Ossigeno #9

that counts magnesium, phosphorus, zinc, copper, manganese, vitamin E), cultivated since 1846, a year before the modest town of Marthasville changed its name to Atlanta and began to expand and grow, as the cultivation of pecan nut did. The difficult rise to power of pecan nut in Georgia sounds almost like a paradox, considering its political career over the past hundred years or so. In 1919, the 36th legislature in Texas elected it tree of the state, and so did in 2001 its fruit as official health nut. Already official nut of other important states of the Union, such as Alabama since 1982 and Arkansas since 2009, from a subject with such a brilliant career, which seems to project it into the ranks of the American Senate, a bipartisan consensus would have been expected within the Georgia State Assembly, and instead it has been barely avoided a Waterloo. So, are all those positions covered with integrity voidable by a purely lexical question or – as some say – are them mere moot points? And what shadows cast over this story the endorsement of the peanut, the state's official cultivation itself known as nut, but a legume in the botanical registry? «No one is so courageous as not to be disconcerted by the suddenness of one circumstance», the candidate seems to have exclaimed citing Caesar’s De Bello Gallico, in the shadow of the golden dome of the Georgia State Capitol in Atlanta. However, the Senate's favor was obtained after months of discussions and the bill, waiting to be examined by the House, has been temporarily set aside for obvious reasons of health priority occurred in the current year. If the bill makes it through, as is hoped, it might give encouragement to the sector that has been suffering for a couple of years from the consequences of Hurricane Michael and competition from Mexican cousins. During this kind of spiritual retreat before returning to the seats of the House, the one the sympathizers call the candidate that puts "nut" In "nutritious" retraces its own history, while tiding its own medal collection up. A story that begins, as far as we are concerned, from the anthropization of the North American continent, when the pecan nut, called pecanes by the Native Americans, represented – especially during the winter months – a basic element of these peoples’ diet, who limited themselves to pick the fruits from spontaneously grown plants. With them they were then used to prepare a fermented drink called powcohicora. It has gone from harvesting in nature to systematic cultivation during the coexistence between Natives and Europeans, who soon made it an element of their own tradition too, especially from a culinary point of view. Everyone is able to make promises, but pecan nut has demonstrated, through four separate studies, that if consumed regularly it can significantly reduce the risk of developing heart disease; furthermore, a large-scale study, which involved 76,464 female and 42,498 male volunteers, showed that consumers of pecans weigh less than those who do not consume them, thus dispelling the myth that this food makes you fat and indirectly confirming its earned superfood medal. desertification and hope It would seem an oxymoron, but even in the city in the forest the desert silently expands. The so-called food deserts are areas characterized by a condition of chronic lack of access to fresh fruit and vegetables, and in general to healthy food, as well as lack of means of transport that allow to reach sources of supply for these products. The new nomads of food deserts, often without a personal means of transport, are forced to fall back on the public transport service and this is how they sometimes take a whole day, due to frequent changes, to be able to buy fresh food. It is estimated that there are more than thirty-five food deserts within the perimeter of the Atlanta metropolitan area, while within the same areas there is no shortage of temptations for fast food restaurants and liquor stores, with the consequence that the local population tends to have a definitely unhealthy diet. As a result of this phenomenon, compared to residents of other areas, these subjects have a ten years shorter average life expectancy and they are more exposed to cardiovascular illnesses, diabetes, heart attack. An unedifying reality, but one that a push from below is trying to subvert; a force that seems to constantly nourish the desire for fairness coming from the citizens of Atlanta, pushing them to be protagonists of their own history rather than passive extras in a script written by others. As with natural deserts, to stop the expansion of economic and geographical ones, the best embankment that can be built is a green wall. Among those who have taken the construction of these embankments as a mission, there is Community Foodscapes, a social venture that operates in the city with the aim of emancipating local communities and teaching how to produce fruit and vegetables right there where 155

RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NDUzNDc=