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The brain-dead can only dispense with brain-dead policies. And
whoever advised Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap to issue that
hare-brained directive that opens up cara-beef imports surely has no
agenda other than sabotage the chances of Yap to move from the
cabinet into the senate.
Borrowing from Senator Arroyo, the opening up
of cara-beef imports represent the stupidest of public policy.
The first reason is one cannot reconcile the P43
billion FIELDS, the grand food production program of President
Arroyo, with the opening up of cara-beef imports. The FIELDS aims to
attain national self-sufficiency in basic food communities, from
rice to pork.
The opening up of cara-beef imports will have
the effect of killing the multi-billion peso hog industry, from the
big farms to the backyard raisers, which are legions. It will kill
it with extreme prejudice and within the short term. Cheap cara-beef
will flood the market and it will dry up the market for pork. (Full
disclosure: I am a backyard hog raiser.) It will be a big blow to
the efforts to attain food self-sufficiency. The sham assurance that
the cara-beef imports will be go exclusively to the food processors,
fast-food chains and hotdog and tocino makers is just that—a
hollow assurance. Even during the period of restriction on cara-beef
imports, several Central Luzon-based food processors had smuggled
cara-beef, which they diverted into the public markets and rural
distributors for hefty profits. The Bureau of Customs has records on
these smuggling cases. And after every massive dumping of cheap cara-beef
into the public markets, the prices of pork and chicken dives,
causing untold ruin to hog—and even poultry-raisers.
The opening up of cara-beef imports has the
effect of legitimizing the smuggling of cara-beef into the country.
And killing the hog and poultry sub-sectors.
Imported cara-beef comes from countries not yet
cleared by the Paris-based agency tracking down the presence of the
dreaded foot-and-mouth disease across the globe. Domestic hog
raisers said that cara-beef imports are carriers of FMD, a charge
which no one can refute.
Now, Mindanao has an FMD-free status. This is
worth billions of dollars in commercial value. Very few areas in the
world can pass the FMD test with flying colors and Mindanao is one
of such areas. As a FMD-free area, Mindanao, once properly
developed, can be a producer, processor and supplier of pork and
processed pork products. We can be the rival of the Maling producers
of China once we have put up the infrastructure for it in Mindanao.
There is a value-added to the products from Mindanao. They come with
the FMD-free certification, a cherished document. The opening up of
cara-beef imports threatens this awesome advantage of Mindanao. And
for what? And for whom?
The opening up of cara-beef imports has the
effect of favoring the big capitalists (fast food chains, food
processors, tocino and hotdog makers, agri-business giants) over the
millions of backyard hog raisers. The already-wealthy gets another
big favor from government through a stupid policy of the DA. The hog
raisers, which represent a pillar of the agriculture sector and
involves millions of backyard raisers, will bear the full brunt of
the savagery of the directive.
While there is no organized opposition to the
opening up of cara-beef imports right now, it is possible that there
will be one in the days to come. With millions of backyard raisers
deprived of steady ( though small income) , we just don’t know
what they are capable of once their small undertakings close shop.
If they protest and protest massively, one can just imagine the
ugliness of the whole exercise.
Hogs will be released along Elliptical Road
where the DA has its central offices and protesting small raisers
will butcher them at the Circle to dramatize their protest. TV
cameras will be all over, filming the whole ugly spectacle. Then
tough questions will be asked. And the DA cannot resort to lies and
obfuscation. Spin cannot cover up the naked truth that opening up
cara-beef imports represent the stupidest of public policies.
All lies end up badly, according to Shakespeare
. And Mr. Yap, with a bright future ahead of him, cannot squander
this with his inane policy for cara-beef.
mvrong@yahoo.com
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