The food capital of Asia is __________, the ecological capital of the world is _________.

I'm often reminded of a passage on the first page of Michael Breen's 1998 book The Koreans when I read through the local English-language news sites:

The local media can be extremely misleading as a source of information. They generally do not see their role as a check on government and business, with the result that government intentions are frequently reported as facts. A huge proportion of news stories, when you follow them up, turn out to be speculation, trial balloons, rumour and deliberate distortion.

I think you'd have an easier time disputing the first part of that paragraph now, a couple decades after it was inspired, but the second half remains true, especially in the local English-language media, which sees its role as a promotional tool written by and often for Koreans. That brings me to a fluff piece in the Korea Times, "North Jeolla to Become Food Capital of Asia":

President Lee Myung-bak pledged Wednesday to support North Jeolla Province's bid to become the ``food capital'' of Northeast Asia, saying the project was closely related to the government's plan to globalize hansik, Korea's traditional cuisine.

``The province's efforts to build a cluster of food firms and institutes deserve more attention as the importance of the food industry is growing fast,'' Lee said during a visit to Jeonju, a city in the province famous for bibimbap, a mix of rice, vegetables and meat.

``I believe its plan to become the food capital will not only help promote regional development but also help foreigners better understand Korea and its dietary culture.''

I'm sorry to say I only visited Jeonju once, but I had a very pleasant time and would love to go back someday. I learned that Gwangju might not want to call itself the "Hub City of Asian Culture" when it doesn't even have as much culture as Jeonju. As you've heard probably eleven times this week, "Jeonju is famous for bibimbap. Do you know bibimbap? It is kind of traditional Korean dish. Almost of Koreans like the bibimbap. If you go to Jeonju you can enjoy Bibimbap there . But I think maybe You can't eat bibimbap. it is so spice" and indeed the food of Jeonju, and all of the region, is a prime attraction. My collection of maps and promotional material was among the casualties of my move back to the US, so I no longer have my Jeonju guidebook, but I do recall it promoting itself as, dare I say, a hub of Korean food, and I wondered how Gwangju would feel about that, considering it also sees itself as, dare I say, a mecca of Korean cuisine as well.

That Korea Times article goes on to talk about the Saemangeum project whereby 155 square miles of wetlands will be turned into "Northeast Asia's new growth engine" and "a global business hub and a beautiful waterside leisure city that comes second to Venice and Amsterdam" according to someone in the Prime Minister's office. In January we learned the new city would be called "Ariul" (아리울). From an International Herald Tribune article in November 2008:

"This project is not about protecting the environment," said Park Hyoung Bae, an official with the Saemangeum development authority. "It is about economic development. And we will do that in an environmentally sound way."

It continues:

[Developers] will replace natural wetlands with artificial ones and turn riverbeds into lakes. They will build a park along the road on the sea dyke and try to attract tourists with a theme park, convention center and even perhaps a casino.

The Korea Herald had a piece on it in December:

Korea began work to transform part of the Saemangeum tidal flats on the country's southwest coast into a regional tourism hub, the government said Thursday, according to Yonhap News.

. . .

The park region is part of a much larger 10.2 trillion won project that aims to build a world-class tourism industry hub on Saemangeum by 2020. The hub will cover 24.4 square km and feature international schools, theaters, museums, healthcare facilities and a residential area deemed vital for attracting both local and foreign investors.

The IHT article also repeats the line about that area of the country not having much economic development. Please excluse the ignorance of a guy from a big country, but I can't understand why one smaller than his home state of Pennsylvania needs "development," hotels, and casinos in every town and on every coast. Matter of fact South Korea has so many hubs I'd wish it'd loan Pennsylvania some. Anyway, Birds Korea has a page on Saemangeum looking at some of the consequences of this "development."



Last month I also learned from Xinhua that "S Korea's Suncheon Bay dreams of becoming world's ecological capital." Suncheon is the self-proclaimed Ecological Capital of Korea (대한민국 생태수도), and most of that pride derives from Suncheon Bay, one of the nicest spots in the country if I do say so myself. That article led off with a nice story:

South Korean farmer Jeong Jong-tae, who lives in Suncheon Bay Area, is busy feeding hooded cranes at four o'clock every afternoon as it is now a season that the birds come from Siberia winter to the region's well-preserved wetlands.

The food for the endangered birds comes from Jeong's own harvest, which he grew by taking an eco-friendly, organic way of farming.

It has been only a year since Jeong took the job, which is part of the so-called "scenic farming" the Suncheon municipal government launched in a bid to provide first-class food and shelter for some 1,000 migratory birds that visit wetlands in South Korea's far-south city every winter.

A committee of 95 nearby farms, led by Jeong, joined the government-led project, agreeing to renovate their farms as a place where visiting birds could gather, while supported by the city government through tax benefits and subsidies.

Local authorities call Suncheon Bay one of the five biggest wetlands in the world, though I've found nothing to confirm that, and even the numbers show it isn't even the biggest in Korea. In 2013 Suncheon will host the International Garden Expo (2013년국제정원박람회), and local authorities are more than welcome to invite me and my fiancee to visit. They'll be building a new visitor's center down there, and it looks great but it does make you wonder how all this development fits the idea of preservation.



That's sort of the paradoxical thing about Suncheon Bay and Korea's other wetlands. If you listen to the authorities, they're being preserved for the sake of promoting them as eco-tourism destinations. You'll remember in 2008 they had the Ramsar Convention in the city of Changwon, while they were simultaneously building over the wetlands on the west coast. According to the Korea Times, the Minister of the Environment in 2008

adapted his pragmatism to the ``wise use of wetlands,'' the No.1 priority of the Ramsar Convention. ``What must be protected must be protected, but it would be even better if wetlands are utilized as eco-tourism sites because that could result in not only their protection but also the revitalization of the local economy,'' he said.