Throughout the developed world, as folks turn into extra acutely aware of the meat trade’s comparatively massive carbon footprint, there are actions aimed toward lowering the consumption of animal merchandise, if not turning into outright vegan.
That effort is especially difficult in South Korea, the place meat is related to wealth and well being, and the place tabletop barbecuing is a lifestyle.
“I attempted my greatest, even setting a cute picture of pigs as my telephone wallpaper,” stated Jung Jin-a, a dedicated animal rights activist who has been struggling to surrender meat for greater than a decade.
She wished to avoid wasting the planet and the animals. However she wished scorching pork stomach, too.
“The pork and rooster are proper in entrance of my eyes and can instantly fulfill my cravings, whereas the values I uphold by refusing meat are invisible,” stated Jung, who wrote a e book about her life as an “imperfect vegetarian.”
After Ok-pop and Ok-dramas, Ok-BBQ could be South Korea’s best-known cultural export. The Korean methodology of grilling meat is beloved by diners world wide, and attracts foodie vacationers. Korean meals has risen as one of the fashionable cuisines on TikTok and Instagram, in keeping with a 2023 evaluation of social media tags.
The Oscar-winning movie “Parasite” featured grilled Korean beef with instantaneous noodles, fueling a social media frenzy.
At residence, it’s a nationwide pastime, whether or not at an after-work gathering or a picnic dinner on a transportable grill.
Meat has all the time been an aspirational meal right here. It was a luxurious throughout South Korea’s emergence from colonization and struggle, however after a long time of speedy financial development, meat has now taken over Korean dinner tables.
South Korea’s annual meat consumption per particular person exceeded that of rice for the primary time in 2022. It’s now 134 kilos — a lot decrease than the annual American per capita meat consumption of 225 kilos, however up from 69 kilos 20 years in the past.
Now, it’s uncommon to stroll greater than two blocks in central Seoul at 7 p.m. with out inhaling the aroma of grilled meat. This nation of 51 million has greater than 70,000 barbecue eating places.
However some local weather change activists and animal rights advocates are developing with inventive methods to query this ubiquitous carnivore tradition and embrace plant-based consuming.
One of many greatest challenges for aspiring vegetarians and vegans in South Korea is that they don’t know the place to start out.
Meat and seafood seem in some kind in practically each meal: small and generally incognito substances like tiny fermented shrimp in kimchi; minced meat in bibimbap; or seafood inventory in scorching tofu soup.
Given the pervasiveness of animal merchandise in dishes, and a lack of understanding of vegetarian wants, it may be difficult to go meat-free at eating places or when communally eating.
These difficulties have given rise to the “bideong,” or “no-chunk,” strategy to plant-based consuming amongst budding vegetarians in South Korea.
For Jang Kyung-mi, bideong means making her “greatest effort to keep away from seen chunks of meat when circumstances don’t enable” consuming vegetarian, particularly when eating out or sharing a meal with omnivores. This strategy has helped her keep away from awkward questions at eating places, like asking whether or not the broth is from seafood or meat inventory.
A strict vegan weight-reduction plan, which was her preliminary aim three years in the past, was laborious to observe whereas dwelling with a non-vegetarian husband and baby. “We are usually preoccupied with the extremes when going meat-free,” stated the 38-year-old, who runs a zero-waste store exterior Seoul. “Nevertheless, a practical weight-reduction plan that we will truly maintain is simpler and significant.”
The “no chunk” life-style is an instance of a big-tent strategy to plant-based consuming, and its accessible nature is fueling a transfer away from a meat-centered weight-reduction plan.
Whereas simply 4 % of South Korean adults determine as vegetarians — a lot of them religious Buddhists, who keep away from consuming meat and strong-smelling vegetation as a part of their observe — 12 % say they’re flexitarians who comply with a plant-centric weight-reduction plan, in keeping with a survey final 12 months by Hankook Analysis, a Seoul-based pollster.
