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84 Panel 23. With globalization comes modern technology. Theopen society and western, modern and scientificallymindedcultures have been widely accepted as superior.Traditional culture is looked down upon as inferior,old-fashioned. Young modern people are ashamed toconnect to “ancient” subjects. New lifestyles makewestern foods popular. There is heavy promotion ofbranded international fast foods.Present generations are forgetting their traditionalfood. Accumulated wisdom is being lost. One result ismore diabetes. Some people still recall the healthy foodthey ate when young but they do not know how tocook it.4. The government should focus more on maintainingtraditional knowledge. Many teaching departmentsconcerning food and cooking promote domestic foods,but do not teach the in-depth local wisdom behindeach ingredient or ideas about healthcare in relation toindividual foods. In fact, teachers and educationaldepartments can do much to promote the wisdom oflocal recipes. Students from rural or remote areas couldbe encouraged to ask their parents and grandparentsfor local wisdom and the schools could collect suchinformation. In this way a part of local wisdom couldbe kept alive. Three educational institutes promised tofollow up this idea after I held conversations with keypersonnel there. Other agencies involved in thedevelopment and promotion of knowledge said theywould do similar.Minor explanations for why local food has lost itspopularity among modern Indonesian peoples,especially urbanities, include;5. Many urban Indonesians have married outside theirown ethnicity and have adapted new lifestyles. Suchfamilies consume more western foods and smalleramounts of food. Many people I interviewed said localfood involved more trouble as there are a lot ofingredients, more preparation time, and challengespreparing it in modern kitchens. They felt that if youwanted to eat something local it was best to go to arestaurant or a supermarket.6. Medan city still has some shops that help promotethe cooking of local food. The shops have grindingmachines for local food ingredients. Customers canbuy fresh ingredients such as pepper, onion, garlic,pepper and avoid having to grind them at home.Fresh instant ingredients shop in Medan.Local foods are considered healthy, since they originatelocally and are derived from natural sources. But sincethe world has become a “global village,” the questionmust be asked, is there any place left that is safe, secureand healthy, since production systems have beenmoving to a model based on capitalism and worldmarkets.The problems facing local wisdom and food, and theutilization of indigenous medicinal vegetables forhealth care, are seen in many traditional societies intransition, including ASEAN countries. Folk wisdomis disappearing. How can it withstand the invadingcultural and economic globalization?Some local vegetables found in Carrefour supermarket.Reform of the education system is one solution. Thiscould be on two levels.1. Standard and formal education; apply scientificknowledge to improve acceptance of folk wisdom.2. Community education; apply appropriateanthropological theories for the sustainabledevelopment of folk wisdom.This writer suggests that a synthesis of tradition andmodernity can and must be found. We in the ASEANcommunity — and we in the API network - sharesimilar cultural backgrounds and traditionalfoundations from which we can meet the challenges ofglobalization with strong responses.The Work of the 2010/2011 API Fellows