IMAGINING A WORLD WITHOUT KIMCHI
A staple food I grew up eating was kimchi. It’s something my family ate almost every day, either as a side dish or an essential ingredient in one of my mom’s recipes.
I heard about a reported “kimchi crisis” back in 2022 when cabbage crop losses heavily impacted farmers and families across South Korea. So I asked myself: ‘What would my life be like without it?’
Growing up, I remember autumns when my mom and her friends would prepare kimchi together in big batches. I remember receiving kimchi from our community members and evenings when my house was filled with the comforting scent of kimchi jigae.
The way climate change impacts our agriculture and global food supply has always presented an existential threat. But food has always meant more than survival for us as human beings. It’s heavily integrated into our cultural practices and oftentimes our ways of life.
Kimchi, and all Korean food, was one of the most important ways I connected with my cultural background as a second-generation immigrant.
As I got to university, kimchi became even more essential to me. Countless dishes that reminded me of home were easily made with the fermented ingredient. And when I could smell the cooking and the familiar taste I made myself, I felt proud because it was a reflection of my culture and it reminded me of my mom. My mom showed me her love through this food too as every time I visited home, I’d return to Ottawa with a large container of the spicy cabbage in my hands.
All these cultural memories for future generations could be lost from climate change. This means climate change is not just an existential threat in terms of our brute survival, but also an existential threat to who we are as people.
The act of kimchi-making is an intangible cultural heritage item. It follows a special seasonal cycle and kimchi is prepared in large quantities in groups. It’s made for sharing, and the practice represents cooperation and community.
Food is a central part of cultures across the world; losing certain produce or meat foreshadows a future without our food traditions. In fact, in Canada, many Indigenous peoples have already been suffering from food insecurity because of the impact of climate change on traditional hunting. This doesn’t only cause food insecurity but creates a huge loss of cultural heritage and community practice.
The pain of climate change lies in its erasure of our cultural diversity. What will life be like as we gradually lose these foods and food practices that mean so much to our daily lives? This doesn’t simply pose a problem to our survival, but also to our way of life, our community practices, and what makes us who we are.
