The Importance of Knowing Where Your Food Comes From 

In the light of COVID19 (much like any content we read these days), I started wondering about the importance of how you get your food and knowing where it comes from. Wet markets have seemed to start up a blame game in why COVID happened in the first place (Maron, 2020). Maybe prioritising hygiene or banning the trade and consumption of wild animals as food, may be the number one next step for wet markets, but I don’t think abolishing them altogether would do much good to our relationship with knowing where food comes from. I came across this pretty accurate and funny video that basically reflects how I feel when I consider where my food is coming from these days. 

There is great importance in knowing where your food comes from, the main reason why that I would like to stress is that it would allow for a better understanding and sense of responsibility to what you are consuming and how you should dispose of your waste. It was found that a staggering 76% of people underestimate how much food they waste and that is extremely worrying to how we view and value food (Berkenkamp, 2017).

Supermarket Revolution

The “Supermarket revolution”, in some ways, has changed the way we view food and supply in a great way, albeit it provides better health and safety measurements. But by going through these laborious integrated systems of growers and suppliers, do we the consumers really know where our food comes from? How does that affect your relationship with food? Going into a supermarket, selecting a pre-packaged slide of beef, reading the label where it says ‘organic’. These terms are meaningless in providing us the sense of responsibility when we eat. And thus contributing in a sense to our lack of ownership and responsibility in wanting to reduce the food waste after. 

Wet Markets to Farmers Markets. 

Bridging the gap from farm to table.

Cross-platform shopping for food, meaning that we shop at different places for certain types of produce, allows for wet markets to still hold their ground for purchasing fresh produce and meat, and is especially common in asian countries (Goldman 2000; Bai, Wahl, and McCluskey 2008). This seemingly is growing back in developed countries, especially from what I have witnessed in my time in New York and London. Organizations like Brooklyn Grange and other farmers markets, allow urban dwellers to buy more locally, to learn more about the merchants who provide their food, much like the sense of community you may get from a wet market. This is especially interesting and important in these times where buying locally would help offset our carbon footprint, that is usually caused by food having to travel far to reach large corporations like supermarkets. Companies like ODDBOX go a step further in selling all of the food harvested, collecting food that would otherwise have been thrown away, and reselling those to consumers that don’t mind if their food were a little wonky or funny looking. 

What can you do? 

So after reading all of the above (and maybe questioning your food buying decisions during the lockdown period!), here are some key takeaway points that you might want to consider when you do your next shop: 

1. Conducting your own waste audit at home, figure out how much waste you are creating and plan better before your shops. A good website for resources and tips would be https://lovefoodhatewaste.com/what-to-do.
2. Try to shop locally, are there any farmers markets or night markets (more common in Malaysia) and support your local merchants. 
3. Learn more about how you can reduce waste at home in general and in your shopping routine, this could be as simple as not taking the plastic bags or going to your nearest zero waste supermarket. Learn more about tips on a zero waste lifestyle by reading this article.

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References: 

Dina Fine Maron (2020) ‘Wet markets’ likely launched the coronavirus. Here’s what you need to know, https://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/science-and-technology/2020/04/wet-markets-likely-launched-coronavirus-heres-what-you-need-know

JoAnne Berkenkamp, Darby Hoover, and Yerina Mugica (2017) FOOD MATTERS: WHAT FOOD WE WASTE AND HOW WE CAN EXPAND THE AMOUNT OF FOOD WE RESCUE, https://www.nrdc.org/sites/default/files/food-matters-ib.pdf

Zhenzhong Si, Steffanie Scott & Cameron McCordic (2019) Wet markets, supermarkets and alternative food sources: consumers’ food access in Nanjing, China, Canadian Journal of Development Studies / Revue canadienne d’études du développement, 40:1, 78-96, DOI: 10.1080/02255189.2018.1442322