The urgency to localise food supplies

Mak decided to set up Tin Yeah as an independent retail store to assure the public when opting for a nonmainstream way of living. Tin Yeah provides the means for sustainable living practices if one wants to live outside the corporate control of the food supply. “The meaning of being an independent store is reflected from our ideology and operations”, Mak explains.

In a highly modernised city, food sovereignty cannot just rely on escalating the level of local production. It must rebuild a collaborative food network so that farmers, consumers, food processors, activists and practitioners can communicate and connect with each other. Mak and Nicole soon realised their retail shop is more than merely a place for transactions but also a space for food & agriculture education and relationship building. The following year, they moved to a bigger store, though the location is less accessible than the original one. The new store provides space for farmers and consumers’ meetings, cooking workshops and cultural food talks. Such activities have led to community building among local food supporters. A small Hong Kong agricultural library was established at the store corner to support learning for both farmers and consumers. “Everyone has to learn this concept—crops are living beings, not commodities”, says Mak.

Independent food retail stores have largely enhanced the stability of the city's food supply. For example, winter is a season in which farmers often face the problem of selling the excessive seasonal harvest. In January 2022, Tin Yeah organised a pop-up sales campaign called “seasonal vegetables and fish party” to help farmers sell their excess seasonal harvest, particularly those with perishable crops. Some consumers volunteered to set up the temporary distribution system. The event helped to sell over 1,000 kg of local fresh vegetables from 15 farmers within two days, and 90 per cent of the buyers were new consumers. What’s more, volunteers also connected with local small food processors to handle their excess Chinese radish, which is transformed to make radish cake or pickles. Any excessive quantity of processed radish would then be distributed among other independent retail stores from the local network.

The disruption of the vegetable supply from mainland China fostered the demand for locally grown vegetables. Members of Tin Yeah increased their sales by 20 per cent during Covid and received ten times the normal number of phone inquiries about buying local vegetables. Nevertheless, independent retail stores are now facing more challenges than usual. The popularisation of online sales platforms transformed our consumption patterns and destroyed the relationship between consumers and retailers. In addition, short-term “buy local” actions motivated by crises are usually not long-lasting.

Mak and Nicole believe in the power of communications. They often spend over half an hour talking with new members on phone to get a deeper understanding of their thoughts and family backgrounds. They believe a real food sovereignty movement should be rooted in community values and not only in reaction to the crisis.

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Nash Tysman (NT): This is a huge question and I’ll start answering it by first explaining that street vendors live their lives precariously to begin with. Most are categorized as self-employed and make only enough money to feed and house their families. They do not benefit from having an employee-employer relationship with which they can access benefits or enjoy labour rights. They work very hard but are not recognized as workers. As such, the impact that crises have on them is immense. Since they are not recognized as workers, nor are they seen as the poorest in society, they do not have access to social protection from risks like unemployment, maternity coverage, healthcare, etc. They are always one sickness away from poverty. When the pandemic struck in 2020, it revealed the conditions that street vendors were facing. Many had lost jobs and did not have access to safe work spaces. They put themselves at risk of being exposed to Covid-19 just to make ends meet. Food vendors also provided essential services—they sold food to communities and health workers—at great risk, without any form of support. In some areas where we work like Bangladesh, street vendors are already experiencing the climate emergency first hand. They are displaced and forced to migrate. Some experience loss of livelihood because crops no longer grow like they used to. There are also more climate-related hazards like floods, drought, heavy rainfall, etc. that impact their lives.

It’s difficult to paint a brighter picture while discussing these conditions because street vendors are facing a lot of challenges. However, what we’ve learned from the experience of the pandemic is that there is a lot of willingness and resourcefulness among our members that led them to find ways to help each other. Here we witnessed the power street vendors have to organise and advocate for themselves.

NT: Linked to what was said above, the most pressing issue is livelihood. Access/permission to work and having a safe environment for them to work is important. They should also be free from abuse by authorities.

Tackling this involves our focus on organising, education, and advocacy. In StreetNet, we work on increasing our member’s capacity to negotiate for themselves with their counterparts among the authorities. We also know that street vendors must be supported in organising around issues that directly affect them. We also look for more ways to build solidarity like arranging for exchange visits among street vendor leaders or designing courses for them that encourage them to develop their own forms of mutual aid.

NT: Our work is primarily in the labour sector and while we focus a lot on making sure that street vendors’ labour rights are protected we also see, from the testimonies of our members, that the issues they face are not only tied to labour but also to other sectors. The complexity of the problems means that we have to also work with other organisations or at least be able to share with them the experiences of our members so that they can also show us other ways of thinking about possible solutions.

Building solidarity matters in addressing the issues that street vendors face. For food security/sovereignty in particular, I’m reminded that we all need access to affordable, good quality food in order to live and so it’s in all of our interests to fight to make this our reality.

NT: We have found that most of our members and generally a majority of informal economy workers are women. This means that we should engage with them more, especially in encouraging them to occupy leadership positions. Another lesson from the pandemic is the disproportionate effect of the crisis on women. We saw how women workers not only engaged in work as street vendors but also as care workers in their families. This means that addressing street vendors’ issues also involves a gendered response.

Image: Nash Tysman

The past few weeks and months have seen several strikes and protests by delivery workers of Foodpanda, an online food and grocery delivery platform owned by Delivery Hero, a German multinational online food-delivery service that operates in more than 50 countries. Protests are ongoing in Myanmar, Hong Kong, Pakistan, the Philippines, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and Greece.

The protest was initiated by workers of Foodpanda Myanmar, who are demanding changes to the software used to control delivery riders, a fairer wage and better working conditions, and protections and compensation for accidents or injuries sustained during work hours. Since the country’s management didn’t react to their demands, the riders decided to go on strike and build up international solidarity with other Foodpanda workers worldwide.

A new research, published in the journal Nature, found that global “food miles” emissions are higher than previously thought – accounting for nearly one-fifth of total food-system emissions. “Food-miles emissions are driven by the affluent world,” the study says. It finds that while “high income nations” represent only about 12.5% of the world’s population, they are responsible for 52% of international food miles and 46% of the associated emissions.

The report also reflect on the pros and cons of buying local food – an often-touted solution for reducing food emissions. The study showed that ending all international food transport would cut food-miles emissions by 9%.

In recent years a confluence of factors has driven explosive growth in South Korea’s food delivery market. According to government data, the food delivery market was worth 25.6 trillion won ($19bn) in 2021, up from 17.3 trillion won ($13bn) the previous year and 9.7 trillion won ($7bn) in 2019. But as fuel prices rise and pay rates stay the same, a driver and labour rights leader is fighting increasing precarity. Park Jung-hoon, a food delivery driver who also operates an association of fellow food couriers in the South Korean capital, says rising fuel prices mean workers are taking home less money.

Under South Korean law, delivery drivers and other gig economy workers are classified as independent contractors, not as employees of the companies they deliver for, so they have no legal minimum wage, and are not legally entitled to accident insurance provided by the company.

Walmart has boosted its supply chain by integrating in-house applications and establishing a framework of systematic functionality with an AI system. In the next phase, Walmart global tech is working to automate and use robotics in its warehouses.

Thai hypermarket chain Lotus operator, Ek-Chai Distribution System Co, is set to invest US$354 – $382 million. The investment will be allocated to new store openings, development of infrastructure and online systems. Having opened 39 new stores in just this year’s first half, the retailer aims to open another 70-80 new branches before the end of the year. The company's also expanding its online format. Its SmartApp has more than 4.5 million users, and online sales have grown fourfold since its launch in March.