What I’ve learned from my potatoes | Magui Choque Vilca | TEDxRiodelaPlata

This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences.

Magui Choque Vilca is an agricultural engineer and is known as “the Queen of the Andean potatoes” due to her work to preserve the american native cultivation of Northen Argentina. Magui is one of those who started the initiative to preserve the biodiversity, the respect for the land, the culture and the role of the farmers.

These are my potatoes

and on behalf of them,
I want to welcome you.

Here, in the picture,
we have two symbolic things:

the erakas and tuni.

And you will wonder what they are.

The erakas are the mother potatoes,

the potatoes that can be read at the crop,

and they will predict a new crop.

And the tuni type is a potato

that was threatened by extinction,

and still, some tuni varieties

growing at the Quebrada de Humahuaca,
in Jujuy province

are at risk of extinction.

I will tell you about the path
that captured me,

and what the potatoes taught me
along this path.

These erakas have taught me

about the rural and scientific knowledge,
both taking part in a dialogue.

And, so, I'll tell you

where these potatoes are recreated:

at the markets,
in the exchanges, in the affection,

in the love of the farmers
that exchange the potatoes,

not as an economic unit,

but as a factor of solidarity,

of affection, of reciprocity.

At these potato fairs of the farmers

I found a diversity...

Do you know that there are almost
84 varieties of potatoes in Argentina?

And more than 3,000 in the world?

These potatoes are at the risk

to become extinct.

And when a corn
or potato variety dies out,

it's not only a cultivation that is lost,

but also a whole ancient knowledge
of usage and consumption

throughout history.

This knowledge is not about
where or how it's grown,

it is about the medicinal properties,

cooking qualities, nutritional properties.

And, in this path led by the potatoes,

when I started to rescue them

I found that they had
many friends, cousins, relatives,

like the ocas potatoes, the ollucos,
the colored corns.

There, the potatoes,

taught me that it's possible
to build in the diversity

because they all live together,
without losing their individuality.

And they also taught me
that each one has a call.

Each potato has its call
and is useful for some special dish.

Each potato is also made
for a carnival celebration

or Easter.

When I started to save these potatoes -
I'm an agricultural engineer -

I finished University

and began saving them
with a scientific vocation and vision.

I picked them up,
put them in labeled bags.

And came to do the first
photographic mapping to take them out.

I took pictures five times,
a series of pictures, of those potatoes.

I didn't get any photos.

They were blurred,
I only got half of them.

And I told my father -

heir to a culture,

eighteenth generation
of cacique Viltipoco -

I told him,
"Dad, I didn't get the photos."

And my father said,
"Have you asked them for permission?"

And I, at that moment, went,
"But what are you telling me?

Have I studied for 6 years to ask
the potatoes for permission?"

And as he saw I doubted
at that time, he said,

"Well, if you don't believe, don't do it."

And my culture came back
and I said, "No, no, no."

And I smoked them,
put flowers and said,

"Dear potatoes,
you know I want to rescue you,

and that I don't want this for you,

but for all that there is behind you."

And in that path,
I put the best I had from my history,

but I also understood
the knowledge I had from university,

had to take part in the dialogue.

And that I didn't have to lose
the affection and culture I had

with all I have learned from education.

So, in this journey with the potatoes,

we decided to come to Buenos Aires.

We left with some farmers -

for us the potatoes mean
culture, life, tradition -

and there we set ourselves
to come here, to the supermarket.

From there they left with the name
"perlas andinas" - Andean pearls -

and we got here and they told us,

"No, Andean pearls has no meaning
for the market.

They will be called "Kechuas Potatoes."

Because the name in English
has a different glamour, another...

Imagine we came,

sort of bringing Viltipoco in each potato,

to appear with the name
"Kechuas Potatoes"?

(Laughter)

It really was a hard, whole new learning
of marketing and commercialization,

but we said, "Well, the potatoes
also helped us to understand

that there must be a dialogue
between different knowledge,

and different logic."

And what was the use
of coming to Buenos Aires?

To see that Andean pearls
or Kechuas Potatoes,

set as the Andean potatoes
in the heart of many

pleasures and palates
of Buenos Aires people,

without losing the identity and logic

of being the Andean potatoes.

Potatoes that are, for example,
in the heart of Martina.

Martina lives in Sianso, and is a farmer

who has 60 potato varieties,
32 corn varieties

and cultivates and works the land;
see her joy.

I've also been taught
that you can succeed in the place

without losing self-esteem,
without losing our culture,

and conquer the big city.

(Applause)

The potatoes carry the yacon with them.

The yacon is an Andean root

that was preserved by only 5 families,

and from these 5 families it recovered.

Today, yacon is a crop
with properties that are good

for those people who can't eat sugar.

It has a type of sugar
called oligofructan,

that is good for those who have problems

eating complex carbohydrates.

And now they have set a cooperative,

where farmers and their families

process there

in Barcena, Jujuy, yacon products.

And yacon, as it is,

through an organization called Slow Food,

became an international bastion,

and it's one of the two bastions
of Argentina.

What did it teach me there?

That even from the most isolated
and small place

we can be successful and come through,

loving who we are,

setting our aim,

without forgetting our customs,
our traditions.

This is Mother Earth for us.

And now, I will talk
of another passion I have.

(Applause)

These potatoes also taught me

that they will only be recreated

as long as we use them and eat them.

Biodiversity only depends on us,

to the extent we consume
the resources we have

and put them on the table.

And from there,

I would like to say

that I want our young people
to keep living in the place they are,

with the resources we have,
with our culture,

but also having opportunities.

And, thus, from the land,

the sowing, the woman,

the fertility,
the place where the farmer sows...

we could get to the supermarket

but also to the hearts
of our agricultural systems

where our own products
are born and recreated.

In this context, we created

the Technical Degree
in Regional Gastronomies and Food Culture.

This degree educates young people,
farmers' children,

where we teach, through cuisine,

the value of our regional gastronomy,

and the value of all
the Prehispanic cooking techniques,

and the present cooking techniques.

Do you know

that if we take part
in a cooking course today,

all the foreign techniques are valid,

but if we participate
with a stone and wood

we are not eligible?

We are going to fight so our gastronomy,

the one that is present in each place
of our loved Argentina,

can be valued,

and from there

we can project our different roots.

The message I want to give you
and the one the potatoes gave me

is the following:

You can build out of diversity.

You can, by keeping your identity,
caress the world;

as the potatoes caress it.

You can create opportunities.

You can be successful in the place

without losing what we have,

the passion for our origin
and the projection to the world.

Thank you very much.

(Applause)