Faces of Food: Eugenia (@eugreenia)
This interview was conducted and written by a guest contributor, Nicole Lee. Read about Nicole here.
Should I go vegan? How do I compost? What to do with tofu? Millions of followers have now turned to bloggers and influencers online to answer questions like these, learning more about the food they eat. While social media has been tightly linked to negative impacts on issues like diet culture and body shaming, it has also become a place of inspiration for many to learn new recipes and adopt healthier, more sustainable eating practices. So, to learn more about these influencers and what’s going on in their heads, we decided to interview some of them for our new series exploring the intersections of food, sustainability, and social media.
Next up on our Faces of Food series is my friend Eugenia—a recent high school graduate from Hong Kong headed to the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill next year. She runs @eugreenia (formerly @vegan.hk), an Instagram account and blog that has amassed almost 6,000 followers. In addition to managing her popular Instagram account, Eugenia also led community-based sustainability campaigns, such as the Hong Kong chapter of Bye Bye Plastic Bags—a youth-driven NGO advocating against single-use plastic. Eugenia is full of bright, creative ideas, and I cannot wait for you to learn more about her insight on sustainable eating from my hometown, Hong Kong!
N: Could you tell us a bit about what you do? What do you think is your main goal/focus of your work?
E: My Instagram account, @vegan.hk, was originally created with the intention of making veganism more accessible to people in Hong Kong. Research increasingly demonstrates that lowering meat consumption proves to be one of the most effective ways to reduce carbon emissions—a simple solution to mitigating climate change. However, since people often view the supposed lack of vegan options in Hong Kong as an obstacle to even attempting to reduce one’s meat consumption, I created this page to serve as a resource for people wanting to give it a go. With this, I hope to show them that it’s possible and that eating plants can be fun and even easy. On my blog (veganhkblog.com), I also create guides to eating vegan in Hong Kong—focusing on what people need for an easier transition—such as vegan cheap eats, dim sum, and brunch.
However, I’ve recently updated my Instagram username to @eugreenia, mostly after learning that a) eating vegan food alone will no longer suffice when it comes to eating for the climate, and b) I’m not a huge fan of how black and white the term ‘vegan’ is. As a supplement to my existing blog, my account now focuses more so on living lightly and learning to be a better steward of the earth through various aspects of our lives, including—but not limited to—the food we eat.
N: Do you consider yourself to be an "influencer"? What does that mean to you?
As cliche as this may sound, I do believe that everyone is an ‘influencer’. How we live our lives can act as a catalyst for change, and whether it be friends, family, classmates, or co-workers, so long as we’re interacting with other people, we all belong and contribute to spheres of influence.
I’d say I’m an ‘influencer’ as much as anyone else is; the only difference is what and how I choose to influence. My message is how we can implement simple lifestyle changes to live more in harmony with the earth, and I aim to promote this through diet change. I began with Instagram as my platform because I believe that social media can be a very powerful tool, and one that reaches many people. For example, just by starting this Instagram account and posting about exciting vegan food like the Impossible burger, I automatically piqued the interest of some friends to experiment with different plant-based alternatives—which not only makes me excited, but is evidence that one person’s actions can (and often will) influence how others behave as well.
I also think when it comes to being a ‘change-maker’, it’s essential to keep in mind that everyone can take a different approach. Yes, stepping out of your comfort zone is necessary when tackling colossal issues such as climate change, but for those who wouldn’t usually consider themselves ‘public speakers’, creating videos or writing articles can be just as important. Being a change-maker to me involves capitalising on the skills we already have and using them for the better—and that’s inevitably going to be different for everyone.
N: How did you get into sustainability/food blogging in the first place? What has helped you grow? Can you tell us a bit about that story?
E: I’ve always loved blogging/creating guides of sorts. For one of my high school projects, I created a website featuring ‘Hidden Gems of Hong Kong’, introducing people to my favourite, under-appreciated spots around the city. Because of this passion for exploring different parts of the natural world, my interest in sustainability was actually sparked by my first time diving. The combination of seeing the beauty of the underwater world paired with my instructor’s informative presentation (again—influence!) on how plastic waste disturbs marine habitats and marine life is what inspired me to take action towards environmental issues in the first place.
Around the same time, I also began to pay more attention to the environmental effects of consuming less meat. Because most of us eat at least three meals a day, food naturally became the obvious angle for me to tackle environmental issues. It’s three choices that most of us get to make each day about which systems we want to contribute to, and because of how essential it is in all lifestyles and cultures, it can be an angle that works flexibly with different people.
I think what has helped me grow is my response to people’s needs. In Hong Kong in particular, convenience (or the lack thereof) can be a huge obstacle when it comes to eliminating meat, so some of my work that resonates the most with people include posts on budget, convenience, and other common obstacles that arise when talking about veganism in Hong Kong such as eating in groups and eating traditional food like dim sum. Ultimately, the goal of my platform has been about providing value for people, and I hope to do so by being as inclusive and transparent as possible—advocating for imperfection as a natural part of the process.
On Shifting to a Diet of Sustainability:
N: What does sustainable eating look like to you?
E: I actually just wrote an article on the blog titled 10 Ways to Eat More Sustainably in Hong Kong (besides consuming less meat)! In the past, I would’ve simply said “veganism”, but I’m slowly starting to learn that it’s much more nuanced than that.
To sum it up, I believe that there are several aspects to a sustainable diet, and this includes:
Food miles: buying food locally to reduce emissions incurred by transporting produce and even growing some in your own garden/backyard/apartment.
Eating seasonally: eating in harmony with nature and its cycles—which can easily be done by attending farmers’ markets for the freshest produce of the week/month.
