March 12, 2012 ECON 171 REACTION PAPER: Rice Price Crisis: Causes, Impacts and Solutions

MA. LOURDES C. ESPERA BSM-4

Well, if a rice crisis is coming Ill eat bread. Marie Antoinette, the beheaded queen of France had advised that if the pheasants dont have any bread to eat then let them eat cake. And maybe we Filipinos should follow the same, eat something else instead of rice. I remember when I was in elementary, one of my teachers told us of a rice crisis back in (I cant remember the date), rice was so few and its price too high that people cant afford it. She said they had to eat corn. I remember I prayed hard that that would never happen to me because I dont eat corn the way I eat rice. I was a child back then, I had lived in a constant fear that the rice we love so much would be gone, maybe it would and maybe it wont. I think I still agree with the Department of Agriculture secretary who said that Filipinos are eating too much rice, just look at the unlimited rice offers he said. People commented that he should leave unlimited rice alone. Sellers should lessen the price of vegetables so we can eat more of it instead of rice. I havent heard of vegetable crises and if you happen to pass the Tacloban public market in the morning, you can see piles of rotting vegetables. We can still eat rice but in small amounts, eat meat sparingly and lots of vegetables. (Then there would be a vegetable crisis! Of course not, that wont happen yet, all we would be able to do is lessen those dumps of rotting vegetables.) Why is that if there is an article about an impending crisis it always sounds everything is under control? Rice price crisis? Global warming? Climate change? It would have adverse affects but not in our lifetimes, were okay now it would happen in year 4092. People are causing all sorts of problem but not me. I have few needs, little trash and I dont have car so I did not cause any problem. It is because of other people and not me, I am a potential victim here. It feels as if I can always go on with my life, nothing terrible will going to happen because someone is already doing damage control. I sometimes feel that these issues are too impersonal; I didnt do it so I shouldnt worry.

According to the D.A. Agriculturist who had given a lecture in our forum, there are a lot of uncultivated areas in Northern Samar, and rice was planted with the bariis. We Nortehanons are certainly contributing to the rice price crisis. My classmates had a laugh when they told me about what the D.A. Agriculturist said. That hurts but its true, at my place you can still see land where plenty of grass could grow, rice is planted once a year but I never knew that farmers went to Manila until now. They said that we used to have more rice when it was still my grandmother who manages the farm, when you tell my uncle about this, hell give you plenty of reasons. Iton la a ani kay ginyatot/ginpeste (eaten by rats/pests), waray pa uuran di pa pwede magtanom (Its not yet raining so we cant plant yet) or waray naruyag magtanom/mag-ani (no one wants to plant/harvest). If you ask about the expenses hell say ginbayad kan kuan kay may utang pa kit didto (payment to this/that) or bayad sa pagsalay sa carabao (carabao ride?). Year after year it is the same cycle, there would be no improvement in irrigation and roads, more people would be leaving the farm and harvest would be lesser and lesser. You cant blame them if your way of living did nothing to improve your life and you need to get past 3 mountains and 10 fields to reach the place you call home. The government should really quit that crap about industrialization, about attracting other countries to do business with us, about Spratlys and war with China. As far as I know it is only the armed forces which they keep on increasing budget. PNoy had given houses to a number of policemen and the government currently purchased brand new helicopters. There is few if there is, news about the government improving technology and infrastructure related to agriculture. Who cares if we are a third world country, if we can eat as much we can or never worry about our food for tomorrow? Those developed countries have already secured their food so they can worry about other things. But we Filipinos havent secured our food yet; lets not try to do things the same time as the result would only be disastrous. Government, please focus first on our agriculture, (we are an agricultural country!) and we can worry about industrialization later.