National Bitter Melon Council (www.bittermelon.org) explores the idea of participation in social structure as both a performance practice and research by creating a typical agricultural product promoting entity, e.g. the National Dairy Council, in an unlikely setting and for a unlikely fruit, i.e. Bitter Melon. This is the first entity ever created for and about Bitter Melon, and the Council is created virtually, ostensibly, to increase the conceptual and actual use of Bitter Melon (Momordica charantia) in the U.S.
Despite its origins in tropical areas, including parts of the Amazon, east Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean, this fruit/object (looks like a large cucumber with bumps and with bitter flavor) is grown in great quantity in the South End by mostly BSCG Asian gardeners. It is cultivated throughout many parts of Asia and Latin America as a food and as medicine.
As much as this project is about investigating the existing model of agricultural product councils without contempt, it is an abstract use of an object as a sign and signifier for critical dialogues. The Council’s ultimate goal is the promotion of the concept of this unfamiliar object that functions and acts as a spark – a seed – for inspiration, for conversation, and for investigation. The two significant activities of the Council in its first year will include, Bitter Melon Event and Taste-Testing BitterSweet Event.
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