Street food and urban and periurban agriculture and horticulture: perspectives for a strategic coalition towards food security
Dear FSN Forum members,
I am very glad to be the facilitator of this second online discussion about street food vending.
My name is Stefano Marras. I am currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Business Administration, Finance, Management and Law, and at the Department of Sociology and Social Research of the University of Milan-Bicocca, Italy.
The aim of this second discussion is to share perspectives on actual and potential links between street food vending and urban and periurban agriculture and horticulture (UPA), analyzing if and in which way such links may represent the basis for possible strategies to enhance food security in urban areas.
This discussion will be an opportunity to expand and strengthen the network of specialists involved in street food trade and governance worldwide.
Introduction
Urban food security depends on food availability, access, and quality over time. With the rapid growth of the urban population and the low nutritional levels of the urban and peri-urban poor, there is tremendous scope for increasing supply of accessible, safe and nutritious food, while ensuring its sustainable production. Academics, FAO, WHO, all recognized street food – i.e. ready-to-eat foods and beverages prepared and/or sold by vendors or hawkers, in the street and similar locations – and urban and peri-urban agriculture and horticulture (UPA) – the growing of plants and the raising of animals within and around cities – as having the potential to help achieve food security in urban areas.
Street foods account for a significant proportion of daily urban food consumption for millions of low- and middle-income consumers in urban areas, representing the least expensive and most accessible means of obtaining a nutritionally balanced meal outside the home (provided that the consumer is informed and able to choose an appropriate combination of foods). In addition, the preparation and sale of street food provides a regular source of income for millions of men and women with limited financial, social, and cultural capital, since the start-up investment and the overheads are relatively low, and cooking requires little or no formal training.
Within this framework, UPA can provide street food vendors fresh, nutritious, less expensive ingredients. Although in most cities in developing countries an important part of urban agricultural production is for self-consumption, the importance of the market-oriented urban agriculture, both in volume and economic value, should not be underestimated. Research has shown that market-oriented, small-scale urban agriculture is often more profitable than small-scale agricultural production in rural areas and generates incomes above formal minimum wage level. A comparative advantage for the urban producers is their close proximity to the urban consumers. Urban vegetable growers spend less on transport, packaging and storage, and can sell directly through street food stands and market stalls. The urban grower can capture as much as 50-75 percent of the retail price, depending on the marketing system, whereas the rural farmer may receive more typically 15-40 percent.
Local food production can be an important source of supply of fresh vegetables for street food preparation. Since locally produced food requires less transportation and refrigeration, it can supply nearby markets with fresher and more nutritious products at competitive prices. Food growing in cities, thus, can and does help improve the quality of people’s diets by providing a greater choice of fresh fruits and vegetables at better prices, particularly to people in the low-income bracket. More common street foods, in most countries, are based on animal-source ingredients often derived from animals kept in cities, there where the commercial peri-urban production of livestock is an extremely fast-growing sector, representing 34 percent of total meat production and nearly 70 percent of egg production worldwide). Nonetheless, fresh salad preparations have increasingly become an integral component of street food sold in cities like Accra, Ghana, and Santiago, Chile. Some urban and peri-urban farmers are even moving towards intensive production of high value-added produce, rather than basic food stuffs; such activities can become major sources of income for more sophisticated members of the population who have investment capacity.
In Bogota, Colombia we can see another trend in direct marketing, wherein the farmers-producer and retailer sit on the board of the corporation and jointly decide what will be produced when. This trend and others are also supported by new communications systems.
Nonetheless, both, street food vending and urban agriculture are still largely debated and opposed or rather ignored by planners and both street food vendors and UPA farmers often operate without permits. Since it is officially "invisible", the sector receives no public assistance or oversight in many cities. For this reason, UPA carries health and environmental risks – potential use of contaminated land and water smells and noise pollution, and inappropriate use of pesticides and of raw organic manure that can leak into water sources. Food production, processing, and vending in the peri-urban zones, while providing employment, do raise issues related to pollution and food safety.
Authorities in many countries have responded to this problem with weak and erratic implementation of legislation on street food and urban agriculture. As formal and informal standards grow, there is a real risk that the poor will be excluded from markets.
