Can traditional foods become a source of income? asks Habiba Hassan-Wassef Yes, says the world Bank (WB). According to a series of recently published case studies, the WB provides evidence that poor people -- who make up the segments of the population that retain indigenous knowledge - can turn their own knowledge into higher incomes by using modern methods to protect and market it. The assumption supports the idea that culture and commerce complement each other and that changing intellectual property rights regimes can affect the economic and social performance in the developing world. Egypt, a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO), continues to develop its capacities and prepare the appropriate conditions for full exploitation of its resources and assets in the global markets so as to increase the returns of trade and promote economic growth. The criteria and measures that regulate this exploitation, whether legislation, licensing mechanisms, protective measures, patents or other, are continuously under revision so as to keep up with the evolution that is taking place in international agreements through the outcomes of negotiation rounds. This is done both for protection of national interests as well as in fulfillment of the country's international obligations. One such asset, which has till now been hesitantly exploited and mostly with minimum returns because of the absence of effective protection mechanisms, is that of our traditional knowledge. Egypt's traditional knowledge heritage The traditional knowledge of Egyptians has been built over several millennia, and passed on between generations. Two domains benefit from a rich local heritage; first, the area of medicinal plants and traditional medicine, and second that of agro-foods and food habits. Large segments of the population still rely to a great extent on medicinal plants while demand is also growing among people in industrialized nations, thus contributing to an expanding international trade in herbal medicines. As the knowledge of traditional medicine and medicinal plants grows in economic and trade value, the need to protect it and secure a fair and equitable sharing of benefits deriving from it should become an increasing concern of the responsible authorities in Egypt. Issues related to the potential for commercial exploitation of our food heritage is the focus of the present article. Continuity in Egypt's indigenous culinary tradition and food habits has been uninterrupted for an appreciable number of foods and food products since the time of the Pharaohs. Two parallel developments that are taking place these days call for mobilizing all efforts to document the heritage and regulate the production and trade in traditional Egyptian foods. The first is the growing market demand for health foods and Mediterranean type foods. The second is the rapid nutritional transition that has taken place in Egypt over the past four decades and the resulting risk of interruption in the continuity of the knowledge "chain". Our food heritage The ancient agricultural methods and crop composition, which had remained unchanged over thousands of years, allowed ample time for food habits to take root and for the gradual emergence of a nutritionally balanced diet that is in harmony with the existing ecosystem and which satisfies the nutritional requirements of the people. Egypt's traditional knowledge in this area was passed on between generations up to the present time through what we can call the keepers of culinary tradition. The guardians of our food heritage and dietary habits include the peasant women, while the ritual foods of the Copts (the orthodox Christians of Egypt) has changed little over the past two thousand years. The ancient Egyptian dome- shaped mud oven, in use till today, the set of earthenware utensils of all shapes and forms whether for cooking or storage of food, that are exact replicas of those exhibited in the museums, and lastly the typical kitchen utensils which continue to be produced and used till today, complete the list of perpetuators of culinary tradition. Modernization of the ancient agricultural methods started only 200 years ago. It initiated the first large scale modifications in the crop composition. This agricultural revolution marked the beginning of a series of major irrigation projects and efforts to control the Nile waters. However, these changes did not influence the main features of the traditional dietary system nor the food habits. Break up of the system started during the second half of the 20th century and continues till today. This is more evident in large urban settlements. However the dietary transition has also reached the rural populations, though to a lesser extent. Adoption of modern lifestyles, the increase in the numbers of people living near the poverty threshold, the change in the roles of women and of their time utilization patterns, whether rural or urban, have relegated the application of traditional dietary practices to festive occasions and social events. Egypt's food heritage is rich in functional foods which are physiologically active dietary components that provide health benefits that go beyond satisfying basic nutritional needs. They exert a health enhancing and a protective function within the body and can contribute to prevention and/ or treatment of certain diseases. The growing demand of the global consumer for the category referred to as health foods guarantees a niche in the global markets for our traditional products if we succeed in meeting the standards of global trade for a selection of the true and authentic traditional Egyptian foods. Who owns the local knowledge? In the domain of traditional foods, the authentic knowledge and tradition are retained by the more modest segments of the population and mostly by women. The place and share that women represent in the traditional food production domain, and the potential for generation of financial returns from activities that they traditionally engage in, make them primary beneficiaries. Programs aiming at boosting the production and trade in such products can become a gender oriented poverty alleviation programme. The economic activities involved can be managed through the creation of small local enterprises. The success of such endeavors depends on capacity building of the food production units. The challenges The real challenge is to protect people from being bypassed by commercial interests that register patents based on the indigenous people's knowledge and collect financial returns that should go to the poorer communities. Helping those communities acquire the knowhow to "unpackage" knowledge from indigenous products and repackage it for commercial markets, is the first step. The help and support of the research community for the standardization of the product and its production processes, as well as for the development of quality control criteria is essential to enable the local communities to satisfy international market standards. Protection mechanisms International protection mechanisms for traditional knowledge have been intensively discussed in the World Trade Organization (WTO) since 1999. Furthermore, the WTO is working closely with the World Health Organization and other international organizations for protection of traditional knowledge in the area of traditional medicine and medicinal herbs. This is done either through existing forms of intellectual property rights or other laws or protection mechanisms. As trade agreements around the world establish new rules on the protection of intellectual property rights, the establishment of a national accreditation and quality control system that can guarantee protection of the typicality of the Egyptian products becomes an urgent issue. This involves the creation of a label accreditation system such as the Designation of Authenticity Label, Certification Marks, Labels of Typicality, Labels of Origin, or other type of authenticity accreditation labels. For traditional foods, these certifications or labels are usually conferred by the Ministry of Agriculture in the country, based on norms and quality criteria that are standardized through scientific research. The backing and contribution of the scientific research community is therefore crucial for the success of a programme aiming at protection and gainful exploitation of our traditional food heritage in international markets. Dr. Habiba Hassan-Wassef is a Nutritionist and Public Health Policy Analyst. She is a former Director at WHO Geneva.
