Dear Locavore,

 

Stranded on a chilly highway in Shillong in 2016, I remember eating Jadoh—a Meghalayan breakfast staple of rice stewed in pork fat and blood—for the first time. Seven years later, the memory of that taste has returned to me rather unexpectedly, through the project that I’m now leading.

Hi! I’m Sreyasi, the Projects Lead at The Locavore. Through the Millet Revival Project, in partnership with Rainmatter Foundation, we have been exploring the vast and complicated millet landscape in India. With one phase of stumbling and revelations below our belt, we are finally starting to feel equipped to even ask the right questions about this hardy grain. To help find answers, we now have four labs—The Climate and Policy Lab, The Cooking Lab, The Editorial Lab, and The Resource Lab.

What sets these labs apart is the exceptional commitment of our volunteers, hailing from diverse backgrounds and regions across the country. It’s really through their expertise that we’re able to understand the intricacies of the millet ecosystem.

 

The labs are made up of researchers, chefs, students, data scientists, and entrepreneurs, with the youngest only at the start of their career, and our oldest member, Asha, who has retired from the professional world this year! Each team has seven dedicated members, with many working across different time zones. Despite this geographical spread, their commitment to collaboration remains unwavering. 

Now, to get back to the Jadoh! Just this month, Sayani Sengupta, a volunteer with the Cooking Lab, made an attempt to reimagine the Meghalayan Jadoh. For her, this rich pulao, accompanied with the sharp tungtap and fresh salad, is rooted in childhood fantasies.

While the Jadoh recipe looks at the past from a very personal perspective, our latest article about millets looks at the past too, but from the perspective of its growers. This month, we have Sohel Sarkar examining farming songs and rituals that helped conserve millet in different parts of India. Read Songs of Survival: The Cultural Memory that Kept Millets Alive which explores how certain foods linger in a community’s collective memory. Through articles like this, the Editorial Lab, led by Mukta Patil, aims to bring nuance to conversations around millets, and share lesser known stories.

Alongside the Editorial Lab, our Resource Lab, led by Raj Mishra, is working towards a comprehensive and open-access repository of information on stakeholders in the Indian millet landscape. Ranging from custodian farmers, consumer brands, scientists and agro-ecologists, to hotels, restaurants, and breweries, the repository aims to be a one-stop database for all things millets. 

 

Of course, all engagements under the project are led by active collaboration. Every week, each of the lab leads come together with members of the Locavore core team. There’s so much we don’t know yet about millets, and our discussions revolve around how we can fill these gaps in our knowledge. For example, we have noticed that a fair bit of the data around millet farming is outdated, incomplete, or missing. 

 

And so, the Climate and Policy Lab, led by Varnika Gangavalli, is attempting to map out which millets are grown in different parts of the country, and the reason behind this. It's a bit like putting together a puzzle. Our goal is to use available data and smart ideas to make millet farming better for the planet in a rapidly changing climate.

 

As we gear up to conduct several unique events across the country, launch a new website for the Millet Revival Project, and share interesting recipes and stories, we hope you stay with us on this journey.