My apologies for not posting anything in a while. I have been busy with work and just have not found the time. We started our surveys last week and it has been really fun, but very busy for myself as well. With that said, I once again appreciate how nice and relaxing weekends can be after a full week of work.
As I said, last week we started conducting our surveys with Ho Chi Minh City residents on food and food-related issues. The surveys are, of course, the main reason we are here so it was nice to finally have permission to actually do them. My first week went fairly well I think. I completed over 30 surveys in total, which I think is a pretty good number. I got to work with some awesome Vietnamese students who did a great job not only translating conversations but helped me understand better the views being conveyed in the interviews.
This is my friend Hoa and her sweet ride. Taken from our first day of surveys last Monday
The best part of the whole experience was meeting so many different people from various backgrounds around the city and hearing their opinions on various topics concerning food. The more people we talked to, the more trends I began to notice in their answers. I also realized how similar their concerns with food were to our own concerns about food at home sometimes. A recurring concern that people brought up was that they often didn't know where their food was coming from and how it was being made. They wanted to know more about food origins and sources so that they could have more trust in the safety of the food they're eating. This was a common concern no matter which income class I interviewed. This is also a prevalent concern for many I know at home as well. With advances in technology and development, we have become so detached from the food we eat, especially in the areas of food production. Most of us who go to the grocery store are unknowing of how the food we eat is produced and processed. The same goes for people here. Whether they are buying from the market, street vendor, or the supermarket, they have no really reliable way of telling where their food comes from and how it was made. Unless, you are a farmer (or know a farmer) and grow your own food here, you are pretty much in the dark about knowing and controlling where your food comes from. However, this issue seems to be a much bigger deal here than it is in Canada. Why is that?
In my short time to reflect on this issue I would probably have to say it comes down to differing levels of trust. As Canadians, we have more overall trust in the system we are a part of that governs our food consumption. We have greater trust in the places we purchase our food from, greater trust in the labels on the packages that 'guarantee' the product's quality, and greater trust in the government to do right by its citizens and uphold standards that will promote adequate food safety practices. We place this trust based on the results the overall system has yielded. Relatively speaking, the food we eat is barely ever harmful to our bodies (at least not immediately in the short term). So our trust is well founded. Although that trust is well found, it still leaves us detached from our food, which has its problems. The food we eat is not perfect and can have lots of bad chemicals causing harmful long-term health effects to our bodies for example. We seem to be less aware of this problem than most and thus, it is not really seen as an issue for many. As a result, if the majority don't see an issue, then there is no need to change anything we do concerning food production/consumption practices.
The same level of trust we have in Canada does not really exist here in Ho Chi Minh City I have found in my short time. People are wary of buying from certain food distributors. Some people caution against buying from the market, others from the supermarket. There is no universally accepted safe place to eat that can guarantee good quality food according to the surveys I have taken so far. Trust in terms of places and products that can guarantee good quality food occurs only on an individual basis as opposed to a collective. People buy only from certain sellers they know and trust to guarantee safe food for their families. They develop relationships with the people they buy food from and buy from these familiar places because it is the only way they feel they can guarantee safe food for themselves and their loved ones.
These are two very different ways of accessing food and guaranteeing the quality of it. I wouldn't say the system in one country is necessarily better than the other, because they both still present the fundamental problem. People are still detached from the chain of how food is made and distributed, which doesn't guarantee anything in terms of food quality. The only way to guarantee quality is by putting oneself back into every step of the chain (the steps in the chain being production, manufacturing, distribution, and consumption). Some people have remedied this by growing and raising their own food again to ensure the quality and safety of it. Such practices are not sustainable and/or realistic for every single person or household to do though. As a result, we are faced with a tough issue of how to make humans less detached from the food we eat.
Anyways, I thought this was an interesting topic that kept getting brought up in my head last week and would be a good one to share with you all. Hopefully, it will provide some good.....food for thought (I know. What a good play on words haha).
I will try not to wait so long before my next blog post. I have received many messages from people who were wondering when my next one would be and I am really grateful at the attention it has gotten. Being so far away, it is nice to know many people are curious about how I am doing and what I have been up to. I'll leave you with a video of one my motorbike rides. I won't lie, it kind of stinks and doesn't really show much because I couldn't really zoom out much but it gives you a it of an idea of the traffic hear in Ho Chi Minh City.
Cheers,
Noah
