1. Tell us a bit about yourself.
My name is Loubie Rusch, a resident of Cape Town in the Western Cape, where winter brings rain and summer brings heat and dryness. I am someone who values independence and has chosen to carve my path in life, prioritizing my beliefs over traditional career paths and following the things that I love.
2. What work do you do?
As an advocate for local, indigenous foods from the winter rainfall region of the Western Cape, I am dedicated to shedding light on these lesser-known culinary treasures. These unique foods are not commonly found in our current food system, making it my mission to raise awareness about their existence and potential.
Through my work, I aim to educate others on how to incorporate these ingredients into their diets, how to cultivate them sustainably, and how to support local growers in producing them. I am passionate about preserving and expanding our knowledge of these foods, whether through collaborations with researchers or by engaging with individuals who may be unfamiliar with them or have deep-rooted family traditions surrounding them.
By delving into aspects such as their nutritional benefits and cultivation techniques, we can not only honor their historical significance but also ensure their continued presence and appreciation in our culinary and ecological landscape.
3. How long have you been in the industry?
In my role as an activist and change-maker, I operate across a diverse spectrum of industries, making it challenging to pinpoint a single industry that encapsulates my work. To effect meaningful change, I collaborate with stakeholders from various sectors, including cooks in the food and beverage industry, supply chain businesses, farmers, researchers, and traditional knowledge holders.
While my work spans multiple industries, my primary focus lies in driving transformative change. This involves catalyzing change within the food industry, as well as influencing the ecology industry and beyond. My approach is characterized by its broad reach and the interconnected nature of the industries I engage with, reflecting a holistic strategy aimed at fostering positive change across different sectors.
4. Has your work always been your passion? Tell us why.
Throughout the first thirty years of my career, I worked as a landscape designer in the landscape industry, where I focused on using local, indigenous ornamental plants. Now, my work revolves around local indigenous edible plants. It has always been my passion to understand and work with local plants. During my time in the landscape industry, I prioritized using plants native to the landscapes we were working with. This was important for several reasons: it promoted biodiversity, as these plants are adapted to the local environment, and it was also an eco-friendly choice as these plants require less water.
They are also exquisitely beautiful and we are in Africa so adopting African approaches in Africa is important relative to approaches where we seek our precedent from the northern hemisphere—so people want English gardens or that kind of thing, and my focus has always been to root what I do on this continent, and particularly in our little bottom corner of this continent where we’ve got specific climatic conditions and social and ecological conditions that we should be working with, in terms of a shift to working with edible plants, local, Indigenous edible plants.
Food has always been a passion of mine, so when I began to work with the Western Cape’s edibles, that was responding to my love for food and my enjoyment of experimenting with new ingredients and giving them to people to taste and enjoy and discover as well, and to encourage them to also try working with them. So yes from when I started in about 2010 to work with indigenous foods, people always comment when I speak or run workshops that I am very passionate about this and I definitely will remain so for the rest of my life.
5. Being a woman in the industry – what does it take?
In my work, I collaborate across different fields as a woman. For instance, in the realm of change agents, there are many women like me. Similarly, when I engage with small-scale growers, I find that there are also numerous women in this sector. In academia, where I often collaborate with academics, there is a significant presence of women.
While the landscape varies when working with businesses, I have come across many women-owned businesses. I have not faced significant sexism in my experiences, which could be attributed to my determined nature and strong personality. In industries like building and architecture, particularly on construction sites, the male-dominated environment can pose challenges. However, overall, I have been fortunate to work in environments where gender issues have not been prevalent.
6. What has been the most difficult challenge of your career?
Given the nature of my work in a field that is relatively unexplored and lacks traditional job opportunities, I have had to navigate a unique career path. In this innovative space, creating opportunities and securing income has been a significant challenge. Transitioning my work towards establishing a local wild food hub as an innovation center at the sustainability institute has presented additional hurdles, particularly in terms of securing funding and support.
Initially, garnering interest and financial backing was a daunting task, but over time, as the importance of foraging and connecting with local environments has gained recognition, engaging with funders and researchers has become somewhat easier. Despite the evolving landscape, forging a path of innovation remains a continuous challenge, one that I anticipated and embraced from the outset.
7. What advice do you have for other women in your industry?
In this context, I would like to emphasize the importance of involving women in specific industries to drive the reintroduction of local, indigenous foods into our daily lives. Encouraging women farmers to embrace these foods, incorporate them into their lifestyles, and share their knowledge with others is crucial for creating momentum in this movement.
To women researchers, I would suggest exploring the variety of local indigenous foods available to us, understanding how to cultivate them, and recognizing their nutritional value. By taking these steps, we not only address social and economic challenges such as unemployment and loss of local traditions but also contribute to solving ecological issues. By cultivating foods that are native to our landscape, we can better preserve and care for our environment.
8. Plans for the future?
I am committed to continuing my work under the brand name of Making Kos, where I focus on exploring the utilization of local indigenous foods and sharing my discoveries with others. Additionally, in my role as the lead coordinator of the Local Wild Food Hub at the Sustainability Institute, I am dedicated to promoting the reintegration of indigenous foods into various aspects of our lives, agriculture, economies, and food traditions.
I aim to engage and collaborate with like-minded individuals to further this cause. By working within our community of practice, we strive to gain a comprehensive understanding of the implications involved in this endeavor and identify pathways to incorporate these foods into everyday consumption, including children’s feeding programs and beyond.
As we look towards the future, I remain adaptable and responsive to the evolving landscape of the indigenous food scene, ensuring that our focus aligns with the field’s development stage and needs.
9. Why is Food Indaba important and what do you hope to bring to the table?
Food Indaba serves as a vital platform for raising awareness and sparking conversations on topics that may not typically engage everyday individuals. By showcasing the work of activists, change makers, and innovators, it provides the public with access to discussions and locations that are often overlooked or inaccessible.
This focused platform sheds light on complex issues and urgent questions that innovators and activists are addressing. Through workshops like the upcoming one at the sustainability institute, which includes the Green Cafe featuring meals made with indigenous ingredients grown on-site, we aim to highlight a lesser-known sector of the food industry.
By introducing people to these resilient and delicious foods that have been part of our landscape for millennia, we hope to inspire individuals to incorporate them into their daily meals, whether by growing, purchasing, or consuming them. This initiative seeks to revive our connection with these native foods and encourage their widespread adoption.