On social media, the hashtag “my veganism diary” has turn into fashionable, amplifying the voices of these making an attempt to go meat-free and influencing a brand new technology of plant-centric eaters. On Instagram, South Koreans share their expertise of trying — and generally succeeding, however usually failing — to eat vegan, and encourage others to affix the problem.
The social media pattern has been a supply of motivation for South Korean illustrator Kim Bo-sun. She began posting a collection known as “My Veganism Cartoon” on social media, by which she playfully depicts the ups and downs in her life as an “aspiring vegan.”
“I began engaged on these cartoons in hopes that it might encourage extra imperfect vegans like myself,” she stated. “I believe 100 imperfect aspiring vegans are extra worthwhile for our planet than a single good vegan.”
Specialists say this much less puritanical and extra versatile strategy may decrease the limitations to a plant-based weight-reduction plan. “In an period of pressing local weather threat, convincing folks to chop down meat consumption even simply on a part-time foundation is essential,” stated Oh Choong-hyeon, an environmental science knowledgeable at Dongguk College in Seoul.
South Koreans’ massive urge for food for meat is “neither sustainable nor accountable,” he stated.
The nation’s economic system has grown to turn into the world’s Thirteenth-largest, and it’s the Tenth-biggest carbon polluter throughout the globe, in keeping with the International Carbon Atlas. It is because it stays depending on heavy trade reminiscent of petrochemicals, metal and vehicles. The power and industrial sectors are chargeable for two-thirds of complete emissions, adopted by the transport, constructing and agriculture sectors.
The Asian financial powerhouse is among the lowest performers within the Local weather Change Efficiency Index, which assesses the nationwide greenhouse fuel emissions, power combine and local weather coverage of 63 international locations and the European Union.
South Korea’s topography implies that livestock is commonly raised in crowded manufacturing facility farms, which contributes to air and water air pollution, stated Park Jong-moo, a bioethics knowledgeable and veterinarian.
Some firms see an enormous potential market in different protein sources — though they concede that promoting to meat-loving Koreans isn’t any simple feat.
“Our merchandise are scrumptious sufficient to win over not solely vegetarians but in addition non-vegetarians who’ve by no means tried different meat,” stated Kim Yang-hee, CEO of HN Novatech, a Korean food-tech start-up that developed the world’s first seaweed ingredient for plant-based meat options.
Whereas seaweed stays an unfamiliar ingredient in Western international locations, it has been a staple of Korean and Japanese diets for lots of of years.
Kim Yang-hee stated her firm’s seaweed extract makes an “correct meat” taste with out components or preservatives usually current in plant-based meat merchandise. Seaweed farming, which makes use of solely the ocean, has the potential to redefine the way forward for protein manufacturing in an eco-friendly method, the corporate says. It lately launched a “meat-flavored” croquette and plans to comply with up with plant-based mackerel, milk substitute from seaweed extract, and seaweed “beef” jerky.
The federal government is taking discover. The Agriculture Ministry lately unveiled a plan to assist the plant-based economic system by establishing a devoted research heart for plant-based meat options and growing the exportability of the merchandise.
The nation’s plant-based protein market may attain $216 million by 2026, in keeping with estimates by the Korea Rural Financial Institute.
However there are nonetheless much more skeptics than proponents. “Saturday evening means going out for pork stomach and soju with associates,” stated Philip Lee, a Seoul-based soccer coach who eats barbecue each weekend. Lee says he’s conscious of vegetarianism and helps the motion, “however I can not see myself ever giving up meat.”
Joo Seon-tea, a professor of animal science at South Korea’s Gyeongsang Nationwide College, stated South Koreans have grown “taller, more healthy and happier” due to rising meat consumption over the a long time.
Joo says consuming meat day by day is a perfect dietary behavior that contributes to a balanced weight-reduction plan. His vegetarian daughter as soon as took him to a vegan restaurant the place Joo tried soy meat for the primary time. “It’s incomprehensible to me why anybody would need to eat pretend meat,” he stated. “Can’t you simply eat usually?”