I always write about food. Maybe because I am part Asian. We Asians are obsessed with food. Actually, come to think of it, the West is too – there is always some new diet coming up, some of which are VERY questionable. But East or West, we like new things when it comes to food. Right?
So I thought I would write about this new staple food in Philippines called pagpag. As I have never made pagpag (and nor do I think I have the courage to make it and feed it to my family) this photo comes from www.globalhobo.com.au.
What is pagpag? It started from the slums in the Philippines. The desperately poor scavenge rubbish dumps for discarded food, wash the food and then recook it. it sounds incredible, eating meat from rubbish dumps, but it is happening. One pagpag seller says, “If you wash it carefully, it is safe to eat” though there have been deaths from eating pagpag as you can never wash toxins from meat, and boiling goes only so far into denaturing these proteins. Meat lying in rubbish dumps for days in a hot tropical country is certainly never safe to eat, and yet, it is a necessity for many people.
Please watch this short documentary Watch Meal of the Day by Filippino filmmaker Giselle Santos documenting the people behind the production and consumption of pagpag:
Let us channel our intentions for a better and fairer world tomorrow ❤
www.lifeGO.me 
My friends called that “dumpster diving,” going behind stores and taking the food they had thrown out. Of course, my friends who engaged in this activity were also vegetarians, so they weren’t eating the meat at all.
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I have a few uber-trendy friends who call themselves freegans who do the same in the UK by choice .
Yes, quite different from scavenging gone-off meat, Paul 🙂
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