Climate Migration Will Change The Way We Eat. Here’s a Taste of What’s Ahead
For thousands of years the Eastern Mediterranean has been a place that bridges cultures and continents through empire, trade, and migration. To think of Greece, Turkey, and Cyprus is to picture cobalt blue skies and shimmering seas, sun-drenched islands filled with olive groves and citrus trees, and mezze-laden tables with crisp rings of calamari and vibrant chopped salads. It’s a place where family is central, tradition is honored, and meals are meant to be savored slowly and always with good company. It is also a place that is rapidly changing. Since 2015 an estimated 5 million political refugees have come through the region, the largest movement of people Europe has seen since World War II. This is a huge number by any standard but perhaps just the tip of the iceberg.
The link between climate change and food systems has long been documented, from the impact of environmental damage on crops and farmland to calls for eating a more local, seasonal, organic, and plant-based diet in order to sustain natural resources. But the climate crisis and food are connected in other ways too, most notably through migration. As changing weather patterns, rising sea levels, and environmental destruction lead to crop failures and food scarcity, large areas of the earth are steadily becoming uninhabitable, and people are being forced to move. The World Bank estimates that by 2050 we’ll see over 143 million climate migrants, a global challenge likely to shift our ideas about the movement of peoples. It’s also likely to change how we eat, as new migrant communities influence local foodways.
To learn more about the struggles faced by those who are forcibly displaced, I traveled to the Eastern Mediterranean on a mission to cook with and interview refugees from all walks of life, sharing their tales in my new cookbook, Ripe Figs: Recipes and Stories from Turkey, Greece and Cyprus. It was a journey through clay-red soils and air rich with the fragrance of orange blossom and thyme, punctuated by hundreds of conversations over small cups of dense, sweet black coffee. At the kitchen tables of immigrants from Syria, Iraq, Palestine, Yemen, and Myanmar, I kneaded bread stuffed with Kalamata olives, rolled cigarillos of vine leaf dolmas, and marinated chicken with pomegranate molasses and allspice to be grilled over hot coals.
Mozhdeh, a young woman from Iran (who didn’t share her last name), spoke about how re-creating the food of her homeland provided solace and comfort in times of calamity; the kitchen had become one of the few places where she could maintain a sense of identity and dignity in the context of losing so much. We swapped recipes and agreed our favorite Persian dish was kashk-e badinjan, a rich and creamy eggplant dip with fermented yogurt. I also spoke to people working on refugee food projects, such as Lena Altinoglou, who set up a restaurant called Nan (named after the Central Asian word for bread), where locals and refugees work alongside each other on the Greek island of Lesbos. Her aim was to create employment for both communities, along with a space in which they can work together, share meals, and perhaps understand one another a little more.
The recipes that follow are a selection of my favorites from my travels, each one highlighting a unique and delicious attribute of this ever-diversifying region. Climate migration will force us to reimagine how we live together on our shared planet, and it is my hope that it will also make us reassess our notions of man-made borders so that people can move in safety and live in dignity. I returned from my trip knowing this was a topic we need as a society to urgently discuss. And in my mind there is no better place to have these conversations than at the dining table.
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Get the Recipes:
Chana Masala
Hot Yogurt and Spinach Soup
Ripe Figs: Recipes and Stories from Turkey, Greece, and Cyprus
Halloumi Saganaki
Ripe Figs: Recipes and Stories from Turkey, Greece, and Cyprus
Kisir (Spicy Bulgur Salad in Lettuce Cups)
Ripe Figs: Recipes and Stories from Turkey, Greece, and Cyprus
Istanbul’s Famous Mackerel Sandwiches
Sour Cherry Cheesecake
Ripe Figs: Recipes and Stories from Turkey, Greece, and Cyprus
Originally Appeared on Bon Appétit
