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After traveling the world, I’m proud of my experiences as well as what I’ve learned along the way. Now I’m a vegetarian officially.
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The vegan food trend – a finding from global tourism:
Lush, densely forested Kerala, the exuberantly green south Indian state sometimes called “God’s own country”, is exactly the kind of place you would expect to produce a superfood: the jackfruit. Covered in spikes and emitting a stench of rotting onions, jackfruit can balloon to an ungainly 45kg, and its inside is coated in a thick gum that stains axes, machetes or whatever heavy-duty tool is employed to attack its leathery shell.
Thousands of miles from this tropical forest habitat, in food trucks in Los Angeles, vegan eateries in London, and now even at Pizza Hut, jackfruit consumption is surging among diners looking for an ethical alternative to meat. In India, where the fruit originated, that demand is helping to drive a renaissance for a plant that only five years ago was still regarded as a backyard nuisance. “They would fall from trees and rot, gathering flies,” said James Joseph, a jackfruit entrepreneur. “People would stack them outside their houses with a sign saying ‘Please take this away’.”
From a starting point of virtually zero, jackfruit exports, including to the US, Europe and Britain, grew to 500 tonnes last year, and could reach 800 tonnes by the end of 2019, according to Kerala’s agriculture minister, VS Sunil Kumar. “The vegan trend in western countries will help [jackfruit farmers] tap a booming global market,” he said.
Jackfruit, or chakka in the local language, Malayalam, has flourished in Kerala for thousands of years. Even today, there are no jackfruit orchards in the state; trees grow wild on roadsides and in forests. For the past 25 years, Thomas has roved the state, trying to document every variety. “I taste it both green and ripe,” he said. His reputation is now such that people invite him to their properties, hoping he will include their jackfruit in a massive seed depository he is assembling. Nine in 10 samples are rejected. “Sometimes it can provoke an angry reaction,” he said.
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Future potential:
Food researchers are trumpeting the potential for jackfruit to become a staple crop on a warming planet. “The most significant feature about jackfruit is that it’s huge. It is one of the biggest tree fruits in the world,” said Danielle Nierenberg, president of the Food Tank, a Washington DC-based food study institute. “It’s large enough that families can eat one fruit for a long time. It takes relatively little care, doesn’t need a lot of irrigation and is resilient to pests and disease. So, if we’re thinking of foods for the future, jackfruit is what we should be thinking about.”
In May 2018, the Kerala government declared jackfruit the state’s official fruit, with the winning slogan: “Jackfruit is the best fruit. Its fruit has innumerable good qualities.” It is now being processed into ice-cream, crisps and juices. One of those leading that research is entrepreneur James Joseph. He is a former Microsoft executive but, like Thomas and Padre, has become a big fan of the fruit.
Jackfruit has multiple health benefits. Westerners who have travelled the world mostly love jackfruit for its ability to mimic pulled pork on tacos, or ham slices on a pizza. “That would be a crime to do in India,” Joseph says. “This is a country with a massive protein deficiency.” Instead, he promotes jackfruit’s potential to tackle a major public health crisis. Kerala is India’s best-educated state and one of its most prosperous. As it has grown richer, it has traded the diseases of scarcity for those of abundance: one in two households in the state include someone suffering from diabetes. Major culprits are the fistfuls of rice or oily flatbreads that accompany virtually every traditional meal, Joseph says. “I realized that one cup of jackfruit has 40% less carbohydrate than a cup of rice, and four times the fiber,” he says. You are eating a green fruit that behaves like bread.”
“Global tourism is so eye-opening.”
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