Thammasat University students interested in sustainable development, food security, political science, ecology, environmental studies, agriculture, land management, biodiversity, and related subjects may find it useful to participate in a free 12-13 September Zoom webinar on Diets and Local Food Systems in Asia.

The event, on Thursday, 12 September 2024 and Friday, 13 September 2024 at 9:30am Bangkok time, is presented by the National University of Singapore (NUS).

The TU Library collection includes several books about different aspects of food systems in Asia.

Students are invited to register at this link:

https://ari.nus.edu.sg/events/food-systems-in-asia/#form

The event announcement states:

A lot of current discussion of food systems is often framed within the context of globalisation, with a specific focus on the almost hegemonic power of transnational food complexes. However, recent developments in food systems across the Global South paint a more nuanced picture, that emphasises the multi-scalar nature of these systems.

In this workshop, we bring together scholars based in Singapore and internationally to discuss changes occurring in local food systems throughout Asia through the lens of diets. The workshop features six panels where speakers present their current research and receive feedback, scheduled as follows:

Panel 1 – Different Types of Markets

Panel 2 – Preserving Diets in Industrial Food Systems

Panel 3 – Food Security in Asia

Panel 4 – Local Knowledge and Collaborations

Panel 5 – Local Cuisines in Global Context

Panel 6 – Materiality and Technology in Food Systems

Through this dialogue about the synergy between diets and local food systems, we seek to connect global context and local changes, especially how local/regional actors and locations participate in food production, distribution, and consumption.

WORKSHOP CONVENORS

Dr Shumeng Li | Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore

Associate Professor Jamie S. Davidson | Asia Research Institute & Department of Political Science, National University of Singapore

Among scheduled presentations will be:

• The Key Roles of Wet Markets in China’s Sustainable Food System

SHURU ZHONG | Sun Yat-sen University

• Mapping the Open-air Markets in Surabaya: Illegible Landscapes in a City of Passage

ANITHA SILVIA | Independent Scholar, Indonesia

• Supermarket Contract Farming for Local Sourcing: A Case Study in Northeastern Thailand NAOKO TAKAHASHI | Institute of Developing Economies, Japan External Trade Organization

PRESERVING DIETS IN INDUSTRIAL FOOD SYSTEMS

• “Tumpangsari” as the Way to Preserve Local Food System in Javanese Society

WASISTO RAHARJO JATI | National Research and Innovation Agency 

• Ethnofarming: Maximising Community’s Economy by Mapping Local Potentials

DWI PERTIWI | PT Kaleka Wana Nusantara

• Against the Grain: Re-learning Tradition and Modernizing Millets for India

RIYA SHARMA | University of Illinois at Chicago 

FOOD SECURITY IN ASIA

• Online Between Sustainability and Food Poverty: The Role of Food Banks in Vietnam’s Food System Transformation

JUDITH EHLERT | University of Passau 

• Examining the Resourcefulness of War Time Recipes to Develop Future Urban Food Systems for Singapore

SHAN CHIAN (MARK) TEO | Singapore Institute of Technology 

• Agrarian Change Scenarios and the Food System Transition in Indonesia

JOHN MCCARTHY | Australian National University

LOCAL KNOWLEDGE AND COLLABORATIONS

• China Food Letters: Reconfiguring People, Foods, and Species across Local and National Boundaries

I-LIANG WAHN | Tunghai University

• Seeding Sovereignty: Re-tasting Heirloom Rice through Art

HAO PEI CHU | National University of Singapore

LOCAL CUISINES IN GLOBAL CONTEXT 

• Immigrant Restaurants in Tokyo: A Proliferation of Peruvian Flavors

AYUMI TAKENAKA | Hitotsubashi University

• Auditory Experiences Shaping Malaysian Culinary Culture

MAY TING BEH | Penang Institute

• Exploring Dietary Patterns of Filipino Domestic Workers in Hong Kong through Photovoice and Food Voice Narratives

JOSEF ADRIEL DE GUZMAN | The Chinese University of Hong Kong

MATERIALITY AND TECHNOLOGY IN FOOD SYSTEMS

• Ice Cream or Ludoutang? Savoring Summer in Treaty-Port Shanghai, 1900s-1930s

ZHENGFENG WANG | Leiden University

• Oyster Opening and System of Provision in Taiwan

BO-SHIANG HSU | Tunghai University

• Becoming Boneless Danggit (Siganus spp.), or Why Dried Rabbitfish is Distinctly Delicious on Bantayan Island, the Philippines

JESSIE VARQUEZ | University of Manitoba

Last year, an article, Using fresh vegetable waste from Chinese traditional wet markets as animal feed: Material feasibility and utilization potential, appeared in Science of the Total Environment, an international multi-disciplinary natural science journal for publication of novel, hypothesis-driven and high-impact research on the total environment.

The article’s abstract:

To develop new animal feed sources and establish a sustainable food upcycling system, the material feasibility and feeding potential of fresh vegetable waste (FVW) were clarified in this study. First, the FVW output of wet markets in Hangzhou, China was tracked and predicted. The results showed that the retail waste ratio of FVW in wet markets reached 9.3 %, predicting that China’s FVW will reach 9034 kt in 2030. Second, the study revealed that the nutritive value of FVW was comparable to that of traditional alfalfa feed, suitable for use as animal feed. However, we found a high probability of microbial contamination. Therefore, FVW should have stricter classification and collection methods. Under this premise, the feeding utilization potential of FVW in wet markets is large. In 2030, the crude protein content may replace 2737 kt of alfalfa, saving 7.7 E + 08 m3 of water and 75,018 ha of land.

From the Introduction:

In recent years, the number of countries paying attention to food waste has increased. One-third of the world’s food is wasted or lost during production and consumption. In both developed and developing countries, food waste has large economic, social, and environmental impacts. […A]pproximately 344 million tons of food waste could be avoided globally, which corresponds to 4 EJ of energy and 82 billion m3 of water resources. In addition, large amounts of food waste have had an impact on the global climate.

In the UK, millions of tons of food waste are produced each year, resulting in 27 million tons of CO2 emissions. Among them, fresh vegetable waste (FVW) is the most serious, especially in the retail phase, where the waste rate can reach 0.4 %–7 %. Moreover, in New Zealand, fresh vegetables account for 27 % of the total weight of food waste, which has attracted the attention of many researchers.

In the supply chain of fresh vegetables, wet markets are a typical food supply link, widely used in China, South Korea, Vietnam, and other East and Southeast Asian countries. Due to the restrictions of food freshness demand and purchasing distance, among other factors, wet markets mainly serve the residents within a short geographical distance, so that they can timely purchase fresh vegetables, fruits, meats, and other agricultural products every day. Unlike farmers’ markets in places such as the USA and Europe, wet markets open every day and most of the food on offer is updated daily (not overnight).

For this reason, in wet markets, retailers often prune vegetable leaves and conduct a preliminary screening to meet the needs of consumers. In this process, many vegetable leaves and peelings are generated, which together with the untimely sale of fresh food, becomes vegetable waste. Therefore, wet markets produce a large amount of FVW every day.

According to our previous investigation, the daily production of FVW in a wet market in China is as high as 2005 kg. In China, where traditional wet markets are the main channel for vegetables, fresh vegetables account for 60.3 % of the total sales. With a population of more than one billion, China has at least 44,000 agricultural markets. Their disposal is not only a burden on urban waste management systems, but it also contains nutritional resources that cannot be ignored. It is worth noting that wet markets are also popular in East Asia and Southeast Asia, which means that wet markets around the world will produce more FVW than in China alone, but the specific amount is unclear. […]

(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)