5 - Edible Nettle Foodscape: A Case Study of Nepal

Nettles have not only been used as food, fiber, or medicine by peoples around the world, but have also been used in rituals and, more recently, as a healthy food. This study will look at how nettles, a plant connected with the locality of a mountain community, came to be seen as a contemporary "superfood" among urban people in Nepal. In the local context, nettles are regarded as an emergency plant that substitutes for other crops. This does not imply, however, that nettles are exclusively consumed in lack of other food sources. Villagers in Gorkha claim, “We ate kole (millet porridge) and sisnu (nettle) in times of poverty when we could not get crops. People in the past were strong and healthy and did not get sick. That is because they had sisnu.” This narrative links the sisnu, a plant that thrives in the wild even when crops do not,  to the nature of the villagers themselves, who endure hardship and the poor conditions in the mountain. It is a symbolic food that represents the fortitude needed to survive rural life. But even in the area, where the current staple food, rice, would be difficult to grow due to geo-climatic constraints, the villagers serve rice to their visitors and never include sisnu in their meals. Now this plant is eaten as a regular source of nutrients in urban settings. Regarding these concerns, the paper considers how place-ness, the industrial food system, and ethical practice play in the agency of nettles.