Socially Responsible Unique Cinnamon for Connoisseurs
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brief presentation of cinnamon for connoisseurs that is socially responsible and UNIQUE in the world from Culinary Truths.
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Socially Responsible Unique Cinnamon for Connoisseurs
- 1. Culinary Truth’s Cinnamon by Capital for the Marginalized Ltd. December, 2010 © reserved
- 2. Sri Lanka topographical Map, brown high, green jungle or shrub; showing Matara city, capital of Matara District
- 3. A Traditional Cinnamon Caste Worker and Family
- 4. Traditional worker – child labor
- 5. Traditional workers peeling cinnamon – need child labor
- 6. Another place – traditional worker peeling off inner bark (permanent ‘V’ observed between toes of older workers)
- 7. Traditional workers stuff the cinnamon sticks (semi dried roll with pieces)
- 8. Traditional SULFUR Fumigation of rolled cinnamon (closed chamber process continues till all the cinnamon is yellow in color – open air restores original color in about 3 months)
- 9. The long & big bundles inside Trader’s store for export (Sizing and Mixing is done outside Sri Lanka)
- 10. EU Food standard Factory in Growing Fields that supplies Culinary Truths Solely
- 11. University designed tool and workbenches used when removing outer bark
- 12. Women factory workers can beat the bark removed branch prior to peeling inner bark using Prof Weerasinghe’s social innovation award winning mechanical invention
- 13. Historic FIRST of hygienic healthy factory produced long unstuffed cinnamon peel of still fresh sap-wet inner bark just hours from cutting in field
- 14. Drying is done immediately in the factory
- 15. Produced by Happy Workers; here having a tea break on company time
- 16. Happy Workers wave goodbye to interested visitor team to their factory
- 17. Packaging on estate factory early manufacture by Culinary Truths
- 18. Early Packaging Culinary Truths on estate site
Editor's Notes
- The botanically identified Cinnamon grows only in Sri Lanka. You can identify it when buying as it is the cinnamon that comes like a rolled stick or its pieces. In ancient times, Cinnamon made Sri Lanka rich and famous. It was a trading country in the heart of trading sea routes in Asia. Cinnamon was then a product harvested from thick wet wild jungles by people living nearby. It was used sparingly as a culinary and medical substance. European conquerors entered the Indian Ocean seeking spices and soon landed in Sri Lanka. The initial controllers of the cinnamon trade were the Portuguese, who however did not interfere with the production process of gathering from the jungle. In the 16th Century the Dutch took over the seaboard of Sri Lanka. They established a monopoly by their company and established a ferocious system of plantation agriculture in cinnamon. It was a harsh serf-like regime where the punishment for uprooting a tree or cutting a branch except for the Dutch Company was death by execution. Other cinnamon related punishments were of a similar order. In Indonesia, also a Dutch colony, the spice cassia was grown. China was the original source. Its flavor, especially when no longer fresh, resembles cinnamon. The Dutch Company began the now widespread practice of mixing cinnamon and cassia and also liberal and heavy use of this commercial cinnamon in culinary preparations. Price was lowered and volume increased in retail commerce. In Sri Lanka, this system created low oppressive prices that kept the villagers poor and work conditions that were unhealthy to the workers. This in turn made an underclass of the workers specialized in processing cinnamon and ostracized them from the rest of society. For who would want to work in the prevalent conditions? So Cinnamon became a monopoly of the Dutch company carried out by a marginalized community of workers. When the British replaced the Dutch, following European wars, the cinnamon system continued. In 1832, at the Emancipation from Slavery in the British Empire, the British ended the Cinnamon Monopoly, thereby washing their hands of the matter. Over time the trade grew smaller as the country’s economy grew and diversified. Although Sri Lanka became independent in 1948 and a Republic in 1971, its economy emerged much more slowly from neo-colonial structures in its internationally traded commodities. Cinnamon being a very small item of trade in the modern world, it has remained structurally the same till now. That is, it is a marginalized industry with ostracized and cruelly treated marginalized workers. The test is that no worker wants his or her children to be cinnamon workers. Similarly few middle class land-owners see a future in their industry, despite State concessions and finance benefits. Wealthy businesses in Cinnamon are traders and middlemen.
