Message-ID: <199612201541.KAA19102@mail.uncc.edu> Date: Fri, 20 Dec 1996 10:41:29 -0500 From: "S. Tjip Walker" <mailto:stwalker@UNCCVM.UNCC.EDU> Subject: Street Foods: New Book To: Multiple recipients of list DEVEL-L <mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU>
Since the recent thread on street foods demonstrates some interest in this topic among subscribers, I thought I would bring to your attention the release of a new book that reports on an extensive research program on street foods and street food vendors around the world. What follows is an abstract taken from the Open Air website (www.openair.org).------------------------------- Book Abstract ------------------------------------
A book abstract:
Street Foods: Urban Food and Employment in Developing Countries
by Irene Tinker (mailto:itinker@ced.berkeley.edu) Department of City and Regional Planning 228 Wurster Hall U. of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720-1850
The book will be available January, 1997 from Oxford U Press and
costs $24.95.
<I>Street Foods</I> recounts efforts of an action-research project
by a small research group, the Equity Policy Center [EPOC], to
improve the income of street food vendors and the safety of the
food they sell. The original studies were conducted in provincial
cities in seven countries: Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Bangladesh,
Egypt, Nigeria, and Senegal. Descriptions of the cities and their
street foods, including recipes of local favorites, comprise the
first part of the book. So intriguing were preliminary findings
that the Food and Agricultural Organization [FAO] and independent
scholars expanded the research to many other cities. These findings
are incorporated in the analytical chapters of the book.
Unique is the long-term perspective concerning the impact of the
project: Tinker revisited the study sites after five years to
find out what had happened regarding the recommended interventions
for enhancing the vendor income or the food safety. Two issues
are paramount: governmental attitudes toward the street food trade,
and efforts within and outside the government to train vendors
in food handling and to offer them other services.
Once the studies proved the importance of street foods in the
economy of a city and in the food habits of its citizens, municipal
authorities reversed their attempts to eradicate vendors and their
carts. Despite bomb threats, a city councilwoman passed legislation
to legitimize carts in downtown Manila. In Nigeria, local authorities
have erected mini-food malls for vendors to protect them from
the wrath of the national military government. In Egypt, the
local governor encouraged his staff to join with vendors to form
their own organization.
Food safety is a global issue but street foods are generally no
more contaminated than food served in local restaurants or in
the average home. The FAO altered its earlier denigration of
street foods and helped fund a major project in Bogor, Indonesia,
that built on the EPOC study and provided a model for training
throughout the country. FAO also supported multi-city studies
in Nigeria that underscored ethnic and regional variations of
the trade.
Details of the street food trade provide robust comparative data
on the vendors themselves and the income from their micro enterprise.
Challenging much conventional wisdom about the informal sector,
the study documents an economic activity that produces an income
ranging from minimum wage to higher than teachers or government
clerks. Successful vendors work in the trade for a lifetime,
but many casual vendors sell as a supplement to other activities.
Findings support the efficacy of assisting micro entrepreneurs
rather than only investing in larger industries that grow.
Gender analysis shows that in Africa and the Caribbean, women
and men run their separate enterprises but in Asia, vending is
a family affair. The importance of women in the trade reflects
the need of most poor women to balance the earning of income with
household responsibilities. The often contentious debate over
whether micro enterprise, like other home based work, further
exploits women is updated with information about new methods of
organizing home workers. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- S. Tjip Walker ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Department of Political Science University of North Carolina at Charlotte e-mail: mailto:stwalker@email.uncc.edu / phone: 704-547-4527 / fax: 704-547-3497 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------