Jakarta Globe reports:
Thousands of tempeh and tofu producers in the Greater Jakarta area are threatening to halt production this week after the price of soybeans, the raw material for the products, skyrocketed in recent months.
Ironic that a type of food 1 that practically forever has been taken for granted, is now one of the most expensive thing in the market, isn’t it.
Yet it’s another proof that we’re living in a very different world than the one our founders lived; Soekarno used this food as an example of popular and easy to get “soft” food that he thinks should not be an embodiment of how the people lived. “We are not a nation of tempe”, he said.2 67 years later, his word turned out to be the truth, although not quite like what he had in mind.
- Wikipedia: Tempe ↩
- His original speech as followed: “Kami menggoyangkan langit, menggemparkan darat, dan menggelorakan samudera agar tidak jadi bangsa yang hidup hanya dari 2,5 sen sehari. Bangsa yang kerja keras, bukan bangsa tempe, bukan bangsa kuli. Bangsa yang rela menderita demi pembelian cita-cita.” ↩