Rethinking Foods

We have been thinking about the power of personal choice. 

It must have some impact, mustn’t it? After all, we have just reached 8.000.000.000 people in the planet. If only 5% of that number decided to change something about their food choices, some systems would shift. Let’s believe this is true for the sake of this article. Let’s say that personal choice has an impact in planetary systems.

(Note: I’m not saying it doesn’t, I’m just not going to prove it now. There are many factors to have in consideration, like lopsided distributed of wealth and access to food. I also want to note that personal choice is not feasible for everyone around the globe and that from now on we will be talking about personal choice when applicable. When the person choosing has the freedom to make a decision without compromising their basic needs, health safety and stability).

Human psychology has been popping up constantly during the past weeks as one of the hot topics for change. We have been thinking about systems, the supply chain, production and logistics but at the end of the funnel there is always humans. Personal encounters, perceptions, sensations and all of the “baggage” we carry with us: culture, memories and even traumas.

Advanced societies are now at its comfort peak. Things are pretty easy for us. We go to a grocery store and we find all kinds of food, we can have a meal prepared at a restaurant in less than 10 minutes, we have access to fresh water and electricity to cook with (please keep in mind the note at the beginning of the article). We are used to getting what we want and we are pretty spoiled. When we feel like sushi, we can just go and get it. If we’re craving pizza, there is probably around 10 pizza places around you. And so it goes. Getting such an immediate response to our wishes even brings a sense of “self-care” where we say things like “I deserve it” after a very long day of living in a consumption-driven society that is milking our brain. It is so easy to get what we want.

One of the reasons we don’t think that much about the decisions we take because we are confronted with so many of them everyday. The amount of information a person goes through everyday is enough to write a couple of monthly magazines. It’s normal that we are exhausted and that when we get to the supermarket we choose what we know, what we like, what’s familiar to us. What doesn’t make us think anymore. Other reason could be attributed to exactly the opposite. There is so much information that’s hidden for us for our own personal comfort that we lack a lot of perspective of what reality looks like. We don’t know much about how produce is grown, how animals are fed and killed, how farmers are paid, what is the meaning behind ingredients names, etc. Because if we knew, oh boy.

So, when we are confronted with a product in the supermarket we make a decision that is conditioned by many other previous moments in our lifetime, past experiences, personality, values, education and even our mood.

And it’s this moment of decision that has sparked our interest. Because it can hold so much power when used as a collective tool.

This was the premise for the “Imaginary Dinner” that we hosted at the office some days ago. We thought of a way of confronting people with the impact that their personal choices have on the community, so that we could observe the personal and team dynamics that emerged through the course of a meal.

The truth is, we are not completely oblivious to the fact that our lifestyles have impact on the planet and society. The issue about “the greater good”, though, is that it’s almost invisible. We have no clear picture of what it looks like, we don’t know exactly how our individual decisions help build a better future. Also, it’s really hard to think that the small things you do matter, specially when we know that most of the responsibility for a no-future future is from big corporations that are not really making any sacrifices or taking significant measures to help. It’s like working with a boss that you never see working: the motivation will never arrive.

The imaginary dinner was our effort to try to make the consequences of our personal choices visible, and observing if people would be willing to sacrifice their own personal comfort and pleasure for others. We introduced two different dynamics through the dinner: unequal accessibility to food and resource scarcity. They both played a role individually and, at the last course, combined. Through different game dynamics our guests had to take an active role in what they were choosing to eat, knowing that their choice could leave others with a “less appetizing option” or no food at all. It was definitely interesting to see a group of strangers interact and realize that their plate was not disconnected to their surroundings.

Here we were in Bangkok again: At 5:30 AM at the bus stop, freshly arrived from a mostly sleepless night, very much looking forward to our first cup of coffee. After our lively, yet grounding days in Chiang Mai and area, Bangkok re-welcomed us with its buzzing sounds and daily chaos. Our last days of interviews and research in Thailand had begun, starting on this very day with Stefan Järlhem, co-founder of Global Bugs Asia.

By now we had realised that many of our initial assumptions had been proven false – or at least different than expected.

