LocationsAncestral Recipes for the Future: Listening to the Wisdom of Embera communities in the Darién, Panama
July 11, 2025
On the launch of the “Traditional Wisdom for Food Systems Transformation” report, an energy of reverence and purpose filled the air. The report, co-created by the Conscious Food Systems Alliance (CoFSA) through a collective inquiry with Indigenous peoples and local communities, had just been released—an invitation to reimagine food systems not just as mechanisms of production and consumption, but as expressions of identity, gratitude, and sacred relationship with Mother Earth.
Less than 24 hours later, that invitation became a lived reality.
The CoFSA team journeyed deep into the Darién region of Panama for 4 days, a place between the border of Panama and Colombia, where rivers still speak, the forest remembers, and food is not just nourishment for the body but also for the soul. There, we met with three Indigenous communities whose traditional food systems embody the very essence of what the report describes: sacredness, sovereignty, knowledge transmission, and intercultural collaboration.
The Sacredness of Food: We protect, the forest provides
In each community we visited, food was not something extracted from the Earth—it was received as a gift. An Embera elder from La Marea community, walked us through the forest, stating that the forest provides them with all they need, and that’s why it needs to be protected. They are learning how to increase production while conserving the forest, including ancient almond trees where the blue macaw sets its nest.
“Our biggest threat is the devastation of forests for agriculture,” says Jerairo Grajales, elder farmer from La Marea, “forests are vital for us as they provide us food, tourism and keep our ecosystems alive.”
In his family, food is received as a gift from Nature. Morning harvest is preceded by a quiet prayer, and the day is closed with gratitude. Food is placed on the centre of the room, and only when the guests have finished eating, the host starts its first bite. But this relationship with the forest is being lost as farmers now longer producing for their own consumption but for the market.
Culture and Food Sovereignty: “Our recipes are our resistance”
The Embera Indigenous peoples in the Darién are fighting for sovereignty over their traditional borders, forests, and therefore, over their food. Over fifty years ago, many communities were displaced to the surroundings of the Bayano Lake, and since then, they are in an open dispute with the Panamanian Government over the ownership of their land.
In the Embera village of Arimae, women gathered to cook bodochi, a traditional dish made with rice planted in their field, accompanied with grass-feed chicken. They shared with proud their plans to celebrate the second Embera food fair, to honour their culture and recipes, ensuring that, even if their land decreases, their traditions won’t get lost. Growing and preparing their own traditional food with products from their land is a cry to resilience, food security and health.
The second insight from the report—the centrality of culture in food sovereignty—was echoed in every pot, plate, and story we encountered.
But not all that is old is gold. Acknowledging that traditional diets sometimes mean dietary deficiencies and malnutrition, and gender disbalances in terms of working time in the kitchen for women, the idea is to honour and learn from the past, not to live in it but adapt to the times we live in.
Transmission of Knowledge: Elders, youth, and the stories in between
Traditional food cultures in the Darién are being lost as new generations turn to modern, processed diets with often negative impact on their health. Schools play a major role in that according to the people we met. “In the schools our language is not even taught, the kids go in uniforms that don’t relate to our ways of dressing, and the food is processed. So, kids when they come back home, they don’t want to use our clothes or eat our food,” said Edixon Grajales from the Embera community of La Marea.
This reflects the third insight of CoFSA’s latest report: the urgency and importance for Indigenous peoples to transmit their local knowledge systems. Oral traditions remain the bedrock of memory in these communities, as grandparents pass their knowledge to new generations. But a lot of work still needs to be done, for young generations to feel ownership of their traditions, learning how to integrate ancient wisdom with modern ways of living for a prosperous future. During our visit, it was hopeful to hear how youngsters who left their communities in search of work in the city, are coming back, to reconnect with more traditional ways of life and communities are reactivating intergenerational learning.
While schools have an important role on preserving traditions and food culture, women as cook, center of families and the community, are leading the transmission of this ancient knowledge. In the community of Ipeti, a women-lead community group is empowering women to weave, plant and participate in the community administration, elevating the voices of elder indigenous women who have wisdom to share, and young girls who have dreams to achieve.
Weaving Intercultural Collaboration: From Darién to the world
Perhaps the most hopeful insight from the report—and one that truly came alive in Panama—is the power of intercultural collaboration. In Darién, women and men from different beliefs, traditions and backgrounds came together in Santa Fe, to discuss what can be done to change how we produce, eat and think about food, starting with the younger generations. Farmers discussed about producing more sustainably so land will remain fruitful for new generations; cookers shared ways of preparing local food with consciousness, love and time, so the food heals and nurtures; and educators discussed how to better integrate conscious food approaches into schools through food gardens, meals and nutrition education as part of the intercultural education system that is about to be established in Panama.
“Darién has a rich tapestry of cultures. Here you’ll find Colombian culture, Afro-descendant culture, the rural traditions of the interior, and Indigenous heritage. Each culture has its own unique food base, yet all of them are being eroded by external interventions,” said Carlos Vigil from Darién Sostenible. “If we could create a recipe book with at least twenty dishes using the plants and foods found in the area, it would raise awareness.”
While our report highlights some relevant best practices and case studies on how to preserve traditional wisdom for a healthier food system, this short journey into the Darién made clear to us that there is no unique solution. Each community needs to find their own ways to safeguard key elements of their traditional food culture while adapting it to the current times. The wisdom is there, in the forests, the people and the dishes we shared, and it can inspire the world.
This article was originally published on the COFSA website.
Photo credits: UNDP / María Fernández del Moral
