Extra Rice, Anyone?

     The public need not determine whether the rice shortage in the country is caused by either the lack of supply due to low yields or the inhumane hoarding by the corrupt few (or many for that matter). The bottomline here is that people are hungry, starving, famished or what have you to accurately characterize the state of the Philippine majority. I had a debate with my uncle and I explained the effects of Agrarian Reform, i.e., the inefficiency of rice production due to decentralization of arable lands, the lack of capital which is essential to planting rice crops, and of course, corruption among other related problems. My uncle then aptly countered that there is no shortage. On the contrary, there is  a surplus of rice in the Philippines—-the problem is the lack of supply due to hoarding of rice by both Chinese and Filipino businessmen. I realized that it really doesn’t matter. What matters is that we should do something. What options do we Filipinos have anyway?

    Rice, scientific name oryza sativa, is the staple food in our country. In western countries, carbohydrate-rich food like potatos, wheat and corn are considered side-dishes to meat and main dishes. But encouraging Filipinos to eat less rice will be hard as rice is deeply ingrained in Filipino culture, way before the Spanish colonization. I think it’s high time we Filipinos acted, though. Dire circumstances call for desperate measures. We should look at other alternatives to rice.

     We can eat more viands or "ulam," but if meat-based ulam is hard to afford (Viand originally being an allusion to meat and etymologically comes from the Latin word vivo which means life), then we can shift to vegetables, veggies being nutritious aside from cheap. East Asian countries like Japan have healthy lifestyles because they eat less by preparing a wide variety of dishes in meals.

       We can also plant wheat, as the crop can grow in the Philippines. Planting wheat can also alleviate early morning hunger as pandesal prices are anticipated to rise because of rising wheat prices in the world market. Corn is also a possible alternative. In Cebu, other Visayan provinces and parts of Mindanao, corn is processed into something like what Americans call "cornmeal" or "grits." Looks like mashed potatoes, ergo: looks tasty (for me).

    Forget about people ranting about what a shame it is that the Philippines, being an Agricultural country and the home of the International Rice Research Institute, has rice problems. No use in crying over spilled milk. We can prove other countries that we can’t be more stupid than we are right now, not least avoid Geopolitical pressure from others.