The Culture in Agriculture: Day 10 (5/29)

As we got closer to the end of our trip, we had the opportunity again to meet with U.S. officials working in Southeast Asia.  This gave us a chance to get overviews of Malaysia and Singapore agriculture and how their culture influences their industry.  We also got to learn more about some controversial industry within agriculture of Southeast Asia and then some shopping.

Attaché Rittgers presenting at the U.S. Grains Council office, as Bethany O. takes notes

Our first meetings of the day began at the U.S. Grains office where our dear friends and leaders, Adel and Shellen, have their offices.  We could tell that Adel felt right at home, because he worked in his socks.  We began with a meeting with Chris Rittgers, agricultural attaché for Malaysia and Singapore for the USDA.  The second presentation was by Adel, further discussing Malaysian agriculture.  These discussions were very informative and clarifying.  

From these conversations we were able to understand the importance of having Halal standards for food.  We had heard this several times during our Malaysian tours, but didn't really understand.  It is the way food is processed in order to be edible by Islamic law.  In Malaysia there are prominent ethnic groups which provide the demand for this market.  Sadly there is also a lot of self-segregation between groups (55% Malay, 25% Chinese, 10% Indian and others). Having questions like these answered during our meetings allowed us to tie together the information from our tours and apply it to culture.

On a side note, this meeting also hit close to home.  During this entire trip, I personally felt that a lot of the trade between the U.S. and Southeast Asia never directly influenced my state of Virginia.  As mentioned before, the students on this trip were mostly from California or the Mid-West.  Then you have Virginia and North Carolina representing the Eastern part of the country during the 2012 I-CAL.  The two states aren't known for grain, or high production like the states' of our teammates.  After a conversation with Adel, we found that Southeast Asia (particularly Vietnam) really likes to import apples and Christmas trees from Virginia and North Carolina!

Also, I got to have another discussion with Adel about the demand for dairy products in Southeast Asia.  Being raised on a dairy farm, I always like to know how others feel about my family's livelihood.  Apparently, there is a growing demand for dairy, which makes sense due to the growing middle class of Asia as a whole.  More specifically, according to Adel, there is a want for milk so that children will grow bigger and taller.  The milk that is currently being imported to Southeast Asia comes from Australia.  McKenzie (who is from a dairy farm is Wisconsin) and I decided to move to Malaysia, start a dairy, and export it to Vietnam.  Great plan, right?  Anyway, it was really nice to feel more connected to the industries we were exploring during I-CAL.

A display during our tour at the Malaysian Palm Oil Board

While we traveled throughout Malaysia, almost anywhere there wasn't buildings, there were palm oil trees.  We had the opportunity to learn more about the palm oil industry in Malaysia during our time with the Malaysian Palm Oil Board later in the day.  Currently, Malaysia is the world leading producer, Indonesia, but exports more (40% of global supply).  Along with the increased interest in palm oil usage globally, there is controversy. 

Mine and McKenzie's favorite isle at
Ben's Independent Grocer (B.I.G.)

The rest of the evening was spent at a grocery store and a night market!  At the grocery store we got to see a different side of food distribution for Southeast Asia.  The store was huge and had anything you could ask for!  Marge splurged on her precious Nutella, and McKenzie and I made sure we got plenty of dairy products!  Once again we got to haggle for souvenirs at the night market.  Day 10 was a great example of how we learned about agriculture and culture not only through meetings, but engaging in everyday life -- like shopping!

Take care and keep your eyes out for a new blog post soon!