Fermented foods industry race issue

https://www.eater.com/2021/3/1/22214044/fermented-foods-industry-whiteness-kimchi-miso-kombucha

by kungito • 5 years ago

1 2 5 years ago

kungito• 5 years ago

While the fermented foods industry evangelizes products rooted in global, often East Asian, traditions, its most visible faces are predominantly white

jfengel• 5 years ago

It's often hard for people to put their finger on the harms of cultural appropriation. It's not so much a "harm" as an unfairness: the people who created the traditions don't benefit from them. People are skeptical of them until it's paired with a face that doesn't seem foreign.

Because the products are traditional there's no patent on them, no way to protect the IP; they belong to everybody. But the lion's share of the profits end up going to a small set of marketers who managed to get people to overcome their fears.

That's another weird irony of it. The article complains that the "kimchi" bears little resemblance to kimchi. So, what exactly is it that has been appropriated? It's not the name; it's also the history, and the positive feelings of tradition -- even though that's bogus.

Which is infuriating, but I'm honestly not sure what to do. It's a huge target market of people who want to be just sliiiiightly adventurous. Not very adventurous, but just a teeny bit.

I personally prefer to be a bit more adventurous and get my products from the people who make them traditionally. Which also risks being a problem by exoticizing, muddying that line between sharing and gawking.

Fermented foods industry race issue

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