Street Food is actually Fast Food
Ubiquitous, cheap, filling, in addition to also, most importantly, delicious. Street food in addition to also Indonesia are often seen as one in addition to also the same. They are outside the shopping malls of Jakarta, providing a cheap alternative to western-priced fare inside for mall staff, tucked into alleys in Denpasar, in specially designated areas in Solo, always within a few minutes walk in any city, amazing for a country where nearly everything requires you to drive.
Street food is actually to Indonesia as boulangeries are to France. Unlike French bakeries, though, street food is actually relatively completely new to Indonesia’s culinary scene, in addition to also has been transformed into a national obsession. Its emergence coincides with rising diabetes, blood pressure in addition to also some other health issues quickly turning into a crisis. Most tellingly, according to the earth Health Organization, the adult obesity is actually at This kind of point at 21%, one of the highest rates in Asia. The chief culprit? Unhealthy diets of greasy street food in addition to also sugary drinks.
To understand the effects of street food in Indonesia, we need to go back to the 1960’s in my own country, the United States, when a transformation altered the way people ate food in addition to also, created a health crisis which has, today, reached epic proportions.
Things changed when, inside the 1970’s, a chain named “McDonald’s” pioneered a completely new way of feeding people, providing identical tasting, fast, in addition to also cheap food which undercut family-run restaurants in addition to also even the home kitchen. The fast food revolution transformed agriculture (all those french fries come by one single type of heavily pesticided potato) in addition to also led to the development of massive, hormone-injecting, cheap-meat cow farms. The result; an obesity rate which has nearly tripled to 32%, dramatically higher rates of heart disease in addition to also diabetes, all directly tied to increased fats in addition to also sugars in people’s diets. Fast food, in addition to also its health effects are a recent phenomenon, just as street food in addition to also rapidly rising obesity are in Indonesia.
At the surface, street food stalls, often run by migrants in addition to also serving a wide variety of regional dishes; mie aceh, satay padang, bakso malang, don’t seem to resemble corporate fast food, although they are, in fact, very similar. Both are greasy, utilize low quality meat, are packed full of preservatives (including mono-sodium glutamate) in addition to also are cheap. A meal which has a drink can be easily had for under 15,000 Rupiah, so low which many locals in addition to also expats alike take all their meals on the street, not finding the hassles of cooking worth the item.
Many American families are forced to do the same. The 2008 documentary, Food Inc., had a poignant scene, where a lower-class Mexican-American family tries to buy produce for a healthy meal at a grocery store, only to find which the item is actually more expensive than buying a meal at McDonald’s. The movie shows how the entire food system inside the United States is actually built on providing cheap, low quality, chemical-laden products to mass consumers, in addition to also the devastating effects This kind of has on human health, the environment, in addition to also little family farms.
Today, Indonesia is actually undergoing the same process which America went through 50 years ago. Did you know which, on average, Indonesian farms use more fertilizer in addition to also chemicals than farms in America or Europe? Or which organic food is actually rare here? Kehati, the organization which I worked for last year, funded a pilot organic farm near Jogjakarta, although, upon learning which there was no market for organic products in Indonesia, focused on exporting their chilies in addition to also dragonfruit to foreign markets; Australia, completely new Zealand, or Singapore.
We often cannot imagine America without fast food – although only 60 years ago, which was what existed. Likewise, street food is actually a recent consequence of rapid urbanization, migration, in addition to also a food system which isn’t focused on providing healthy food. Foreign corporations are also to blame – where do you think the pesticides, seeds, in addition to also MSG is actually coming by? Europe, America, in addition to also Japan are profiting while Indonesians (in addition to also us) suffer.
There is actually trust. Just as I avoid street food here, when in America, I avoid fast food, preferring to visit the growing numbers of farmers’ markets in addition to also local, organic restaurants, a response to the industrial food system. Indonesia once had a strong home-food culture, in addition to also the item still does, outside of the big cities. The villages of Bali still have little rice paddies in addition to also time-honored family recipes for delicious local food. Traditional Sundanese in West Java, famous for their usage of raw vegetables, still have feasts at family gatherings.
Unfortunately, the winds of change are blowing inside the wrong direction. Judging by the crowds I see gathered outside the KFCs in addition to also McDonald’s in Jakarta, I wonder if the middle classes of Indonesia aren’t just going to trade one unhealthy, destructive food system for another.
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Street Food is actually Fast Food
Street Food is actually Fast Food