I’ve always been fascinated by the colorful images of outdoor food vending markets in exotic places like China.

As time has passed I’ve come to understand that the food safety associated with these places is extremely lacking.

Over the weekend I was listening to a radio show about the coronavirus. The subject turned to why outbreaks such as the bird flu, SARS, etc., are coming from such odd, overpopulated places such as China.

One of the main reasons listed was that food safety in the third-world is abysmal. People eat a lot of things that are neither healthy or clean. It’s part of the constant recipe of our world’s weird viral cookbook.

I don’t claim to be a doctor, biologist or chef, however, I do believe about half of what I see. After years of watching Andrew Zimmern, Anthony Bourdain and Gordon Ramsay show food from around the world, I’ve made some observations. First, open-air food vending markets look like they have colorful savory food, but much of it has sat out in the open for quite a while before being purchased. 

The equipment and cooking utensils used by these foreign food vendors are interesting and entertaining. They are also rarely cleaned properly. I’ve seen vendors take raw food, handle it, wipe their hands on a towel, handle another ingredient, wipe their hands on the same towel, use that same towel to clean off the working area, and then cook and serve with that same utensil. It’s quite unsanitary.

Furthermore, and most importantly, although these markets have water in buckets, rarely do you see spigots from which clean water could flow. That’s if clean water is what the public water utility in that particular location provides.

We think we live in such a modern world. In many places in Asia, people draw water for cooking from the same source they deposit their water for bathing and their sewage. 

If I believe open air vending food markets that are fit for television are bad, my opinion of the food the general public prepares for itself is much worse. After all, it’s not like the average rural Chinese family can afford to eat “high on the hog.” Instead, if they’re getting meat it’s cheap cuts including organ meat, that in the United States only gets hidden in sausage and hot dogs.

In China, the open-air food markets are called “wet markets” and although people are well aware that food from them makes people sick, they remain overwhelmingly popular. The National Public Radio Show “All Things Considered” hosted a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Waterloo, Zhenzhong Si, in January.

Si was up-front about what caused the coronavirus.

“Chinese authorities say the outbreak likely began in an open food market in Wuhan,” according to Si. “…Health officials specifically suspect the virus came from wild animals they say were being sold illegally at the Wuhan market.”

Food safety is an issue everywhere, even here in the United States. The less you know about the food you eat, where it comes from, how it was handled and the sanitation surrounding it, the greater the chances are that you’ll get ill.

The most important problem in the world isn’t climate change, military conflict or even food safety. Our No. 1 problem is overpopulation. As long as we continue to overpopulate, all other problems, including all mentioned previously, will get worse.

China may be a global economic force, but it has unclean air, food shortages and massive infrastructure problems. It’s significantly overpopulated. And China, like Russia, is ruled by a totalitarian dictator. Oh, they may wear business suits and look quite cosmopolitan. Meanwhile there are peasants in their countries without utilities, clean water or sufficient food.

Knowing these factors makes watching food travel shows a completely different experience.

— Matt Johnson is publisher of the Monroe Times. His column is published Wednesdays.