Tempeh and Tofu Return

Massive protests in Jakarta have seen the Government belatedly remove the tariff on imported soybeans but there is continued demand to abolish the existing system whereby there are only four designated importers of the 1.3 million tonnes of soybeans imported. These four companies effectively form a highly lucrative cartel that is profiting at the expense of the local producers of tofu and tempeh. If the market were more open, the suspicion is that prices would decline as the competition increased. That may not happen.

The good news is that tofu and tempeh are now back on the supermarket shelves. There was an interesting article in The Jakarta Post today about tempeh, written by Jonathan Agranoff, a U.K. doctor and nutritionist, currently working for the United Nations in Indonesia. He has written a book called A Concise Handbook of Indonesian Tempe that I'll try to get a hold of it. In his newspaper article, he mentions that tempeh is the only non-animal source of vitamin B12, which I wasn't aware of. There is a very informative website at www.tempeh.info that I've been reading through.

I just hadn't realised just how healthy tempeh is for me but my recent avoidance of eggs and cheese (I never used milk directly anyway) has made me more interested in my sources of protein. Meanwhile, I'll start collecting more of Dilbert's comics about Mike the Vegan, in case I start to take myself too seriously.