Governments should recognize the role played by UPA and street food in making food available to poor families in urban areas and in generating income; they must face and cope with the prevailing problems and accept urban livelihood grassroots strategies including urban farming and street vending, as well as realize the benefits and opportunities created through productive use of green open spaces in cities, both, in terms of nutrition and environmental development.
FAO supports the transformation of UPA and street vending into a recognized urban land use and economic activity in their own right, integrated into national and local agricultural development strategies, food and nutrition programmes, and urban planning. FAO helps national and regional governments and city administrations optimize their policies and support services for urban and peri-urban agriculture, and improve production, processing and marketing systems. Over time the image of urban and peri-urban agriculture may evolve into that of accepted and needed activities which will supersede the temporary and crisis-oriented image of the past.
Questions
In light of this, I would like to raise the following questions /reflections to be discussed:
- Are you aware of actual direct links between street food vendors and local urban farmers?
- Are there examples of concrete measures promoted by local authorities to recognize and increase such kind of link?
- If so, how have these actions influenced consumers’ choices towards street food?
- Have similar initiatives been prompted directly by street food vendors associations? How?
- I believe that creating a system of incentives (e.g permits to sell in areas where there are more potential customers, such as near schools, hospitals, transportation hubs; vouchers or some sort of recognition mechanism for good practices) is required for motivating the street vendors to use locally-sourced, fresh produce. Do you think that such incentives could be successful, and why? What other types of incentives might be, and why?
- What new mechanisms can be put in place to raise peoples’ awareness on the consequences of their street eating habits? Do you know any advertising methods which have been proven effective?
I wish a fruitful exchange and I thank you in advance for your inputs as they will contribute to refine any future intervention on the ground.
Many thanks,
Stefano Marras
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The University of Eldoret, formerly Chepkoilel University College is in a Peri-urban set-up and we have developed a value chain which shortens the distance between producer, vendor and consumer of vegetables, fruits and cereals for the sorrounding community, including the student population. This lessens costs on transport for both producer and street vendor and makes commodities more affordable whilst lessening the loss of nutrients and that may occur due to excessive postharvest handling, and shortens the carbon loop. The sellers feed their waste back into the University gardening project in which students from the sorrounding schools participate in producing, processing, packaging and selling of produce the vendors. The consumers enjoy the products which are hygienically made and the demand is very high, necessitating an expansion of the project.
Dear all,
In Cameroon, street food is a common issue. CECOSDA, as a center for Communication and Sustainable Development for All has been working with street food vendors to improve their impact on food security.
Yaounde, Cameroon:
In Biyem-Assi, a neighborhood of Cameroon’s capital city Yaoundé, Solange Kimbi and her younger sister prepare food to be sold roadside to the local population which includes men and women of various works of life. Solange has been preparing and selling food for a period of about 7 years. By providing food to those workers, she considers herself as a pertinent actor in food security process in her community due to shortages and increase in prices of raw food stuff.
Solange sells a plate of food at 500 Frs CFA( onedollar). ”It is the minimum cost per a plate. However, most average Cameroonians cannot afford to have a daily plate of food at this rate”. Being considered as a low-income and food-deficit country by the World Food Programme, Cameroon has conducted in 2007 a food security and vulnerability analysis. This suggests that vulnerability and food insecurity in the country were due to poor agricultural production, low education and income levels, and inadequate infrastructure
Threats to food security may seem out of place for a country like Cameroon, with abundant agricultural resources. However, Solange has a major worry because she has seen food prices increase very sharply over the past seven years and still increasing till date. More often she counts on local farmers to supply raw food. Every effort put in by the State has not actually yielded any fruits despite several attempts to decrease the price of food stuff. According to Solange, most of the raw food from the local farmers of Cameroon which was usually consumed in urban areas is now being exported to other neighboring countries like Chad, Nigeria, Gabon, Central Africa Republic, Equatorial Guinea, amongst other.
Considering the high cost of raw food stuff in the market, the security of roadside food does not seem to be guaranteed. Most of the food vendors do not take out time to look into the cleanliness part of the preparation, since they cook in large quantities and are always in a hurry to meet up with the consumers. The hygienic aspects of street food vending are a major concern for consumers, and food control officers. Vending stands and beer parlors are often crude structures, and running water, washing facilities and toilettes may not be available. Moreover water used for cooking of food stuffs and washing of plates is usually not often verified; most of it is carried from dirty wells, sometimes very close to toilets, and often offered to customers to drink. Another call for concern lies on inadequate refuge disposal facilities, which lead to accumulation of refuge at food vending sites. This attracts an increased pest population and favors a high risk of food contamination.
