Coca Talks - Juan Piñacué / What are the challenges and opportunities for indigenous communities who use coca ancestrally?
University of the Andes, Future Coca 2024, Bogotá, Colombia
Cultural Heritage and Spirit
Juan leads Coca Nasa, an indigenous company founded in 1995 in the Nasa Reservation of Calderas, Tierradentro Region, Cauca. For almost three decades, his family has been involved in important educational and awareness-raising efforts about the medicinal and nutritional uses of coca, its history, and its significance for indigenous peoples, as well as the responsible and conscious industrialization of it.
Coca Talks - Charles Michel. Coca Leaf: the most powerful food on earth?
Basque Culinary Center 2024, San Sebastian, España
After training in classical fine-dining in Europe, he returned to Colombia to explore the country's gastronomic and cultural potential. He conducted research in experimental psychology at the University of Oxford, where he published over 15 articles in academic journals.
Coca Talks - Carmen Posada, The meaning of the Coca Leaf.
Basque Culinary Center 2024, San Sebastian, España
Carmen believes food is the transversal axis of our lives, intersecting with politics, economics, nature, the familiar and the intimate. Using journalism and storydoing as tools for social transformation, she tells the intertwined stories between what we eat and the different spheres of society. Carmen is also a coca leaf advocate. She created the Futuro Coca movement, a collective that seeks to reclaim the coca leaf's value through gastronomy, art, and culture.
Coca Talks - Verónica Akle | What do we know about coca from science?
University of the Andes, Future Coca 2023, Bogotá, Colombia
With a PhD in Anatomy and Neuroscience, Verónica investigates the role of natural psycho-stimulants in physiology and behavior, especially as therapeutic alternatives in conditions of chronic stress and trauma in human and animal populations. She will share insights into the medicinal potential of coca, her research hypotheses involving coca on zebrafish, and the legal barriers to investigating the potential of the coca leaf.
Coca Talks - Laura Arciniegas, Coca Leaf Recipes as Blueprints for Social Change
Basque Culinary Center 2024, San Sebastian, España
Laura works on articulating the material and symbolic dimensions of food to understand social realities related to culture, health, and sustainability. Alongside Los Andes University and OSF, she is currently investigating the social significance of the coca leaf in Colombian cuisine.
Coca Talks - Eduardo Martinez / What is the gastronomic potential of coca?
University of the Andes, Future Coca 2024, Bogotá, Colombia
Executive Chef and founder of Minimal restaurant. Agricultural engineer from the National University. A native of Bogotá. Since 2000, he has dedicated himself to researching traditional ingredients and preparations, hand in hand with various communities, which he uses as inspiration in designing dishes for the restaurant. He is a champion and promoter of family farming, tradition bearers, and Colombian gastronomic culture.
Coca Talks - Martín Santos / Lessons from Cannabis and Opportunities for Coca
University of the Andes, Future Coca 2024, Bogotá, Colombia
Martín Santos is currently the director and founder of Metódica Consulting, a firm that designs and executes public-private partnership projects. He is also the Latin America representative of K2 Integrity, a company dedicated to risk management in infrastructure, compliance, and cybersecurity projects.