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Beyond the Kimpul Phenomenon: What's the Deal with Indonesians' Attachment To Rice?
It starts with the line that broke the internet, “Karena saya tidak punya, saya ganti kimpul", then many people wondered: do we even know what a kimpul is? A lady is bringing kimpul back into the spotlight by sharing her recipes that swap out the ingredient for these root vegetables. We might laugh at the joke, but it actually has a deeper meaning than the laugh. A content creator named Tin, also known under the username @black.sheep8208, was motivated to create food content to reintroduce root vegetables. According to her interview with Trans TV, having root vegetables for a carb is a family habit, which was an option for her financially struggling condition. Aside from that, her other thoughts were formed about how root vegetables are not a popular choice for Indonesians, when in fact those vegetables are healthy and rich in nutrients.
Some of us would not really realize that this viral phenomenon is a brave movement to encourage food diversification. Food diversification is the practice of expanding the variety of foods consumed to reduce reliance on a single commodity, such as rice. This shift matters beyond the kitchen table.
Diversification of what we eat directly impacts political, socio-economic, and even cultural aspects. For instance, small acts such as choosing other carbs instead of rice could raise demand for other commodities, which reduces over-dependency and costly imports of rice. Strengthening food security by ensuring our national food system does not collapse, boosting local economies and sustainability, and preserving cultural identity and local wisdom by removing the stigma of "second-class foods" and celebrating the rich heritage of local ingredients like sago, tiwul, and kimpul.
When Did Choosing Local Carbs Become an Insult?
Root vegetables were known as "second-class food” (pangan kelas dua). It was associated with low economic status, since it was consumed during hard times—such as famine and food crises during the global economic depression in the 1930s and was heavily promoted as survival food during Japanese occupation. Not only that, but the stigma of root vegetables in Indonesia was also influenced by colonialism. As colonizers arrived in Indonesia, they brought their own carbs, such as bread and wheat, which were also accompanied by the propaganda of modern and superior food. All of the factors above eventually marginalized root vegetables and created a stigma for the people who consumed them with the words "primitive," "backward," and "uncivilized."
In Soeharto's era of governance, a proposition called Swasembada Pangan was implemented due to Indonesia's food instability. It was an effort to revive Indonesia’s condition after independence. There were political programs that occurred in the New Order era. The first program that attempted agricultural modernization was the "Green Revolution” (Revolusi Hijau), which was an extension of the Rencana Pembangunan Lima Tahun (Repelita) program, an economic and national development policy that started in 1969.
Later, in 1984, the self-sufficiency program peaked, with a harvest of 25.5 million tons of rice. But after 1986 came the backlash against the program. Slowly, our nation relied heavily on one commodity, and fragile food security was the result. Indonesia started to import rice in 1988 due to failure to meet national demand. Other than that, environmental issues started to emerge. Synthetic fertilizers and chemical pesticides wrecked the soil, killed off biodiversity, polluted local water, and led to massive pest resistance.
How Food Self-Sufficiency Shaped What We Eat Today
As a result, Indonesians depend heavily on rice in their everyday diet. But not only that, but we also lost some varieties of root vegetables and rice, washing away cultural identity and local wisdom. Over time, societies’ preferences became standardized. Rice is now dominating Indonesia's main consumption, standing at 96%–97% in 2022. There are a lot of traditional local foods and consumption methods that are fading away. Maluku and Papua, for example, sago is not only a main source of carbs but also holds philosophical and cultural values, such as an ancestral way of life. The Javanese used to eat tiwul, and the Mentawainese used to eat bananas (plantains), but their food sources were replaced with rice through the Beras untuk Rakyat Miskin (Raskin) and Beras Sejahtera (Rastra) programs, a government initiative that gave rice to poor communities. So, legacies from the New Order still live within us and subconsciously shape what we eat today.
Kimpul is just one example of a substitute amongst thousands of sources of carbs. Indonesians have their own way of serving food not only to satisfy hunger but also to continue ancestors’ legacy, to learn life by integrating the philosophy of food, and to be kind to the environment. Food diversification doesn't always start with government policy, agricultural reform, or changing the national food system. Sometimes, it starts with something much smaller: what we choose to put on our plate. So, which carbs do you choose to eat today?
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