Bugs, Crickets, Worms?
Not that much of a gourmet hit in the urban Thai diet. The habit of eating insects originates in the north-west of the country, where it still is an active part of people’s palate (or so it was told us). On the one hand, insects are still stigmatised as “food of the poor”, on the other hand, (Thai) people who fancy insects are likely not to be able to afford it. What a weird world.
If you are offered find insects on the streets of Bangkok it’s either the cliché tourist trap, or you might have indeed discovered a new trendy food innovation hub. In fact, insects are experiencing a comeback in international “alternative foods”, however way too expensive for the average Thai population.

Talking to Stefan gave us an enriching insight of how and where he sees the role of cricket proteins in future diets, of the potential but also the risks that big scale cricket farming can bring.

Smaller portions lead to less food waste.
Do they? When we saw that Thai street food portions are smaller compared to western European ones, as well as more balanced regarding ingredients, we took that as a new assumption. Also because we barely saw any food waste on the streets.

Talking to Dharath Hoonchamlong, food scholar and co-founder of wasteland bar (known as Thailand’s first sustainable bar), we found that this is unfortunately not the case. Sharing his perspective on food systems as a person engaged in sustainability, food and waste management, we additionally learned much more about people’s relation to food in Thailand, food journalism, as well as the culture’s position towards waste and second-hand goods. For instance, the concept behind wasteland bar is to use the kitchen’s “food waste” – in other words, the raw ingredients not used, that are being thrown away. Wasteland’s drinks still struggle with the stigma second-hand goods, seeing the “re-used” as something second class or even being disgusted by it.

Where does the leftovers from street food carts or markets disappear to then? Let’s just say that there’s a reason why at heavy rains the streets are easily flooded and the drains cannot take in the water.

With raining heavily practically everyday, our trip ended with a rather relaxed Saturday – a break we definitely needed after two full weeks of impressions and intense thinking.

Back to Lisbon, starting our final sprint towards the project’s end.

Through fields and forests, rice plantations and far away mountains we passed, as we sat almost 10 hours in a rocky riding train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai, digesting our first days in Bangkok.

Our first common impression of Chiang Mai: cleaner, in a way “fancier”, more orientated to tourism. But also slower, calmer, easy-going – contrasting the packed and fast moving pace of the capital. My stomach celebrated the first GMO-free meal in days, being it one of the best curry’s I have tried here so far.

The Organic Landscape of Jing Jai Market

Bright, shiny and a little sleepy, we met with my good friend Fern at her favourite local organic market: Jing Jai – a market that has become known among tourists for its arts and crafts. However, if you go further to the back, you can find not only good coffee – which we desperately needed that day – but also a very large space where local farmers sell their organic fruits, vegetables – and of course food. Over a delicious breakfast, we talked to dear Fern, who, apart from being a very knowledgable food passionate herself, could enrich our minds with a local perspective on food, local traditions and habits, food trends in Thailand.

Omushabeh! – two days with members of the Karen Hill Tribe

It is hard trying to grasp the experience we had on those two days of intense immersion into rural hill tribe surroundings.
To give you a bit of context: in Thailand, there are quite a few hill tribes who still live in communities that are apart from the rest of the Thai community. Hill tribe in this sense meaning: ethnic minority groups who migrated from Laos, China, Myanmar and came to settle in northern Thailand, several hundred years ago. As the fight for the border between Thailand and Burma/Myanmar continues, migration of community members is still ongoing. Differences between the tribes mainly lie in beliefs, rituals, clothing, the way of house construction for instance, or – in food and food preparation. Some of the largest communities around Chiang Mai and the northern part of the country are the Akha, Hmong, and Karen – the last of which we visited.

Chai, our Karen guide, led us through different ethnic communities along the way, as well as through rice and pumpkin fields, rivers and streets of his Karen village, called Muang Ngam, on the border to Burma. We learned that most of the crops and animals grown are supplied to a large distributor. In a conversation with a local, I discovered that his aspiration is to grow pigs in a traditional way, without antibiotics. Another guide and one of the trip’s organisers, Pat, has the goal to empower local people by teaching English, and is trying to find volunteers to help. After these conversations by the open fire, a delicious meal cooked by our lovely host Masu and watching a blinking clear night sky, we spent the night in a hut made entirely out of bamboo, the typical housing of the Karen people.

Between Activism & Spice – a day at Studio HorJhama

What an inspiring day!
When we had finally managed to grab a Grab to Ann-Sasithorn Kamrit‘s studio, we had no notion of the insights, laughter, and deliciousness that were awaiting us.

