Reunión ICAF en Bilbao

Dear Colleagues,

You can find here the minutes from our last ICAF meeting, on March 12th and within the International ICAF Congress held in Bilbao (Spain).

During the congress the last ICAF publication was officially presented: Food, Imaginaries and Cultural Frontiers. Essays in Honour of Helen Macbeth (Guadalajara, Estudios del Hombre, 2009), in an emotional session in honour of Helen Macbeth.

After that followed the ICAF meeting, where the different members with responsibilities, attending the Congress, presented the latest news about our association.

A) New International representatives:

AFRICA: After Cameroon and Morocco, ICAF has 2 new National representatives in this continent: Republic of Congo and the Uganda-Rwanda-Burundi Team.

AMERICA: Together with Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile and Mexico, Peru is now starting their activities.

ASIA: New representations are starting their activities in India and Japan

EUROPE: The ICAF team in Sweden-Scandinavia is already working, and they have promised a new ICAF Congress in Sweden in 2011.
Jana Parizkova has retired from the Czechian chair and now Martina Vlkova is the ICAF Representative in the Czech Republic.
After the Meeting in Bilbao, ICAF-Spain has incorporated several new members. It is particularly relevant that ICAF-Spain has now, and for the first time, 2 new teams working in the Basque Country and in Madrid.

B) Future ICAF Conferences planned

• 30th ICAF Meeting: July 2010, Food habits and food problems in the Middle East and in the Mediterranean area, within the World Congress for Middle Eastern Studies (WOCMES), Bellaterra (Catalonia, Spain) (July 19th-24th)
• 31st ICAF Meeting. 2011. Food and Love. Stockholm (Sweden).

C) Future ICAF Books and publications:

• Hubert, A. and Ávila, R. (eds) La Comida de los Puertos, Guadalajara: Estudios del Hombre.
• Macbeth, H. and Schiefenhövel, W. (eds.) Liquid Bread: images and usages of beer in cross-cultural perspective, Oxford: Berghahn.
• Garine, Igor. Different articles by Igor de Garine compiled by R. Ávila. Guadalajara: Estudios del Hombre.
• Ávila, R. Food and Gender. Guadalajara: Estudios del Hombre.
• Aubaile-Sallenave, F. (ed.) Contribution of Biodiversity to Food and Nutrition, Paris, Musée d’Histoire Naturelle
• Matala, A et al. (eds.) 2009 Fish and Seafood: Anthropological and Nutritional Perspectives, Crete
• Rebato, E., Medina, F. X., Sánchez, I. and Salces, I. (eds). Alimentación y Globalización/Food and Globalisation. Zainak, Cuadernos de Sección de Antropología. San Sebastián, Eusko Ikaskuntza.


After all this relevant information, the most important anouncement was when our International President, Prof. Igor de Garine, announced his resignation due to personal and health reasons. Unfortunately, this decision, as Prof. de Garine said, cannot be reversed. After that moment, a candidature process was opened. Nevertheless, and having in mind finding the most relevant profile for the International Presidency of ICAF, the ICAF meeting in Bilbao proposed a consensus candidate supported by the members present in the regular ICAF meeting and in the extraordinary ICAF meeting after the Congress.
The result of this consensus was to ask Helen Macbeth to accept the candidacy to the ICAF presidency, and she accepted the petition, with the support also of the majority of the European representatives and many Americans. Since this meeting ICAF Europe has sought the advice of representatives from some other European and American national representatives, who are in agreement.