- The object of the project is to liberate the workers in Cinnamon by bringing them and their work into the mainstream of the economy and modern trade. The following are the features of this project.A team of students led by Prof. Weerasinghe of the University of Ruhunu in Sri Lanka have developed a new factory based methodology for the processing of cinnamon. Its core is a purely mechanical, not electric, device which replaces the hard labor of beating off the bark of cinnamon branches. It also introduces a work-station that is hygienic and protective of health replacing the dirty squalor and worker injurious process stations of the past. The new process also eliminates the need to use any chemicals (Sulfur is still used by others). (Prof Weerasinghe is in the process of being recognized for an Award by Social Entrepreneur organizations in USA for his original work.)Using this modern process the first factory has been built. This was done with German technical assistance so as to be compliant with German and EU food processing standards. In this factory there is full hygiene and no harm to the workers. (The old process caused permanent limbs distortion and internal medical problems) It also keeps the cinnamon fresh and more flavorful and completely natural. This factory is in a cinnamon growing estate and has a zero carbon footprint and is fully Green. Cinnamon is one of the best antioxidants and one of the New York Times 12 best health foods in the world. In international trade, cinnamon is still legally mixed with cassia, a tougher product from China or Indonesia. It does not have the exact same flavor and is duller as a spice. Cassia unfortunately has a carcinogenic element. We are fighting this through our labeling. From the workers view point, the new system enables women to enter the cinnamon work force for the first time and so enables a more stable income for working families in the cinnamon areas. It also ends ill health and increases productivity. The worker works in a fixed time factory environment though located in the rural countryside. The result is that our workers are not ostracized but actually love their new jobs. They are now in the labor market and the economic mainstream.
- Our Cinnamon is more flavorful, fresh and strongly aromatic.Our Cinnamon is of the best quality; i.e., not mixed with non –cinnamons as cassia, from the best growing areas of pure cinnamon,harvested at the best time for the area,packed in best flavor sealing small packets.Therefore cooks may use it more sparingly and achieve greater taste effects than with the usual cinnamon in trade. Buyers can be pleased that their purchase will end a harsh oppressive colonial era of oppression for those who are producing what they buy.For those new to Pure Cinnamon, it is an elegant spice that gives a distinctive aroma and flavor, it is also a spice that releases the appetite and helps kids and children to consume more of what is good for them. We are also trying to bring the product direct to the buyers, minimizing middlemen involved and eliminating traders and brokers. So although we shall provide much more income to producers, we can minimize if any rise in retail price.
- In North America. The bulk of what is sold as cinnamon in Supermarkets and food stores is actually Cassia. The following are the features of Cassia.It is very much heavier than Cinnamon. It is an outer bark, whereas Cinnamon is a delicate inner bark. The volume of 20 gm of Cinnamon is three or four times the volume of 20 gm of Cassia. So in sheer quantity, the cinnamon buyer is getting a bargain. (Current end user pricing is the same in reputable brands.)Cassia is a rougher and duller spice than Cinnamon though of the same sort. Cassia and Cinnamon are brought in through an organized trade where the cinnamon is not handled hygienically at point of manufacture. The same is true of cassia. In the case of Cinnamon this means that it must be fumigated with sulphur prior to export from the producer country to meet health standards. Then it must be allowed to stay in warehousing for at least three months prior to packing so as to not carry the sulphur. Thereafter it is exported in bulk and packed elsewhere. Owing to the time and exposure, the spice loses a lot of its aroma and freshness. In our case we have hygienic and natural processes where no sulphur or any other chemical is involved. We pack on the estate. We can airfreight. This means that our product is much fresher and aromatic.Cassia is known to have substantial amounts of Coumerin a known carcinogen. Whereas Cinnamon has negligible amounts of this and is a medically recommended foodstuff in Western Europe.Cassia is very hard, while cinnamon is flexible and easy to break. This is useful for any cooking use and also for grinding into powder in the retail pack’s built in grinder.