana, Inter-tribal Agricultural Counsel, often traveling together to promote and introduce indigenous foods from their respective states and tribes. April’s convention in Singapore was particularly well attended, with more than 2600 companies participating from over 70 different countries and regions. In an article in the Singapore journal Today, reporter Ned Chai Chin wrote that the trade show had 37,000 visitors this year and noted that the response to the unique appeal and history behind indigenous American food items was encouraging. These foods, which include bison meat from Oklahoma and wild rice from Minnesota in addition to the aforementioned New Mexico blue corn, beans and chile powder, are novel in many countries and seen as interesting to the Asian Pacific people, a huge consumer group that makes up over 55% of the world’s population. With nearly 3.7 billion people, they have the highest annual food consumption. Even so, it’s a slow process to introduce new foods to the varied cultures and the often particular and sophisticated tastes of the Eurasian market. While promoting Native American food products Jaramillo and his fellow food representatives emphasize quality, nutrition, history and culture. They sometimes even bring along a Native chef to cook up traditional cuisine for potential buyers. Most of the foods offered through these companies are grown or raised on their family land and farms. For Jaramillo, a former teacher and college administrator, farming is part of his family heritage that has continued for generations. Although not yet accredited by the National Organic Program, he notes that his crops are grown the way the Pueblo people have always done it. ‘We do it without pesticides” he said, “That’s the natural way to grow.” Jaramillo’s most recent trip to Asia was his latest adventure in enterprise that started as a local farming and community help project more than a decade before. His first foray into farming the local fare happened when he decided to combine his desire to promote food grown at Isleta Pueblo and also teach at-risk Native youth to farm the way the community had done decades before, a process he felt some might have gotten out of touch with because of the ease of shopping at the local supermarket. He went to the tribal court system and started a new community program by asking the judge to turn some of the troubled youths over to him. “I told them to give them (the kids) to me and let them work off their community service. These were not bad kids; they just went in a bad direction.” Jaramillo said. He taught them to farm and let them earn money at market. Eventually the project was so successful that the Albuquerque Juvenile Justice Division heard about it and wanted to team up, an encouraging idea that never came to fruition due to internal problems at the government level. Still, out of that project eventually Native Natural was born and Jaramillo found himself selling blue corn and red chile to consumers in the United States, Germany, England and Canada. Is it possible we may one day be eating dishes at our favorite Japanese, Chinese or Korean restaurant made with Native American food ingredients? It could happen. In the meantime Jaramillo is pleased to be one of the pioneers in bringing American Indian foods to a whole new audience in Europe and Asia, two of the world’s great and most ancient and cultured food markets. “This is my main love” he said, “I will continue to grow these foods.” |
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