Food packaging: reducing as much single-use waste as possible; shopping in bulk, bringing your own container, avoiding food items that are wrapped in plastic, etc.
How it’s cultivated: supporting farmers that practice regenerative agriculture and promote healthy soil, which has the potential to sequester carbon, increase yield, and mitigate climate change.
Reducing meat consumption: in particular, beef, as concentrated animal feeding environments (CAFOs) raise methane emissions and lead to deforestation and soil depletion.
Minimising food waste: not only does wasting food in turn waste all the resources that went in to producing the food, when placed in landfills, food scraps also emit large amounts of methane gas, which is 21x more potent that CO2. Which goes hand in hand with…
Composting: which not only repurposes food scraps, but also creates an ongoing feedback loop which enables more carbon to be sequestered into the soil.
Of course, it would be almost impossible to ensure that all the food we consume satisfies every single one of these criteria. However, it’s important we put our best effort within our current abilities and be intentional with the way we feed ourselves when possible!
N: What does sustainable eating look like where you come from (Hong Kong)? Do you think it is accessible to everyone?
E: Despite the original purpose of my account being to demonstrate that being vegan is ‘super accessible’ in Hong Kong, frankly, the more I pay attention to the ways we can eat sustainably, the more aware I become of how inaccessible sustainable eating is in Hong Kong—especially in comparison to countries like Australia or Costa Rica. While local cheap vegan eateries and occasional farmers markets do exist, the vast majority of restaurants offering vegan options still cost far more than traditional food, and it still requires a lot of effort to seek out these restaurants if unfamiliar with the area. While I try to prove that eating vegan can be affordable in hong kong with my #hkvegancheapeat series, unfortunately, it still requires immense privilege. I believe that it is not until these resources are utterly unnecessary will we be able to define sustainable eating as truly accessible in Hong Kong.
Moreover, a large aspect of sustainable eating involves eating locally, and this is made difficult when over 90% of Hong Kong’s produce is currently imported. Our current model of food supply—the reliance on the rural to support the urban—is inherently unsustainable, and the current government structures currently still depend on and promote unsustainable land distribution and access.
In short, the growing plant-based movement in Hong Kong is a hopeful progression, but to transform the system, we need to implement policies that incentivise local food production in Hong Kong and support community initiatives such as composting, food sharing, urban farming, etc to achieve a truly sustainable food economy.
N: Have your views on sustainable eating changed since getting involved in social media?
E: 100%! I believe it’s both essential and inevitable that our views change when getting involved in social media, especially when surrounding yourself with a community of individuals with similar interests yet varying perspectives. A major part of becoming a better activist/‘influencer’ is continuously learning, and I have been able to do this by engaging in difficult or controversial conversations and actively seeking out accounts that provide value. I always aim to fill my feed with accounts that are inspiring, educational and will bring something positive to my homepage.
In essence, veganism is not the (only) solution; there are so many other ways to address climate change through our diets—one of these being system-wide disruption of food distribution and the localisation of food. Speaking about our diets is also only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to environmental action! Climate change is an intersectional topic, and one that cannot be fully discussed without incorporating conversations around capitalism, sexism, racism, and other social justice issues.
Advice for our readers:
N: What advice would you give to someone trying to shift to such a diet?
E: I’m still learning myself how to effectively #eat4climate, but when it comes to veganism or the meat consumption aspect of eating sustainably, here are my few tokens of advice:
Take it from YOUR angle; everyone has a different approach and don’t feel like you have to do it a certain way.
Veganism should not be black & white. It’s simply a label that makes it easier to explain your dietary choices. If your priorities are to reduce your carbon footprint, that shouldn’t prevent you from eating an egg that’s about to be thrown into the landfills or buying a pair of shoes made of upcycled leather (as opposed to plastic leather, ‘pleather’).
Find what works for you. The personality framework created by happiness researcher and author Gretchen Rubin, Abstainers vs. Moderators, is one of my favourites. It applies perfectly to veganism: whereas abstainers prefer to completely eliminate something from their habits and are not tempted by one-off satisfaction, moderators prefer to indulge in small doses and are agitated by the thought of 'never' having something again. While abstainers are more likely to succeed at becoming vegan, moderators have their place as well. This is where initiatives like Green Monday come in to help individuals ease the process/transition into a plant-based diet. Don’t let the idea of ‘failing’ daunt you from even giving it a try!
Join a community! Everything’s easier when you’ve got a support team to encourage/motivate you to meet your goals.
Be OPEN to criticism/constructive feedback—it’s the best; that’s how you grow!
Eugenia shared this Chocolate Peanut Butter Oatmeal recipe with us on Grounded Grub! Check it out here.
N: What is a meal/recipe you cannot live without?
E: I’m all about convenience/simplicity when it comes to home food, so if I can make a meal in five minutes, I will. This Chocolate Peanut Butter Oatmeal recipe is especially perfect for those days when you wake up at 11 and can’t decide whether to eat breakfast or lunch!
N: Other blogs or accounts to check out?
E:
@elizabethcouse_ is actually an account that I’ve been following for awhile now and love! (Check out Grounded Grub’s interview with her here!)
@hollyrose.eco
podcast: Talking Tastebuds, Green Dreamer
book: The Omnivore’s Dilemma
@kisstheground
@ajabarber
@mikaelaloach
@treesnpeace
@hownottotravellikeabasicbitch
This interview was conducted and written by a guest contributor, Nicole Lee. Read about Nicole here.
Are you interested in contributing to Grounded Grub? Contact us anytime with proposals, we’d love to hear from you.
