Ordinary Gweilo

Interesting post over at Madame Shutterfly.

It’s fairly obvious that the problems with BSE, SARS and Avian Flu, and the concerns about farmed salmon, highlight a more general issue. The conditions in which animals and birds are reared and sold have changed for the worse over time, and the risk to consumers has increased.

The fundamental problem is the desire for cheap food coupled with the need for companies to make profits. This creates relentless pressure on food producers to cut costs, which leads to animals being reared in small spaces, fed on all sorts of junk, and pumped full of drugs to prevent them getting ill.

The second problem, I think, is that we now eat much more processed food and have little idea of what ingredients are used. Cheap sausages and pies, for example, contain so-called “meat” that is of very low quality, and all manner of artificial ingredients to try to make them taste OK.

In Asia we seem to have a third problem – that the ‘industrial’ method of food production exists alongside semi-traditional styles of retailing. It is almost as if people are trying to persuade themselves that buying food in a market makes it more natural or wholesome. In fact, the opposite is true – because the food hasn’t really come direct from a traditional farm at all, and the animals are probably unhealthy – and handling them in a market just increases the risk.

One thing I find interesting about the move away from traditonal farming methods is that it was partially motivated by concern about possible future food shortages. Thirty years ago it was widely believed that by the end of the century we would have a serious problem caused by the growing population of the planet. As with so many scares, this has proved to be unjustified, and worldwide there are actually far fewer people starving now than 30 years ago. Where it is a problem there are almost always specific local factors (usually corrupt or incompetent governments) rather than lack of land or water or anything more fundamental.

We need to recognize that we are now wealthier and able to afford to enjoy a higher standard of living, and that part of that includes abandoning some of these notions of ‘cheap food’ and being prepared to pay a bit more for higher quality. In the UK there has been a reaction against intensive farming methods, and it is now much easier to buy higher quality meat, but obviously at a higher price.

The problem in Hong Kong, unfortunately, is that the choice is often a stark one between cheap food from China or very expensive imported food (often with no guarantees about how it was produced). We need a middle-ground, of higher quality locally-produced food.