Traditional Winter Food

A variety of seasonal snacks and foods are available in Korea during the biting cold winter season. They include the savory and sweet winter street snacks like bungeoppang, hotteok, baked sweet potatoes, and hoppang, along with the traditional winter dishes such as gimjang kimchi, tteokguk, and manduguk. Kimchi is the quintessential Korean food and comes in numerous varieties. Wintertime kimchi-making is known as “gimjang,” a time when households in Korea prepare and store kimchi in massive quantities for the winter months. Traditionally, gimjang kimchi making had been one of the most important winter preparation tasks for housewives. An important part of gimjang is the storing of the final product. To allow for proper fermentation, gimjang kimchi is best kept near 0℃ with minimal temperature...

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Aging Population and Food Industry

With the global population of 'senior' consumers set to grow by almost 150 million in the next two years, there are massive opportunities for the food industry to target the older consumer. In 1950, there were 205 million persons aged 60 or over in the world.  By 2012, the number of older persons had increased to almost 810 million. It is projected to more than double by 2050, reaching 2 billion. According to a recent report published by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and HelpAge International, the aging of the world population is progressive and rapid. It is an unprecedented phenomenon that is affecting nearly all countries of the world. As long as fertility continues to fall or remains low and old age mortality keeps on declining, the proportion of older...

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India's Second Partition

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Historic City: Ganghwa Island

Ganghwa Island, incorporated into Incheon metropolitan city from Gyeonggi province in 1995, has been recognized and preserved for it’s important role in Korea’s history, from the prehistoric age to modern times. Ganghwa is an island in the estuary of the Han River, on the west coast of South Korea. Ganghwa Island is separated from Gimpo, on the mainland, by a narrow channel, which is spanned by two bridges. The main channel of the Han River separates the island from Gaeseong in North Korea. About 65,500 people live on the island. With an area of 302.4 km2 (116.8 sq mi), it constitutes most of Ganghwa County, a division of Incheon Municipality. About half of the island's population resides in Ganghwa-eup, Ganghwa Town, in the northeastern part of the island. The island's highest point...

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IP Rights and Food Industry

Any Agro-Food company that invests in some form of creative or intellectual output, whether it be in R&D, manufacturing, product formulation, packaging, marketing, media, or sales and distribution needs to be aware of Intellectual Property Rights. Intellectual property pertains to any original creation of the human intellect such as artistic, literary, technical, or scientific creation. Intellectual property rights (IPR) refer to the legal rights given to the inventor or creator to protect his/her invention or creation for a certain period of time. It is very well settled that IP play a vital role in the modern economy. It has also been conclusively established that the intellectual labor associated with the innovation should be given due importance so that public good emanates from...

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Jeonju: Rich Culture

Jeonju is a capital city of North Jeolla Province. It is an important tourist center famous for Korean food, historic buildings, sports activities and innovative festivals. Located in the fertile Honam plain, famous for strawberries and exceptional produce, Jeonju has been an important regional center in the province for centuries. Once, the city was the capital of Hubaekje Kingdom, which was founded by Gyeon Hwon. The city was regarded as the spiritual capital of the Joseon Dynasty because the Yi royal family originated there. Jeonju was given metropolitan status in 1935, and the city was founded in 1949. In May 2012, Jeonju was chosen as a Creative Cities for Gastronomy as part of UNESCO's Creative Cities Network. This honor recognize the city's traditional home cooking handed down through...

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Tackling Food Waste

Faced with the challenges of demographic developments, climate change and the need to use resources efficiently, combating food losses and food waste will go a long way in tackling food security. Global agricultural production is expected to grow 1.5% a year on average over the coming decade, compared with annual growth of 2.1% between 2003 and 2012, according to a new report published by the OECD and FAO. Limited expansion of agricultural land, rising production costs, growing resource constraints and increasing environmental pressures are the main factors behind the trend. But the report argues that farm commodity supply should keep pace with global demand. The OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook 2013-2022 expects prices to remain above historical averages over the medium term for both crop and...

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