The above mentioned are a major call for concern since it has proven to be the greatest source of food borne diseases. Foodborne bacterial agents are the leading cause of severe and fatal foodborne illnesses. Of the many thousands different bacterial species, more than 90% of food-poisoning illnesses are caused by species of Staphylococcus, Salmonella, Clostridium, Campylobacter, Listeria, Vibrio, Bacillus, and Enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (E-Coli).
This is under looked by most of these roadside food vendors, thus a real call for health concern to the entire public. CECOSDA as a center for Communication to Sustainable Development for All took the initiative to sensitize some of these food vendors on the food security aspect of roadside food consumption. This has actually been a highly appreciated initiative which has helped curbed the minds and behaviors of these vendor who has actually changed some aspects of the preparation and serving of food to customers.
Hi dear everyone, my name is Rowens Cristancho, I live in Colombia, South America.
I’m biologist, and like all of you, I'm really concerned about the global food security. In this forum, I have seen opinions from many professors and PhDs; I´m sorry, I don´t have a lot of professional experience, I received my bachelor degree a couple of days ago. Some of you have cited many reports about street food vendors, I don´t have a lot of data, but something I know, I was for a long time a street food vendor in order to pay my basic needs and my professional studies.
Food street sales in my country is a current activity to get money in the urban poverty zones. This situation is produced by the fact that there are two kind of markets for food; I don´t know if this denomination way is right, but I called them: the big formal market and the little informal market. For the first one, the productive chain looks like this: a really big agricultural company produces tons of tomatoes, the tomatoes are sold in bulk to companies like Jumbo, who distributes the tomatoes in a high price but with a really sexy presentation, or McDonalds who uses the tomatoes in its products. I know that you know more than me about this topic. For the second one, the productive chain looks like this: a little local farmer can´t produce tons of tomatoes, he just produces some pounds; he carries his products to the local market where the prices are lower, this place is visited by poor people, who can´t buy in Jumbo (like me), in order to prepare street food, because is a fast and practical way to get some money.
I would like learn from you more about this situation, and sharing information science different points of view like social economic, scientific, and practical experience.
Thank you.
This is a good discussion, thank you Stefano.
All agree that street food is here to stay, that it is a vibrant market sector and provides a good service to people who need it. But all also agree that food hygiene and safety standards are low (see e.g. Ilaria Proietti). The technical and social means of dealing with this are clear: training, inspection, rules and standards, clean water supplies, good sanitation, clean transport etc. It is not at all clear however how these are to be achieved where public funds are lacking.
The only alternative I can see is improved consumer education and influence, the market “pull” factor that Hélène de Lisle described in the NFSI project in Benin where (as I understand it) children learned to ask vendors for healthy food, and vendors duly responded (I must find out more). But can that work more widely? The Good Greens polling system where customers give vendors red or green marks according to their price/ taste/ hygiene/ freshness and nutritional quality, is very direct and appealing and I imagine that consumers can probably generally see freshness (though even in a stew?). But how can they recognize good hygiene (e.g. if they cannot see how food or plates have been washed) or judge nutritional quality or know if foods are contaminated or if colour is due to chemicals?
I have tried to find out from FAO if consumer education can achieve these things but have had no joy. I have not seen these skills covered in school or public education materials. Does that mean that consumer education can't achieve much? And if regulation can't be afforded, does that mean we can't fix the problem of safety in street food? Can anyone show the way here?
Jane Sherman, nutrition education consultant, FAO
One of my colleagues from New Zealand, when working in Tanzania on a food processing project for SIDA, went shopping for citrus peels that she wanted to use to make into a delightful candied peel confection (oranges, lemons, and/or limes). She approached street food vendors in Arusha who was making fresh juices, and requested permission to take the "trash" for her training program. Once the local women had learned to make the candied peel, and were packaging it in brightly colored containers with nice labels and selling it successfully in the markets, the citrus juice makers realized that they had a valuable by-product and began selling the peels.
