South China Morning Post
Comment›Insight & Opinion
Mayling Chan says it is absurd for Hong Kong to waste so much food each day when families here, and around the world, still go to bed hungry. Yet, through the efforts of donors and NGOs, there is the hope of eradicating poverty
Celebrity chefs Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsay have both recently opened restaurants in Hong Kong. Price, however, doesn’t seem to have deterred many curious Hongkongers from seeing what these chefs have to offer. While it may be easy for many to dish out HK$400 for a meal, many others find it hard to even come up with HK$20.
Currently, there are about a million people locally who live below the official poverty line, which is defined as half of the median monthly household income of all domestic households in Hong Kong.
Though sources say a slightly lower figure will be announced at the forthcoming Commission on Poverty summit, there is little reason to celebrate as many still live with the reality of poverty. Sky-high housing and food costs can be blamed, but to leave it at that is only to begin to scratch the surface.
If we probe deeper, we see that, besides the cost of food, the wasting of food is also a factor. Hong Kong wastes some 3,600 tonnes of food each day; food-related commerce and industry account for about a third of this figure, while two thirds is domestic. Daily food waste per capita is 0.4kg – double the amount our Asian neighbours, Taiwan and South Korea, each produce. The Environment Bureau is planning to implement multipronged strategies to improve the situation over the next eight years.
The phenomenon of food waste stands in stark contrast to the fact that some families have fewer than three meals a day, or consume inexpensive, less nutritious food simply so they can cope financially. The Census and Statistics Department’s latest Household Expenditure Survey, covering 2009-10, reveals that housing and food expenses account for almost 75 per cent of the total expenditure of the city’s poorest families. And with limited money, some can only afford cheaper food from markets that may sometimes be a little stale, while others order takeaways, which are often high in sodium.
World Food Day and World Poverty Day are consecutively aligned to illustrate the close relationship between food and poverty. Overseas academics and newspapers have introduced the term “food poverty” – defined as “the inability to obtain healthy affordable food”. One academic has gone further, saying that those who experience food poverty have poorer diets and health, and spend a higher percentage of their income on a limited range of food. This, unfortunately, aptly describes the situation in Hong Kong.
A food collection and redistribution programme in the city – Food Assistance Programme in Food Paradise, a title which aptly describes the absurd reality in our city – found that the majority of recipients were dependents; children stood out as the biggest group. This is worrying, as a lack of proper nutrition could have dire consequences for our children over the long term.
The latest “State of Food Insecurity in the World” report reveals progress towards the UN’s Millennium Development Goals’ hunger target as the percentage of undernourished people in developing countries decreased to less than 15 per cent between 2010 and 2012. Though there is great hope for further reductions by next year, formidable challenges remain.
While food poverty in the context of Hong Kong correlates greatly with the lack of purchasing power for quality food, the causes of hunger in developing countries are much more complex. They are usually determined by low agricultural productivity and the interruption of production, which is mostly because of natural disasters or man-made conflicts, along with a lack of disposable income to buy basic food. Could agricultural reforms and advanced technologies help boost agricultural activity, as it has done in China during the past three decades, helping to pull some 680 million people out of poverty?
With extreme climate and weather patterns, such as droughts and frequent storms that cause landslides and flooding, boosting agricultural productivity has been difficult. Last month’s UN climate summit in New York called for alliances between non-governmental organisations, businesses and governments to drastically reduce carbon emissions.
In its report, “Hot and Hungry”, Oxfam highlighted that these extreme climatic patterns could put back by decades the fight against hunger and poverty, and that our global food system is woefully unprepared to cope with this challenge. However, this does not mean we should sit back and do nothing. The report identifies several key elements that can mitigate hunger by supporting smallholder farmers, who produce 70 per cent of the world’s food.
First, rich countries must keep their promise to help poor nations adapt to extreme and changing climate patterns; second, agricultural investment must be prominently featured in national agricultural budgets; third, regional and global bodies must support agricultural research and development. Without such measures, we have seen global seed diversity fall by 75 per cent over the past 100 years, depriving farmers of crop varieties better suited to changing weather patterns.
Other practical areas in which donors and NGOs can contribute include irrigation, crop insurance to guard against natural calamities, and weather forecasting to provide timely information to help farmers avoid crop failure.
There are still roughly 805 million people – one in nine of the world’s population – who go to bed hungry every night, but there is hope, thanks to these donors and organisations. It is also encouraging to see the engagement of local organisations and groups committed to redistributing surplus food to the needy. This is undoubtedly a strong expression of Hong Kong people’s care for those in need, and their hunger for change. With these efforts and partnerships, it seems possible to create a world without poverty within our lifetime.
Mayling Chan is international programme director at Oxfam Hong Kong