Jon Subinas[1]
Food security is commonly understood as a condition in which there is adequate access to food to sustain a healthy life. However, within Indigenous communities, food is deeply intertwined with cultural dimensions, encompassing the significance of values, traditions, and ancestral knowledge in the production, distribution, and consumption of food.
This cultural dimension is frequently overlooked, resulting in a lack of recognition and the perpetuation of deficit-based narratives that focus solely on the food shortages experienced by these communities, without acknowledging their contributions.
A content analysis of public documents on Food and Nutritional Security (FNS), conducted under the project “Traditional Ecological Knowledge for Food and Nutritional Security: Innovation and Conservation”—funded by the IDRC-CSUCA consortium—has revealed findings that replicate this issue in the Ngäbe Buglé Comarca.
Accordingly, it is essential to develop policies that recognize and validate traditional food systems, not only as cultural and symbolic expressions but also as economic and political assets. Such recognition offers a pathway for the sustainable development of Indigenous communities and promotes a redefined relationship with the peoples inhabiting ancestral territories.
Deficit-based discourses, drawing on the terminology of American psychologist K.J. Gergen, position Indigenous populations in a state of perpetual subalternity, thereby hindering the formulation of public policies that transcend paternalistic or welfare-oriented approaches.
This framework strips communities of agency, casting them merely as passive recipients of aid—that is, as subjects of lack and deprivation.
Indigenous territories in Panama face numerous material hardships and the highest levels of food insecurity in the country.
Nevertheless, they also possess ancestral food practices that are nutritious, ecologically sustainable, and culturally appropriate—practices that are increasingly threatened by dominant food systems and commercial chains promoting the consumption of processed, sugary, and high-fat foods.
The population of the Ngäbe Buglé Comarca primarily depends on subsistence agriculture, embedded in an economy that is not consistently mediated by formal monetary exchange.
Furthermore, these communities have access to public goods that are not easily monetizable, such as collective land (granted through flexible usufruct arrangements by the state), as well as traditional knowledge and community-based ways of life.
Failing to account for these assets in economic and policy frameworks—and focusing exclusively on deficits and deprivations—results in a reductive view of these populations, ignoring their capacities, contributions, and potential.
There are noteworthy local initiatives aimed at preserving and revitalizing traditional and Indigenous food systems, where women play a central role.
While some receive support from entrepreneurs, these efforts should be adequately backed and facilitated by public institutions.
Among these initiatives is “Ari Ugüenrien” (which means “let’s cook together” in Ngäbere), led by women in the Río Caña community, Kusapín district. Its aim is to recover ancestral knowledge and elevate the value of local ingredients. Another project, “Kätogwä bro nire – Kätogwä bro deme” (“The forests are alive – The forests are sacred” in Ngäbere), is active in the communities of Bababotdä,
Öbabitdi, and Sebliti. It promotes the cultivation of native beans in secondary forests using innovative techniques that exclude fungicides, herbicides, and insecticides, thereby enhancing ecological sustainability and food security.
The study also found that, although Ngäbe gastronomy is not formally recognized within Panama, it has attracted the interest and support of renowned national and international chefs.
Two prominent examples include the acclaimed Maito restaurant in Panama City and the internationally recognized Can Roca restaurant in Girona, Spain. The latter, awarded multiple Michelin stars and known for its commitment to research and innovation, has studied the properties and quality of organic Ngäbe cacao.
Such expert recognition within the culinary arts should be mirrored in national food policies.
It is crucial to avoid reinforcing portrayals of Indigenous cultures solely through a lens of deficiency—defined exclusively by their limitations and needs. Equally, idealized representations that romanticize Indigenous communities as inherently virtuous, original, or “natural” must also be avoided.
In contrast to dominant narratives that emphasize shortcomings and dependencies, Indigenous communities also possess valuable knowledge, practices, and resources that offer viable solutions and alternatives both within their local contexts and in broader societal frameworks.
[1] PhD in Sociology and Anthropology, currently a researcher at the International Center for Political and Social Studies (CIEPS), with experience in applied social research, both qualitative and quantitative, and coordinator of CIEPS surveys