Dr. Lisa Kitinoja
The Postharvest Education Foundation
1.Are you aware of actual direct links between street food vendors and local urban farmers
Yes In India it is commonly observed that during the main season or glut farmers supply teucj loads of fruits such as jackfruit, watermelon to road side venders. some time entire truck load material will be unloaded to single place. These street food venders sale produce by removing peel and seed in a ready to eat form such as water meol slices or jackfruit bulbs and also sale whole fruits to passing customers. Onther direct lonk has been observed beetween green coconut producers and road side sallers as the produce is directly supplied by farmers in the morning in a templo or cart while vender will cut and offer the fruits to indivisual customer.
Measures promoted by local authorities:
In some cases street fruit venders offer fresh cut fruits as fruit salad. To have asafe approach local autorities compell to sale to produce keeping in enclosers of glass to avoid contact with flies and dust.
How have these actions influenced consumers’ choices towards street food
It gives cheap and fresh produce tro consumers
Pessoal,
A comida de rua é uma necessidade das cidades por lugares mais simples, mais rápidos e mais em conta, além de também servir como uma oportunidade de criar um modelo de comprometimento, de maior inclusão das pessoas no negócio.
Uma das atividades que realizo com muita satisfação, são os Cursos de Boas Práticas na manipulação dos alimentos para “ambulantes” (vendedores de alimentos na rua), pois, a Prefeitura da cidade, exige que todos sejam devidamente capacitados para manipularem alimentos, não podendo atuar nesse setor sem esse requisito.
Esta é uma excelente oportunidade para conhecer melhor as dificuldades que as pessoas encontram nesse tipo de trabalho e orienta-las melhor. Um exemplo é o popular caldo de cana (também conhecido como garapa) tradicionalmente preparado sem os devidos cuidados e com grande resistência a mudanças principalmente por trabalhadores mais antigos.
A falta de água e de banheiros também são problemas praticamente unanimes que afligem e prejudicam esses trabalhadores.
Muitos deles fazem a maior parte da manipulação em casa, longe dos olhos da fiscalização sanitária. Outros compram alimentos prontos, de fornecedores que nem sempre estão devidamente qualificados. Durante o curso procuro orienta-los a exigirem e prestarem bastante atenção na qualidade dos alimentos que compram.
Ultimamente tem aumentado também o número de feiras de alimentos orgânicos provenientes da agricultura familiar, que oferecem serviços de venda online e através de coletivos de consumo.
Não podemos deixar de mencionar à moda do Food Trucks que é uma versão moderna da comida de rua, altamente rentável que traz o melhor da gastronomia as ruas das cidades, elevando assim a percepção sobre o trabalho dos ambulantes.
Obrigada,
Maria Travaglini
Thanks Stefano for this new articulation of the street food topics.
More than a case to feed the guiding questions you propose so far i would like to suggest an additional guiding question: are you aware of any case where the measure put in place towards food safety where introduced with a sort of 'protection' perspective, to actually make sure street food actors are helped, accompanied, in facing training, additional equipment requirements, bureacratic (and contingency of having to face administrative structure corruption) procedures to obtain permits?
I think if cases in this direction exist and could be shared in this forum, they might result to be also key good practices - people-centered - that ought to be considered in any future policy and regulation recommendation.
On the basis of the many interesting contributions to this discussion, I would like to share with you additional questions, hoping you find inspiration for more, new contributions.
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Some of you have pointed out the benefits of street foods based on millet (particularly in India, as reported by Prof Kirit Patel and Salomeyesudas), fruit (e.g. in South Africa, as noted by Prof. Hélène Delisle) and vegetables (e.g. in Lahore, as pointed out by Hamid Ahmad, and in Europe a century ago, as noted by Lal Manavado).
What products, both plants and animals (including insects), do you believe should be more present on street food vendors' stands? Why?
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Are you familiar with technologies or techniques being tested for better transportation and better storage of food from rural to urban areas? (See Mr. Vijay Yadav Tokala's contribution)
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A key, often neglected issue is brought out by Hamid Ahmad. Hamid notes that the consumption street food in the United States is related to socio-cultural practices and secondary needs (e.g. free time). The so-called “foodies” in the US are even willing to pay the same price they would pay for the same product in a restaurant. In poorer countries, however, street food is mainly related to urban poverty and basic needs, providing nutritious food at low cost. Hence, Hamid points out the risks coming to official, top-down projects aimed at improving the quality of street foods, there where such projects may bring higher costs for vendors, and therefore higher prices for consumers. Rather, Hamid suggests that "social pressure and table talk on the spot by consumers routine matter and affect much more than drawing any lines for monitoring and evaluation."
