REACTION PAPER

Natural disasters, climate change, shortcomings in infrastructure, and supply

chain disruptions all have an impact on food inflation in the Philippines and damage
crops and food supplies. However, based on the shared article titled "Why the
Philippines is so Vulnerable to Food Inflation", in the midst of a crisis, Ferdinand
Marcos Jr. appointed himself as agricultural secretary, raising questions about the
Philippines' ability to feed itself. The situation must be resolved by increasing
domestic output, which is constrained by inadequate infrastructure.

The nation is dependent on imported food and struggles with food nationalism,
making it the most food-insecure country in rising Asia. We all know that the
Philippines is most likely to import goods and services from different countries
because of the quality of the products. However, it made me really sad to think that
most Filipinos want imported products over our own. The phrase "colonial mentality"
is frequently used to describe this mindset, which is strongly ingrained in Filipino
culture.

Food inflation began because of scarcity, and it can lead to the failure of our
economy. Therefore, I think that we need to apply the people's face trade-off, in
which there is no such thing as a free lunch. With this, we are able to achieve efficient
economics and equality in distributing goods and services. However, the economy
needs marginal change because it enables businesses and people to make better
decisions by applying the concept of the margin. As Ferdinand Marcos Jr. appointed
himself as agricultural secretary, it gives me hope that the inflation in the Philippines
will lessen by thinking rationally in making decisions for incentives. Moreover, the
Philippines lacks the resources, such as effective protection, to deal with this situation
because it is dependent on imports from India and other nations for essentials like
rice. By this means, the government should pay attention to the market economy so
they can improve market outcomes that won’t lead to food inflation.

In addition to encouraging businesses to hire more staff and create more goods
and services, higher demand may eventually lead to price increases. With this, I
realize that they sacrificed the price increase of food to hire more staff, which became
their opportunity cost to improve our economy. The potential revenue that could have
been made if the price of food had been raised is the opportunity cost of this choice.
However, they were able to increase customer happiness and service quality by
recruiting additional workers, which might attract more repeat business and good
word-of-mouth marketing. Long-term, this might translate into greater
profitability. This might have a good impact on our economy because many
employees benefit; however, the price of food increases, and this might be a challenge
for them, especially if they have a family that they need to provide for.
 In conclusion, these imports are only expensive band-aids and short-term fixes
that the Philippines can ill afford and do not address the concerns of food insecurity
that have beset the nation. In spite of the global supply shock that is out of his control,
Marcos must stop the demise of the peso and increase food production in order to feed
his rapidly expanding population, and I am rooting for him to do his job. Moreover,
implying economic principles is important for having a strong foundation to achieve
progress and a successful economy.

REFERENCES
Singh, G. (2020). What is Marginal Change, Definition with 2 Examples. Ilearnthis.
https://ilearnthis.com/a/marginal-changes/
Domingcil, F. S. P. (2023). The Philippines: Food inflation crisis. ResearchGate.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/367191428_The_Philippines_Food_Inflatio
n_Crisis