Hi, I'm Shreema Mehta! Thank you for visiting.
The story of Climate Cookery starts with me reading an FAO report, in my pandemic pajamas, at my parents’ house.
But I also like to think of this endeavor as a culmination of years of working in environmental conservation and sustainability, exploring solutions and most importantly, cooking and loving food!
Climate Cookery comes from grad school, where I studied sustainable agriculture and supply chains and first came across the term "underutilized crops.”
It comes from working in Bangalore, where I learned about how the complexities of global food supply chains affect real people -- and saw that there's no easy fix, and that smallholder farmers who feed their families and the world have it the worst.
And it comes from working in PR, where I learned about the need to tell a good story -- to push out of your bubble to find new ways to explain your ideas in simple, concrete and compelling ways.
Last year, I was reading an FAO report (I told you I'm interested in sustainable agriculture!) and came across that term from graduate school -- underutilized crops. The report details how low demand and low investment keep climate-resilient, restorative crops out of the global food system.
It got me thinking -- what if I could help tell the story of underutilized crops — why we need to eat more of them, and get them into our supply chains? And what if I can help create demand for them, and ultimately build a supply chain that pays smallholder farmers who still grow these important crops, even in the face of relentless industrialization?
One year later, I have a delightful tamarind sauce to sell, which I hope to be the first of many products featuring underutilized crops.
I’m excited about this journey, and I hope you’ll join me!
