When I saw a pineapple for the first time, celebrations of domestic goods were being held at school. The fruit had a very beautiful and miraculous shape. It was as magnificent as the flowers put in the vase. After that, many imported fruits and vegetables entered our lives. In the past, eating watermelons in the winter was a matter of reputation; colorful tomatoes and capia peppers gave gastronomy a new perspective. Agricultural products with which we were not familiar from distant countries quickly took their place on grocery store shelves.

We started to follow the rise of regional markets while the global frame of mind had not yet reached saturation in the market. With the rise of local and traditional kitchens, we got acquainted with the concept of "global." While the motto "Think Global, Act Local" was shaping gastronomy, the agriculture and tourism sector was redesigning its position in the face of developments.

2019 was noted as a year in which there were many firsts in the tourism industry and gastronomic tourism was on the rise. Countries that are successful in gastronomy tourism started to take a significant share of tourism. The Ministry of Tourism declared 2020 as the year of gastronomy. At this point, agricultural products and their stories became an important advantage in positioning the country's brands. The contribution of the agriculture industry and agricultural policies was crucial to the rise of Peruvian cuisine, the Basque Country culinary school and the northern countries in gastronomy. The example of Gaziantep in our country owes its strength in gastronomy to its unique agricultural wealth in Mesopotamia.

COVID-19's emergence

Local agricultural products, local cuisines, endemic species and traditional cuisines, in particular, were the most important fields of work in gastronomy tourism. The goals of gastronomy tourism in 2020 were explained quite ambitiously. Indeed, while everything was going well, the coronavirus erupted.

The coronavirus has profoundly affected tourism as well as many other industries. Of course, it would not be possible for sectors such as transportation, accommodation, food and beverage, and agriculture, related to tourism, to stay out of the subject. The tourism season will already open at least two months late. International flights have been canceled. Companies that export agricultural products, machinery companies and many other exporters have already revised their export targets.

I wonder if the agricultural sector was affected only by way of producing raw materials for tourism. Undoubtedly, agriculture is no longer just a food-related industry. It is a strategically important area due to many factors such as increasing population rates, unemployment, hunger and carbon footprint. One of the most important exams that future societies will give is nutrition. Access to food is a major area of work for countries around the globe. The future of societies is at risk due to malnutrition. In this sense, each issue related to nutrition within the social state understanding will basically affect the future of the states.

Agricultural policies have started to be as valuable and strategic as the national security policies of the states.

In many ways, the coronavirus outbreak suggests that comments on the reshaping of the agricultural industry are voiced loudly.

What is the reason?

While I was enjoying my salad with quinoa imported from Peru, I thought that the dreams we once had were interrupted by the coronavirus. The idea of exporting our local products to villages at the ends of the earth was quite pleasant and profitable. Would a little virus in our way stop us now? As soon as the doors were closed, we experienced the feeling of famine until the end and emptied the shelves in the markets. We returned to the granaries as in the thousands of years of Hittite tales.

A sentence came to my mind which our teacher in primary school told us proudly: "Turkey is one of seven countries that is agriculturally self-sufficient." It was an issue that has not been talked about for a long time. I remembered how enthusiastically the slogan was voiced in the capitalist economy: "No matter where you produce, the whole world is your market."

That is why the agriculture industry should be reshaped.

National seed production, agricultural technologies, value-added product production, the ratio of agricultural products in exports and the ratio of agricultural products in imports should be planned all over again.

Rethinking reality

Considering that Anatolia is the center of agriculture and seeds, it should be repositioned as an agricultural country. There is no doubt that especially our seed heritage and genetic richness will be our most important advantage when designing the agricultural products of the future. Currently, local seeds in gene banks in Turkey are the most important materials of the seed sector.

In this sense, agriculture and tourism strategy should be worked out together in conjunction with technology to make a difference in agriculture. It is only a matter of making a decision to transform Turkey into a base where value-added foods suitable for future nutrition models can be produced.

For the future of the seed growing, the coronavirus can be turned into an opportunity and the targets of the seed can be reworked.

Just as the Coronavirus Science Board was created by the Ministry of Health, an agricultural board should be created from a similar perspective, in the light of the developments by taking a lesson from this opportunity.

Working subjects

Subjects of consideration should include: restructuring the national seed sector; planning the targets of the seed sector; combining agricultural technologies with the production industry; joint planning of agricultural production and food production areas; and creating the production infrastructure of value-added agricultural products suitable for future nutrition models. Based on the rule that eating the right food is a fundamental human right, re-planning of the issue of access to food in a way that covers the society should also be mulled, as well as solving the financial issues required in the implementation phase of all projects, and planning the cooperation dimensions of the sector with different fields such as defense, technology, trade, health and education ministries.

While the future has not yet arrived, as we have just started to talk about what we will do, we now face the fears of the future. In the near future, cyberattacks, food wars, involuntary migrations and biological wars will frequently arise.

In light of that, taking advantage of the opportunity, soil, seeds and agriculture, which are among the sectors that need to be strong, should be discussed in detail urgently and rebuilt on the long-established heritage. Preparing for the future with the words "Let's plant seeds," "Let's make bread at home," and "Let's not eat tomatoes grown with so-called Israeli seeds" will certainly not be a solution for getting rid of possible future virus outbreaks and economic crises.

Instead of making short-term plans for export items that China has supplied in the past but are now vacant, we should pursue far-from-competitive agricultural production in the long run.

*Writer, expert on bread making