Convenience store picnic

One evening this past spring, I stopped by one of the relatively new convenience stores located in downtown Ho Chi Minh City।




A boy has dinner at a fast food
store in downtown Ho Chi Minh City।

As I approached the front door, the store appeared empty. When I entered, however, one of three uniformed employees emerged from a squatted position between the front window and the counter.
It became clear that the three clerks on duty were in the middle of eating dinner. Out of sight to passersby, they had gathered around a small plastic packing crate turned upside and were using the flat bottom as a table as they prepared their meal. The group was making sandwiches.
As I stood by the counter waiting to pay, I watched. A loaf of unhealthy looking white bread, two small cans of oily meat, and a plastic squeeze bottle of florescent red chili sauce comprised the list of ingredients one young woman was fashioning into a meal.
I had a visceral sense that people should not eat in the way I was observing. They should not huddle on the notso-clean floor of a convenience store and they should not consume such foodstuffs, if what they were eating even deserves that descriptor.
My intent is decidedly not to pass judgment. Both the clerks’ salary and their schedule likely make such foraging a necessity. In fact, I would argue convenience store owners should provide store clerks with the means to eat better. My main point, though, is that this anecdote might be a sign of something wrong with food systems in Vietnam.
This something wrong starts with how Vietnam grows and produces its food. But it also concerns the decisions of consumers, an increasing number of whom seem to be content with eating what food journalist Michael Pollan calls “edible foodlike substances.” People should be concerned with the shifts in food consumption in Ho Chi Minh City of which the convenience store picnic is likely evidence.
The abundance of individual food crisis in Vietnam over the past few years (regarding milk, tuna, and many other items) strongly suggests that the public does not always know very much about what they are eating. Average people only learn about such crises after several individuals end up in the hospital.
Yet, if a large portion of what a family eats is processed food, is there really any excuse not to be concerned? Should we trust the food industry with the safety of our food and the condition of our health? We know a company’s biggest concern is their bottom line, not our health.
But is this knowledge enough? Impressive crowds at the variety of fast food restaurants in Ho Chi Minh City suggest not. Too many people seem not to care enough about what they eat.
It is common knowledge that the low-nutrient, high-fat edible substances available at fast food restaurants are responsible for a range of negative impacts on health. Yet these restaurants are packed full night after night.
It is time for the city to wake up with regard to its food. This is not a matter of harkening back to a time when so-called traditional Vietnamese food was the only option. What is needed in Ho Chi Minh City is a significant change in thinking about what it means to feed a society. Sustainable and healthy food systems should draw on the best aspects of old and new ways of growing, producing and preparing food, while making the elimination of “edible foodlike substances” a key priority.
I have actually heard people bemoan the lack of McDonald’s restaurants in Vietnam. According to these voices, Vietnam still needs to develop further before its citizens can enjoy the luxury and satisfaction of a Big Mac. This is precisely the wrong thinking. Fast food represents the near opposite of progress.
The satisfaction that comes from eating can and should result from whole foods, and does not need to be associated with the latest fast food trends or marketing gimmicks, ploys that corporations often aim most directly at a society’s youngest. I’ve seen the results of children raised on fast food. Vietnam does not want to continue down this path.
With food-related health problems on the rise in Vietnam, there is no time like the present to think creatively and deeply about healthy eating, not only as an individual, but also as a society. In my opinion, it would be terrific if, in ten years, Vietnam was still McDonald’s-free.
By Rylan Higgins*
*Rylan Higgins, Ph.D, is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Loyola University Chicago and is currently working on educational programs in Ho Chi Minh City