Ann is the owner of Studio HorJhama, a little clay-built house with a lovely green yard, alive with dancing leaf shadows and flowers. There, you can buy local organic products, learn about local Akha culinary knowledge, and listen to the air that is often filled with laughter and delicious smells originating from Ann’s Akha cooking workshops. Which is precisely what we did!

Ann and Yoko (an artist currently exhibiting at Studio HorJhama) kindly received us in the refreshing backyard, where Ann shared her perspective on development of the food system in Thailand, as well as insights of her work as a food activist and educator. Her goal is to empower people, e.g. local farmers and schools, with knowledge on preparing food with local ingredients, so that they can grow healthy organic plants and self-sustain themselves in an urban environment.

Our conversation went further over a delicious lunch Ann’s mother had prepared for us. And it went further as we drove to the local farmer’s market to buy ingredients for our Akha inspired dinner we would cook together. Showing us how to identify vegetables grown organically from the ones grown with the help of chemicals, we went back with a basket full of what seemed random ingredients including pork, fish, a bunch of unknown leafs, and alive coconut worms!

Our “four-course” dinner slightly escalated into a table of 17 different dishes, all of them with their own unique flavour and texture (see list below). It was an evening full of laughter and heartwarming conversations, and we left with more than a satisfied belly. And yes – we ate the worms, cooked and made into a paste with spices and onions. Yummy!

Last Day – Trust & Plants

Before returning to Bangkok by night bus, we met two other persons in Chiang Mai: Chef Marvin von Beesten from The Food Trust and Smith Taweelerdniti, founder of Let’s Plant Meat. Though two quite distiguishing perspectives on the future of food, both were equally interesting.

With Marvin we dived into an approach towards increasing local economy, self-sufficiency, towards a balanced diet and supporting farm-to-table systems. Smith took us into his vision of a meatless future without having to renounce to meat taste, the health risks behind a meat-based diet, sharing with us his perspective on the market for meat alternatives.

Filled with these two different inputs, we departed to a night full of snores, back to Bangkok.

Bangkok handles the pressures of incoming tourist traffic nearly year-round and is also the international hub of Thai corporate and commercial activities. This influences its food culture which isn’t entirely similar to the other regions of Thailand. Being near the coast, you’d often find seafood almost as a staple on the menus. Although there are several street food vendors and local markets supporting the convenience culture and fast-paced lifestyle of this city, the term fast food doesn’t find the same meaning as it would in the western world.

Even among Asian countries, the Thai food culture stands out with its relatively unique insect-eating culture….or so we thought. Word is, that not more than 10% of the locals eat insects. This could be attributed to the expensiveness of the insects as they’re collected/grown in other regions of the country and come to Bangkok not only bearing the additional costs of the logistics but also being sold for a premium. But apart from this the locals also share some stigma or mental blocks associated with the disgust factor of eating insects just like anyone from any other part of the world might. We tried them out for ourselves later in this trip

To challenge some of our assumptions and also dig deeper from a producer’s perspective, we paid a visit to Star bugs. The scientist/innovator and founder had an interesting journey of how innovating for paper pulp solutions eventually led him to find insect feed solutions and then to the cricket protein business we now know of. We expected the challenges of an insect protein business to be consumer attitudes but learned it’s even more so about the economies of scale. Of course both these are in a dynamic relationship with each other and the market push can only be as strong as the development of the capacity for a big enough market pull. Visiting Thailand in the aftermath of Covid, it’s evident that the progress in building trust towards food innovations and even insect protein has been hampered.

Another assumption with which we traveled here was that there would be more vegetarian options on the menus but were surprised to find most dishes had fish, prawns, or eggs if not a meat-based dish already. This could be to add components of Umami to the dish. It was even more interesting to note the relatively small portion sizes of the dishes. The servings of rice or noodles are equal to the protein and fats added to the dish but altogether the dish itself is not heavy probably to make space for finger foods and drinks. However, this is a healthy practice in general, and consuming a balanced diet of calorie-dense foods with small portions is known to have associations with longevity.

The street food was an overwhelming yet therapeutic experience of its own accord. Overwhelming because the diverse range of colors, aromas, packaging, and different shapes/forms of meats as well as unique snacks can be a lot for the uninitiated to mentally process. But still therapeutic as we were surrounded by so many options we felt we just couldn’t go wrong with. There was a lot of visual noise being concentrated in and around the food stands. It can be hard to name some of these dishes but it is equally hard to forget their flavors.

