Essay: Because food is never not political by Purple Romero

In this essay, Purple Romero analyses how food has become a tool for the pro-democracy movement in the city and on how such a tactic has been adopted also by other Asian countries seeking governance reforms.

The very first time it dawned on me that the food we eat and that the drinks which quench our thirst are more than the colorful, appetizing sprawl of greens, meat and piquant liquid was way, way back, in 2004. 

I was a student scribe and was tasked to write about a labour strike whose slogan was “There’s blood in your coffee.” 

The slogan came out not only from protests which have become bloody as workers clashed with armed men stationed outside the factory of food manufacturer giant Nestlé in the Philippine province of Laguna, but also from the death of Meliton Fortuna, a labor union leader shot in 1989.