By Kevin Meyer
A few days ago I told you the remarkable story of Bangkok Airways, which I encountered while on my recent three week vacation to Thailand, Cambodia, and Hong Kong. Today I have another – and I apologize if you're eating breakfast.
So that's one of the stalls at the public market in Siem Reap, Cambodia. There are many more like it, as well as others selling everything from clothes to toys to pharmaceuticals. It really didn't surprise me as I've visited Asia many times and also spent nearly ten years in South America – open meat markets are common. But my lean-infused mind posed a question and observation:
1. Is refrigeration a waste? These types of markets are everywhere outside of the highly-developed countries and there isn't mass death and contamination occuring. How much do we spend on refrigerating (and cleaning?) every tiny piece of meat? I know up until a couple years ago I believed eggs had to be refrigerated – until I learned from a guy at work who raised chickens that they'll keep just fine on the counter. Where is the line between excessive, wasteful refrigeration and cleaning and necessary hygiene and sanitation? Beats me – I'm not an expert. But what if we've gone too far and we're wasting resources as an "evolved" society?
2. Notice the subtle visual management. All the parts of the pig are laid out exactly where they would be on the pig. If you want a snout you know where to go. Hooves, pigs knuckles, ribs, loins, even back to the tail which I hear is a potato chip like delicacy when fried. How often have we gone to the store with everything nicely pre-packaged asking "what the heck part of the animal is that?" Not here. You know what you're getting – and perhaps you can even gauge the relative quality by looking at other parts – or the expression on the beast's face. I saw the same visual layout with chicken parts, cows, large fish, you name it.
Here's one more photo of a relatively new building near the Grand Palace in Bangkok:
Perhaps a little hard to tell, but there's an identical air conditioning unit in every single little office. Hundreds of them (it's a large building). I saw similar examples with large apartment buildings.
Is central air a waste? Sure there's some production efficiency in large-scale utilities – wait did I just say that? But how much of that efficiency is wasted when it is delivered to areas that don't necessarily need it. Would smaller units that can be easily turned off create greater aggregate system efficiency? Aggregate "actual in use" efficiency vs. the "large scale production efficiency"? It's the same issue that electric cars and makers of single-home power plants (solar, geo, etc) are wrestling with.
Just some thoughts for your Friday morning. Have some bacon for breakfast!
Ralph Markham says
My comment is related to the central vs non central air question not the debate as to what should or should not be refrigerated. Several years ago we tested this exact consideration in a 12 story apartment building. The owners ascertion was a decentralized system would be far less costly to install (correct) and they would not face the same operating costs because the tenants would be for the power to run their individual units (okay that makes sense… for the owner). Tenants would not however have evenly cooled apartments because spread of air is reliant on a single fan from a single point in the apartment infiltrating many rooms (customer complaint risk). Then we analyzed the centralized heat/cool system costs: capital outlay was going to be approximately 40% higher but total power costs about 30% less per year (less environmental impact). Capital costs for a combined chiller boiler system were factored into rent. This cost, about $17 per unit per month is less than the cost of power that would have been paid by the tenant using AC and base board heating. Tenants have even spread of heating and cooling through ducted systems in apartment. Likewise they have complete control of their own temperature preference and those that do choose to turn off their cooling can do so. We feel we got a win-win. Tenants are happy (lower costs, better air)and the owner is happy. The only downside we encountered is flexibility. The owner wished to expand and turn the penthouse suites into condos. The costs of renovation were increased due to the piped systems. One needs to consider all sides on balance with ultimately customer needs met as the primary goal.
Jim Toomey says
As a former manager of a meat packing plant I’ll try to give you my two cents on your first question. We would do fine without refrigeration in meat packing plants IF (big if) customers were going to consume the meat the same day it was slaughtered. This is likely the case in the example above.
In the US, and I will assume the rest of the developed world, meat is bought along with the other longer lasting groceries to be consumed when the mood strikes us. So while refrigeration could be seen as a waste, customers value freshness and long shelf life. To them it is not waste.
Just a little more info for those who care:
Bacterial growth is, of course, heavily dependent on temperature. A meat packing refrigerator tries to keep the meat at ~28F. At this temperature bacteria doubles every 60 hours. At just 40F bacteria will double ten times faster.
http://www.foodservicetrading.com/UserFiles/doccenter/06_747211_xv%20_to_%20xvi.pdf
William Pietri says
My understanding from, I think, Cook’s Illustrated: In the US, eggs are generally washed before being sold. Upside: removes fecal matter and bacteria. Downside: harms a waxy coating that protects the egg. So you have to refrigerate normal US eggs. That’s not true of eggs elsewhere, or eggs straight from the farm.
I’m not sure which approach involves more waste, but I definitely wouldn’t leave US store-bought eggs unrefrigerated.
Bill Waddell says
One data point to consider, Kevin. If you spent your life eating from that meat market in Cambodia your life ex[ectancy would be 57 years, according to Wikipedia. That compares to a life expectancy of 76 years if you buy your groceries from the refrigerated shelves of Kroger in the USA.
Mark Graban says
Correlation doesn’t imply causation there, Bill!
Bill Waddell says
Precisely why I cited it as another data point to consider, Mark. To determine causation one must try to gather all of the relevant facts. While life expectancy does not determine causation, I would suggest that one must look at the overall health situation in Cambodia before coming to the conclusion that their practice of not refrigerating meat is either good or bad. An assessment of the overall health of Cambodians must take into account their life expectancy.
John Hunter says
Good thoughts and comments. I had both these questions myself on a recent trip. The comment about eating that day makes sense to me (and I didn’t think of it). I also wonder if your body builds up defenses against the health issues? I don’t know if that is a factor at all (that if you just eat it coming from the USA you get sick). I did eat at stall that must have used the meat like this (since these markets were so close I just think they must have) and didn’t get sick.
On the AC front my guess was central AC was more cost effective if it would be used a lot. I found that they often were much lower expectations for not being at all warm. So many hardly use AC at all. My guess is the efficiency of individual units (because they are not replaced often, and efficiency gains keep being made in the technology, is fairly low). If their was heavy use then the cost of low efficiency of the units would be too large. But since their is low use, it isn’t a huge factor and where a few individuals want heavy use they can replace their units more frequently. I am not sure this is right, but it was my guess as to why central air wasn’t more common. I also guessed it evolved from AC being fairly rare a few decades ago and just individuals adding it as they gained wealth. New building in Malaysia largely seem to have individual units. I am not sure but new units in Singapore seem to have central. My guess is as average wealth increases, AC use increases, and at some point the heavy use is so common that central air is most sensible (based on my guess that with overall heavy use central is more effective while light use with sporadic heavy use favors individual units).. But I am just guessing about all this.