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In romance, they say the easiest way to a man’s heart is through
his stomach. And in the life of a nation, the idea is equally true.
Depriving people of food on their table is concededly a threat to
national security.
For several weeks, news reports on the
inevitable rice crisis and constant rise in prices of basic food
commodities have been persistent. If there is any consolation at
all, this country is not alone.
Experts note the world is actually facing a food
crisis that could reach a boiling point. In Haiti, for instance,
people held angry and violent protests against their government
because of soaring food prices and cost of living.
In a recent survey, pollster Pulse Asia revealed
that 71 percent of Filipinos consider themselves as poor, with two
out of every three Filipinos believing that the economy has
deteriorated in the last three years despite the phenomenal economic
growth being proclaimed by the government.
Something is obviously wrong with the
country’s food production policies. It begins with the lack of
serious national land use plan where certain areas would be deemed
as protected areas devoted solely for food production. Any
agricultural land is expected to give way to the demand of
commercialization, industrialization and urbanization at any time.
The economic prosperity of localities especially in rural areas is
seldom measured in terms of bountiful food production. Lands are
better left idle because landowners still gain from speculative
pricing. And even with the introduction of the agrarian reform
program, lands are still under the control of a few.
Hardly would this country find among the ranks
of the youth someone interested or attracted to pursue a career in
agriculture. Students would rather pursue a course or a skill that
would land them a job overseas. It is difficult to expect children
of farmers to carry on the same tasks. In a country highly populated
by young people totally uninterested in farming, who would be
expected to take care of producing food on their table in the
future?
It is indeed a Herculean task to convince the
youth of today to become farmers. Typical farmers here are typecast
as being poor. Typical farming, perhaps next to begging, is the last
alternative for economic survival. Every small farmer is imposed the
burden of finding viable support for farm inputs, credit facilities,
fiscal incentives, support services, and against unfair competition
and trade. There is no reason therefore to blame the Filipino youth
for not looking at farming as an option for their future. These are
just among the problems, there are more.
Despite the gloomy state of agriculture, the
country is still fortunate for its very rich natural resources. Even
at this time when the country is stricken with hunger, the food
shortage is apparently not yet the result of inadequate food supply
but the affordability of food on the tables of many Filipinos. This
is due to unrelenting escalation in prices of staple food, basic
commodities and fuel prices, while family incomes remain the same.
Raising wages to cope up with rising prices would drive prices
higher. Prices need to be raised because capitalists need to protect
their profits.
The root of the problem that drives the vast
majority of Filipinos to forced starvation is the systemic uneven
distribution of wealth, with the rich getting richer and the poor
becoming poorer, and not the adequacy of food production or supply.
For instance, people line up for their daily
rice requirements to partake of government supply not because there
is no rice in the market but because the rice the government offers
is the only rice they could afford. It is a case where people
get hungry because they could not afford their family’s
requirements within the limits of their earnings.
It is easier for people to understand and
sacrifice if the earth no longer produces the food that they need
because everyone is similarly situated. But in a situation
where starvation is forced because people do not have the
wherewithal, a social volcano is just waiting to break loose.
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