What do you think about this?
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Lisa Kitinoja points out that postharvest losses (due to poor handling on the farm, damages during harvest, poor quality packaging) bring farmers to raise the prices of their products on the market to compensate.
What role could street food vendors play to reduce farmers postharvest losses?
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Prof. Hélène Delisle mentioned the Nutrition Friendly School Initiative implemented in Benin and Burkina Faso: street food vendors were trained in hygiene and basic nutrition to be able to sell healthier food to school children. This project proved to be successful, generating improvements in the variety and quality of food served. Nevertheless, such a project needed to sensitize the students themselves (they often love, you know, foods that are rich in chemical colors and flavors). Awareness activities were then conducted with the participation of teachers.
Are you aware of campaigns or communication strategies, aimed specifically at children and young people, aimed to encourage them to eat healthier foods? Any example of “fun and creative” campaigns, as suggested by Ms. Amila Fauziah?
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Farmers prefer to sell their products in bulk (either to general markets or supermatkets) in order to have a high revenue. This means that street food vendors, taken individually, are not an attractive customer to farmers. As pointed out by Salomeyesudas, to support the connection between street food vendors and local farmers, the former should unite in cooperatives enabling to buy large quantities of products. This strategy would benefits both actors, as it would eliminate middleman (See Mr. Palanivelayutham's contribution).
What organizational strategies could be put in place to encourage, strengthen and make the link between street food vendors and local farmers profitable?
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Massive conurbation erases cultivable areas within urban areas (See Lal Manavado and Gisèle Yasmeen). This happens because the value of building areas is higher than that of cultivable areas. For this reason, cities’ governments prefer to sell (at high prices), or to grant land (with the prospect of high returns in taxes) for building rather than farming.
Can you think of possible strategies to make arable land in the city as profitable (either in the short or in the long term) as building land?
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Finally, the food safety issue is certainly important. But it is necessary, in my opinion, to go beyond the great amount of literature and reports showing the high level of bacterial contamination and ensuing toxicological hazards of street foods. In 1985 Pan American and World Health Organization (PAHO and WHO) organized the first workshop on the issue in Lima, Peru. A few years later, in 1991, a severe cholera epidemic struck the Peruvian country and the surrounding Andean region; street food was considered to be the major carrier of the disease (Ries et al., 1992, Panisset, 2000). Ever since, the assessment of bacterial contamination levels in street foods has drawn the attention of scholars, authorities and organizations throughout the continent and beyond (Schubert, 1992; Arámbulo et al., 1995; Costarrica et al., 1996; Morón and Schjtman, 1997; Moy et al., 1997; Evans and Brachman, 1998; López Rivera et al., 1998; FAO and WHO, 2001; Hanashiro et al., 2005; Larralde and Sciutto, 2006; Bogota N.A.O., 2009; FAO, 2009a; Méndez et al., 2010).
Several factors potentially contribute to bacterial contamination of street food. Beside the dust, pollution, insects that are lurking in the streets, risks may arise where street food is home-prepared by those vendors living and selling in underdeveloped settlements, where water and sanitation infrastructures and services are often deficient (UN-Habitat, 2003). When vendors have low or no schooling, their knowledge and awareness about bio-medical guidelines to handle food safely may be limited.
Despite knowledge of the risk factors, actual harm to consumers’ health is yet to be fully proven and understood. Due to difficulties in tracking cases and the lack of disease-reporting systems, follow-up studies proving actual connections between street food consumption and food-borne diseases are still very few (i.e., Flisser, 2013). Little attention has been devoted to consumers and their eating habits, behaviors, and awareness. The fact that social and geographical origins largely determine consumers’ physiological adaptation and reaction to foods--whether contaminated or not--is neglected in the literature.
The food security is the societal issue that need attention. In the least developing countries, the well-defined and practical policies are important to involve the potential actors in street food, periurban agriculture and horticulture. The Governments have to prioritized the those area to ensure availability,accessibility and utilization of nutritious food for healthy and active life.
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