hankyoreh

Eggs from a farm in Naju

On Aug. 17, Kim Ho-yeon, 36, an office worker, stopped by a bookstore and picked up three books about vegetarianism. One of the books contained recipes for vegetarian dishes and vegetarian bread that can be made without eggs or butter. Kim’s four-year-old daughter often asks for egg dishes at meals, but after hearing that pesticide had been found in eggs, she was reluctant to cook with them. Wondering what could serve as a substitute, she browsed through online blogs and child-raising websites until information about vegetarian dishes and bread that wasn’t made with eggs sparked her interest.

Kim is thinking about using this opportunity to take a class in vegetarian cooking and baking, too. “The bread and cookies I often give my daughter as snacks have eggs in them, too. When she wants a snack, I have to give her something. I’d like to learn for myself how to make safe snacks,” she said.

Since the uproar over the pesticide-tainted eggs, a growing number of people have been taking interest in recipes for snacks and vegetarian dishes that can be made without eggs. More people have also been buying products from consumer cooperatives, despite their relatively high price tag.

Owners of vegan and vegetarian restaurants agree that customers’ interests have been shifting since the egg scare, with more customers looking for safe food. Jeon Su-mi, who runs Cook and Book, a vegan café in the Hapjeong neighborhood of Seoul’s Mapo District, has recently been getting a lot of orders over the phone for cakes that don’t contain eggs.

Jeon has been running the vegan café for over 10 years. By definition, vegan cafés sell meals and cakes that are prepared only with plant products, without using any butter or eggs. Vegetarians are divided into vegans, who only eat plant-based food; lacto-vegetarians, who add milk and dairy products to this diet; ovo-vegetarians, who add eggs; and lacto-ovo-vegetarians, who add all three – eggs, milk and dairy products.

“Since the egg scare, I’ve been getting two or three more orders a day than before. Even 10 years ago, there were so few vegetarians that business wasn’t very good. But after the outbreak of avian influenza and the egg scare, I can definitely see that the vegetarian population is on the rise,” Jeon said.

Kim Min-sil, 43, who runs a vegetarian bakery in Busan’s Dongrae District, put up a notice in front of her shop some time ago informing customers that she does not use eggs, milk or butter when baking bread. Recently, she has been getting more inquiries from parents who have seen the notice, and she is getting about 30% more customers than usual.

“Even people who weren’t interested in vegetarianism seem to be more comfortable with and interested in vegetarian baking than before” the egg scare, Kim said. “Consumers seem to be more interested and cautious about the things they eat.”

An increasing number of people are also turning to consumer cooperatives, organizations that producers and consumers set up to facilitate direct purchases of eco-friendly groceries. Hansallim’s Seongsan shop, located in the Mapo District of Seoul, has reportedly found it hard to keep eggs on the shelf since news broke about the pesticide-tainted eggs. On weekdays, the Seongsan shop sells around 60 packs containing 10 eggs apiece. Typically, they sell out of eggs around 3 in the afternoon, but since the egg scare, they’ve been selling out just one hour after opening for business.

No traces of pesticides were found when government inspectors ran tests on crops at all the farms contributing to the Hansallim, iCoop and Dure consumer cooperatives. “We’ve had an increasing number of people joining the cooperative recently. We’ve had a flood of inquiries from both members and non-members about whether the eggs in our store are safe,” said a spokesperson for Hansallim.

By Park Soo-jin, staff reporter

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