Kimchi Emergency

Korea’s kimchi in danger of disappearing due to heavy competition from China

I love kimchi.

I love the smell - it makes my mouth water. I love the deeply rich medley of flavors. It's good for you too.

Even if there were nothing else Korea achieved in its long history, I would still say God bless them for bringing kimchi into the world. It is a fond dream of mine to one day travel to the country and spend my time sampling authentic Korean cuisine - including their best kimchi.

Now, it seems like that dream is in danger. I understand the economics - the mere presence of a cheaper alternative in the market drives prices down, regardless of its quality. I get that China is more effective in terms of producing the stuff. There is, and let me emphasize this, nothing wrong or illegal at all about what's happening right now.

But while we're talking economics, let's talk about unintended consequences. The recipes for kimchi from Korea have a unique history. Some may have been passed from parent to child; others may have been refined over decades to appeal to the most people. Korea's population ate their mother's kimchi as the country went through both terrible and great upheavals. Kimchi is part of Korea's culture, but the Koreans grew into their culture because of such daily things like kimchi. To have this diversity and heritage just up and lost without much of a fight to generic product... sort of hits me hard.

It's a lot like how there was a wealth of gong fu in China before the Communists; if the latter had their way all these arts would have been replaced by wushu - which is really an amazing thing, let me tell you. But wushu is not gong fu.