A Kimchi Catastrophe!

Another issue in Korea, along with the videos in my last post, has been making national headlines lately. This issue- a national shortage of kimchi- has even been featured in international news sources such as the Seattle Times and the L.A. Times. I figured it was about time I got around to posting on it.

The Seattle Times has more on the story:

Freakish fall weather has resulted in a national kimchi crisis, causing South Korean consumers to clutch their purses, hearts and stomachs as they seek to deal with a shortage of the oblong-shaped cabbage used to make the ubiquitous spicy dish.

With heavy September rains ruining much of the Napa, or Chinese, cabbage crop, prices have jumped fourfold to more than $10 a head.

In response, the federal government last week announced a temporary reduction in tariffs on Chinese-imported cabbage and radishes in a plan to rush an additional 100 tons of the staples into stores this month.

For anyone who's spent any time in Korea, you will already be well aware of the fact that a shortage of kimchi in Korea is a problem of epic proportions. In previous posts, I've noted that kimchi is served as the staple part of every single Korean meal whether breakfast, lunch or dinner. Sometimes, my school cafeteria lunches will literally be a menu like this:
-Regular, plain ol' kimchi (cabbage)
-Radish kimchi
-sprout kimchi
- kimchi jjigae (kimchi stew)
-rice

And just to quantify the magnitude of this disaster, the L.A. Times has compiled some kimchi facts:

South Koreans eat more than 2 million tons of the dish of fermented cabbage, radish and chili paste in total each year.
It is believed by many to ward off aging, reduce cholesterol and fight disease.
There is a museum dedicated to kimchi in Seoul.
Portions of it were blasted into space with the country's first astronaut in 2008.

I've posted before about space kimchi being prepared the first Korean astronaut. In fact, I managed to snap a picture of some of it the last time I visited the War Memorial in Seoul. Sorry that the second picture is pretty poor quality. Unlike most of the fancy K-bloggers, I just have a boring point and shoot camera and photography isn't my thing.

The Times also reports that local restaurants and businesses have been trying to deal with this situation as best they can. Some of the various methods employed include charging for refills of kimchi, serving radish kimchi instead of more popular cabbage kimchi, and suspending home delivery service until the shortage passes. 

Finally, according to the Times, 

Depriving Koreans of their kimchi, many say, is like forcing Italians to forgo pasta or taking all the tea from China.

Now, I'm aware that Italians love their pasta. But, having never been to Italy, it's difficult to gauge whether or not this love is as deep and meaningful as is the Korean love for kimchi. However, for my readers at home, I will say this. To take away kimchi in Korea, would not even compare to taking away Tim Hortons coffee, or beer, or hockey in Canada. The loss of kimchi would be much, much worse. It would be more like taking away all three things from Canada and then stomping on a beaver. In fact, I think the best way to describe the severity of the situation here in Korea is with an anecdote from the same article:

In recent days a black-market cabbage trade has sprouted. Police say many residents are hoarding the vegetables for resale. Four men were recently caught stealing more than 400 heads of Chinese cabbage