Lessons from a Traditional Colombian Food Market

By Alex Reep, UC Berkeley

What food flows in the Galería El Porvenir Market reveal about Cali & Colombia.

On a typical day in a traditional Colombian food market, the “Galería,” a shopper can go from having a chat with a campesino (farmer) about the land they steward to enjoying a filling meal based on a family recipe. They can step back and admire all walks of life converging in the hunt for low-cost, high-quality, traditional ingredients. Galerías are major players in the city’s “food environment” – the space where consumers make the food choices that offer flavor to their daily lives. The affordability, accessibility, convenience of preparation, and desirability of ingredients in the Galerías all play a significant role in determining peoples’ food choices, diets, and consequently nutrition and health.