RE: The True Cost of Our Food. A Peek Behind the Scenes of the Food Supply Industry.
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Great article and food for thought! Though we do not have many options here in Cambodia when it comes to convenient food, we get a lot of "fresh" fruits and vegs from China, Thailand, and Vietnam that are coming from big farms that don't pay their worker's honest wages and use a lot of chemicals to increase their yields. People often have to work very long days without much protection from the chemicals. All of this is keeping the cost down compared to the products local, organic farmers are growing here.
Wages are very small here in Cambodia. People often have to work very hard for very little so I get it why they are still coming to Australia. For most people here it is even difficult to afford the cheaper foods coming from big industrial farms. We are lucky to have a successful little, local business and my husband is a freelancer in IT, network, and security so we can afford the more expensive, organic, locally grown vegetables and fruits.
I don't think they are wrong or overpriced if you look at all the hard work that goes into producing these organic crops. I visited a few small-scale organic farms here in Cambodia and it's hard work in this humid, tropical heat.
So that leaves me to think there is something wrong with the wages people are being given here. Everybody should be able to afford good kinds of vegetables and fruits.
Though I hear your thought too, big farming and food industry has made food more accessible for more people and fewer people go hungry.
So I don't think there is an easy solution.
I gather many Cambodians came here a few decades ago during the genocides? I was with a lady maybe a little older than myself who has been here about 30 years, yet her English was still quite broken. It seems they live in communities where they don't even need to speak English regularly enough to become fluent. She and her husband used to have greenhouses themselves and she showed me photos of the cucumbers they grew. She broke her arm, though, and wasn't able to continue the upkeep of it all, with her husband being much older and retired. She was actually trying to get some part time work without too much heavy lifting, because she still struggled with her arm. She also struggled with working fast enough for piece work, so none of the work was looking like something she could do.
It feels like a bit of a catch 22 situation when it comes to food, doesn't it? I've always thought there must be an easy solution, but the more I learn the more I realise there isn't.
They must have. So many Cambodians were killed or fled the country. My husband grew up with some Cambodians. Though they where born and raised in Belgium their parents fled to Europe. I guess in Belgium having 3 official languages, one being French, was easier to learn for them as many older Cambodians actually speak French due to the french colonization.
I wish there was an easy solution to feeding the world quality whole foods.it is so important for our health and wellbeing