Hong Kong might not be at war, but we are certainly affected by it. The latest gulf war and the continued blockade of the Strait of Hormuz have a direct impact on the everyday lives of Hong Kongers.
Since Hong Kong rely so heavily on imports, much of the food we eat are transported into the city via land, sea or air, which means logistics constitute a significant part of food costs.
Already, airline fuel surcharge has more than doubled this month and it will go up another 34% next month, local electricity is also increasing prices and gas prices have already increased 5 times. If we have not seen it yet, we will see it soon. Price increase is imminent.
They keyword here is resilience. Hiccups in the global food supply chain will happen, but the question is how can we prepare for it? When the current price of fertilizers and fuel are at an all-time high, it is a great time to be exploring alternatives.
I have few suggestions:
- Reduce our 95% reliance on food imports.
- Diversify / distributed food sources (link to pig farm)
- Why not go local? Have shorter supply chains.
On the show I was asked big questions about supply chain resilience and food shortages but I think global questions can have local responses. If fertilisers are expensive, then let’s look at what resources we have in the city – we produce plenty of reusable food scraps for excellent compost, but we need an infrastructure that makes it easy for citizens to participate. There is a lot of goodwill in the city, but recycling is still the exception to the norm because it is not yet built into the everyday infrastructure of our lives. We don’t need more technology, we just need to have the facilities to integrate the process into our daily lives. We don’t need fancy smart bins, we need more easy-to-access, easy-to-use recycling bins, and bigger ones too. We don’t need coupons, but we do need convenience.
And when it comes to the question of food insecurity, we need to learn to recognise what hunger looks like – in developed economies such as Hong Kong, food insecurity rarely appears as chronic hunger, but undernourishment and malnourishment do exist where parents might go hungry to prioritise their childrens’ needs.