{"id":8608,"date":"2019-10-04T15:37:24","date_gmt":"2019-10-04T07:37:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/?p=8608"},"modified":"2020-11-24T10:29:17","modified_gmt":"2020-11-24T02:29:17","slug":"im-not-eating-samgyeopsal-anymore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/im-not-eating-samgyeopsal-anymore\/","title":{"rendered":"I\u2019m not eating Samgyeopsal anymore"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ever since I\ndiscovered Samgyeopsal, I became an instant fan. Samgyeopsal is basically pork\nbelly meat that is cooked on a grill and is originally from Korea. It was one\nof the most interesting developments in South Korean culture during the Asian\nFinancial Crisis of 1997 that gave the pork belly the spotlight in South Korean\nbarbeque. Pork belly is a cheaper alternative to beef and thus, South Koreans\nate more at pork belly joints than beef barbeque restaurants. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Samgyeopsal craze\nhas hit the Philippines. Samgyeopsal joints in the country are popping up like\nmushrooms. For around Php300 to Php500, one can enjoy an unlimited pork or meat\nassortment that you cook through the grill on your table. There are also a lot\nof side dishes that waiters place on your table like sweet potatoes, kimchi,\njapchae, fish cakes, and even steamed egg. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Honestly, I don\u2019t eat the\nside dishes and just have the waiter put them back so they don\u2019t get thrown\naway. I wonder if other people do the same. This also got me thinking about how\nsome upper to middle class Filipinos could spend so much on food and even\npossibly have unlimited amounts of this at their disposal, while there is an\nongoing crisis in Philippine agriculture. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Around the country, we\nstill have food wastage through plate waste. The latest 2015 survey of FNRI\n(Food and Nutrition Research Institute) showed that a Filipino household has an\naverage food plate waste of 62 grams or 4 tablespoons per day. Cereals and cereal\nproducts were highest at 46 grams; fish, meat & poultry is at 8 grams;\nvegetables at 5 grams; and fruits at 1 gram among others. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additionally, the 2018\nGlobal Food Security Index (GFSI) places the country 70th<\/sup> among 113 countries\nin terms of food security. Food security is measured by the GFSI in terms of\naffordability, availability, and quality and safety. The GFSI placed the\nPhilippines in the lower rankings since we lack research and development in\nagriculture. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The agriculture sector\nis really in a dismal state. One indicator is looking at the sector\u2019s gross\ndomestic product (GDP) growth. In the second quarter of 2019, the agriculture\nsector had a 0.6% growth rate with the fishing subsector contributing to this, while\ncrops like palay and corn had a negative growth of 5.5% and 8.4% respectively.  Moreover, by looking at the proposed 2020\nbudget, the agriculture sector only garnered a 1.6% share in the total budget\ncompared to infrastructure with 16.6% and defense with 9.1%.  I guess improving the agriculture sector\u2019s\nproductivity is really not on the agenda. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The irony of eating at\na Samgyeopsal joint while we\u2019re having an agricultural crisis isn\u2019t just what\nbothers me about these places.  There\u2019s\nalso an environmental aspect. For one, you\u2019re using charcoal to cook your food\nand where does the vacuum expel the gases produced from charcoal? Literally,\noutside. Charcoal emits around 4.9 kilograms of carbon dioxide for an hour of\ngrilling compared to a gas grill that emits only about 2.5 kilograms of carbon\ndioxide. Now imagine how many tables per hour emit 4.9 kilograms of carbon\ndioxide in just one Samgyeopsal joint. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Second, is the\ndisposal of oil produced from these grills. The fat from meat goes under the\ncharcoal grill and is collected to be \u201cproperly\u201d disposed later. Normally,\nthese establishments should have proper grease or oil disposal procedures. But if\nthey just pour this down the drain or into the sewerage, it\u2019s an environmental\ndisaster waiting to happen.  Business\nestablishments have a problem with proper waste disposal even with guidelines\nand laws in place. One way to know if they dispose of their grease or oil improperly\nis if the sewers around the establishment smell horrible. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking back at the impact\nof eating meat amidst an agriculture and environmental crisis, I hate to say it,\nbut I may have to apologize to the titas<\/em> of IBON for making fun of them\nfor eating organic vegetables. They have always said that eating organic\nvegetables is healthier and better for the environment plus it supports our\nlocal farmers. But organic food does not come cheap since farmers do not own\nthe land they till, lack capital, and have no genuine government support. That\u2019s\nwhy there is a need to support our farmers through agrarian reform and long-term\nefforts of rural development. ###<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ever since I discovered Samgyeopsal, I became an instant fan. Samgyeopsal is basically pork belly meat that is cooked on a grill and is originally from Korea. It was one of the most interesting developments in South Korean culture during the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997 that gave the pork belly the spotlight in South […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":8612,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"single-withbanner.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2049],"tags":[2081,494,223,2082],"class_list":["post-8608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bird-feed","tag-bird-feed","tag-philippine-agriculture","tag-philippine-environment","tag-samgyeopsal","wpautop"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-23 14:13:23","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8608"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8608\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10574,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8608\/revisions\/10574"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}