CPD Blog Contributor and MPD Alumnus (2010) Paul Rockower was recently quoted in The Indianapolis Star on Thai gastrodiplomacy.

With health authorities in mainland China fighting a war on food safety violators, a food scandal across the Taiwan Strait has claimed an iconic victim: the night market. Among the many contentious markers of “true” Taiwanese-ness, a fondness for night markets is that rare characteristic that unifies nearly all the island’s residents.

The Thai government has been educating diners about its country's cuisine for years. In fact, an initiative called Global Thai was launched in 2002 to encourage an appreciation for Thai cuisine around the world.

Rumor of a European vegetable conspiracy, the suggestion that the E. coli epidemic was deliberately engineered to hurt Spanish and/or other European farmers thereby boosting their own agricultural sector, is the direct result of the EU's distorted agricultural policy.

The training series features culinary demonstrations, lectures and field trips designed to expose the visiting chefs to the traditions of Louisianan, Southern Soul, Latin American, Native American and Appalachian cuisines, as well as Cajun culture.

It is often been said that no diplomacy is complete without a good measure of food diplomacy. At the ongoing India-Africa summit here, India threw a lunch comprising mouth-watering vegetarian and non-vegetarian delicacies to 15 heads of state and other delegates whose food habits are as exotic as it could get.

At the heart of public diplomacy is a commitment on the part of nation-states to open up, reach out and engage people globally. People are the ultimate beneficiaries of all public diplomacy efforts being made by a few key countries.

Gov. Bob McDonnell is touting the virtues of Virginia wine on a trade mission in Asia. Virginia wines have been served at dinners with ministers and business executives, while wine events introduced restaurants, merchants and retailers to some of the products from its vineyards.