We visited the Thai union, the largest seafood manufacturer in the world, for a perspective on the alternative protein future in general but also within the Thai context. Seafood enjoys a very positive reception here, as their health/beauty benefits are well acknowledged, it’s interesting to see what the future of seafood alternatives will look like and how they will be marketed to the consumer segments as well.

Through our food tour experience, we were first familiarized with the tabooed history of alcohol brewing culture, and the influence of Chinese entities like Lao and Chang’s. We visited a few stalls that had packaged ready-to-go meals that were simple preparations but still diverse in the cultures they were able to capture among the varieties.

We jostled through a few crowded food streets to get to some stalls and small restaurants our guide Kim wanted us to experience.

1st stop: Oyster Mushrooms, Chicken Biryani

2nd stop: Duck eggs, Minced pork curry, Tilapia fish, Zucchini with egg, along with a Rice salad

3rd stop: Coconut pancake, Basil + sticky rice + papaya salad with green beans (spice), Kim’s favorite; Massaman curry, sticky mango rice + coconut milk.

4th stop: The best Ice cream store with unique flavors like blue cheese and red&white wine

5th stop: The most soothing green oolong tea experience (Tiguanyim tea) in Bangkok’s Chinatown district

We were often met with small menus; perhaps for the quick purchasing on-the-go lifestyle and to also ease the interaction process for foreign customers. Was interesting to note the popularity of Duck/Qual eggs over typical chicken eggs, as they are better in terms of nutrition. We came expecting more steamed foods but saw a lot more fried foods instead. Bowls of food are always served with a spoon for the soup, along with a fork or chopsticks to help grab the food.

Finally, the night market. We were welcomed by a flayed crocodile hanging right off a stall near the entrance and proceeded further to be swarmed by tourists. But not all of them were, as we found a few walking up to us with trays of insects; scorpions, spiders, and even found a vendor that carried a bigger variety this time with crickets, grasshoppers, bamboo worms, silkworm larvae.

It’s been an interesting few days for us and now to add more dimensions to our context-building of the Thai food culture, we leave behind the city to explore a notably different region in terms of culinary influence.

May Buddha continue to be generous to us as our journey continues.
Onwards and upwards…next stop; Chiang Mai.

A short glimpse into my current state of mind:

To be very honest, that’s how it felt like the last 4 weeks, at least in my personal little short-haired head.

And to be even more honest, that’s why we’re currently in week 5 of ‘Transformative Times‘ and you haven’t read much about the fascinating insights, reflections, discussions, and experiences that have broadened our horizons and have sent our train of thoughts into many directions. Yet.

What can be said shortly to keep you in the loop is:

Preparations for the Imaginary Dinner this week are at full speed!
We’ll take our participants to Terra Transforma, a planet somewhere in the near and far multiverse, exploring challenges in our current food systems and re-imagine food of the future.

Planning for our immersive Analysis – that is, our travels to Texas and Thailand – are also at full speed! None of us can actually believe it’s already next week we’re going..

Fusing the past and the future. More to come soon…

So far we’ve unearthed a mountain of data about the past, present and future of food. The one statistic that remains emblazoned in my memory is Overcapacity Day, a.k.a. the day in the year when we’ve used all the biological resources that the earth regenerates in a year. In 2022, this day was July 20th. (That’s the 201st day, or 55% into the year)

When discussing food, it’s impossible to separate what we eat and grow from the environment – in a sense, food is the environment. We, humans, are the environment. We are all nature.

“We’re not writing in stone, we’re writing on a white board”

White. White. White.

Lots of whites.
Lots of questions.
Lots of whites being filled with ideas, on how to approach the question we have all gathered here in Lisbon for: How does Memory impact the adoption on new Food Habits?

Our research question which, after analyzing, dissecting, defining, led to even more questions. Inifnite circles of questions, that we tried to map on a white board.

This, after the two first days of a high wave of introduction – to the company – to the people – to the city – to our new housemates – to eachother – to ourselves – to a furry team mate – to the project – to workshops – to the rhythm – to tasks – to system thinking – to food – to – to – to – to – …

We have arrived: Chapter 1 – Current Realities
Week 2 approaches with full flow.

* Natural White Noise