by Irene Tinker <itinker@ced.berkeley.edu>, Department of City & 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 cost $24.95.
provided by OPENAIR-MARKET NET
Street Foods 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.
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