Hiding the Dirt

This guy is selling cabbage from the back of his truck. He's cutting off the old and dirty parts of the cabbage to sell the clean versions we see in front of him (rather than the dirty cabbage behind him).

I've worked on enough farms in the US to know that vegetables sold at farmer's markets or in farm stands must be appear to be high quality. A tomato, while perfectly good but with spots, is to be separated from tomatoes with a perfect appearance (to be displayed at the market). In Chinese markets, a similar hiding process occurs. Vendors pay special attention to make sure the top of a pile of vegetables looks perfect; the imperfect ones are hidden at the bottom of a pile.


Whether its silly or not, we all expect the food we buy to look good (or at least we have become accustomed to being offered good-looking food). In US farmer's markets (the ones I am thinking of which tend to be organic), most markets attract customers willing to spend extra money on local, organic produce. In exchange for the extra price they are paying, customers expect clean, beautiful, high quality produce. All or most imperfect items are removed (failing to recall Joni Mitchell's lyrics, "give me spots on my apples, but leave me the birds and the bees").

In Chinese farmer's markets, the beautification process takes place in front of customers. They see the old, dirty parts of the cabbage being cut off. They know that underneath clean items lay the imperfect ones. Consumers tend to sort through and choose their own items to avoid imperfect ones. Similar processes, but different approaches to hiding the imperfections.

Whether or not the appearance is authentic or not relies upon trust. In Harbin, a few people have told me that there is a machine some rice sellers use to put their rice into it to polish it to make last year's crop appear new to pass for this year's crop. Some people claim they can tell when this is done; others claim that they go to the same store to purchase their rice because they know and trust the owners.

Trust is also a big part of the local food movement in the US. Small producers who cannot afford to go throught eh process of organic certification rely upon a consumer base who trust that their food is grown organically.

I have nothing significantly profound to say here. My point is simply that all food is dirty and has imperfections. Standards of perfections are different across cultures. In the US, perfection is considered in appearance, freshness, and in lack of chemicals in production. In China, perfection is appearance and freshness (in both cases, these are wild generalizations). Trust between consumers and sellers plays a role in insuring the authenticity of that perfection.