Sustainable Gastronomy Day

June 18th is the “Sustainable Gastronomy Day”. What´s Sustainable Gastronomy and what does it have to do with Eurochange´s Blog? Let´s see it in the next lines.

Sustainable Gastronomy is a concept referring to a way of cooking that cares about the ingredient's origin, and the impact it has on the environment. 60% of the risk factors causing sickness are a consequence from bad nourishment, and that’s directly related to our planet´s health.

The main purpose of celebrating this day is to raise awareness about the impact of our actions on the environment, including the simple act of choosing one product or another. These concepts seem basic and logical to be implemented on today’s society by countries, but it is not as easy as it seems. A study called “Plates, Pyramids and Planet” showed that only 4 countries included sustainability on their dietary guideline. From all the 215 countries participating on that study, only 83 offered official guidelines about healthy diets.

Only Germany, Brazil, Sweeden and Qatar have a long-term vision and offer guidelines where diets, health and sustainability are mixed together. The Netherlands and the UK are taking some steps towards including sustainability on their dietary guidelines as well, but not as advanced as the 4 mentioned previously. For the rest, only next to a third (83) offer tips to the population based on the dietary habits.

Since a while ago, and growing every day, gastronomic tourism is increasing in popularity, and “foodies” plan their vacations or travels around the word based on gastronomic adventures. And this is how we found Belém.

Belém, Creative Gastronomic City by the UNESCO.

UNESCO recognised the compromise by the popular brazilian city with the creativity as the engine for an urban sustainable development. In this particular case the recognition is based on it´s gastronomy, and how they set some actions to help social inclusion and cultural revitalisation.

Belém promotes the use of native ingredients and local products, while works on eliminating the middle man from the production chain, linking small producers straight the the consumers. Furthermore, Belém its a pioneer in the "slow food" field, showing everybody how to lead a process of social transformation through a voluptuous, tasty and filled with variety gastronomy.

Belém it´s way more than all that: it is also consider the ecological tourism capital of the world. With a 1,5 million citizens, has some of the most beautiful fairy tale´s landscapes, a beautiful and historical old town clearly influenced by the Portuguese architecture, and a high social and cultural lifestyle.

If you wish to plan your next trip in order to enjoy all the gastronomical offer Belém has to offer, you have a whole year until the next world´s Sustainable Gastronomy Day in Brazil. But you only need between 24 and 48 hours to get your Brazilian Reales on your closest Eurochange office.