There’s no shortage of food at this market in Pakistan. Yet costs have risen so much about half the population can’t afford to eat properly. The same problems are making life increasingly difficult for smallholders trying to live off the land.

The Vision Foods

“It’s affecting us.  Inflation is going up, so for example the price of lentils is very high.  We’re poor people. We can’t afford it.  Lentils have become as expensive as meat now. The government has given us these seeds which we will grow and try to reduce food costs.”

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation is about to host a major food summit in Rome. Its director general says there is no time to lose. [Jacques Diouf, Director-General, U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization]:
“We have been saying and repeating that the fundamentals that led to the crisis in 2008 are almost all there.”

The U.N. wants wealthy nations to more than triple their share of aid earmarked for agriculture, currently five per cent. The aid is intended to help farmers in poorer nations with fertilisers, disease-resistant seeds, crop storage, and irrigation. This water system in the Kenyan village of Ahero is an example of why they need help. Aid donations have helped the villagers bring it back to life.

But the expense of electricity for the pump is forcing them to cut production costs of their rice to compete on the market.

[Nelly Odago, Rice Farmer]:
“If we had more support and avoided expenses like paying for electricity used by the pump, and we used the gravity of water instead, then we would save more and plant other crops like maize and since this is one Kenya, we would feed those who don’t have food.”

Despite the good intentions of the impending food summit there is little appetite for it among world leaders.

Major figures including Barack Obama and Nicolas Sarkozy aren’t going to be there.

Meanwhile a final draft seen by Reuters of a declaration due to be made at the summit will not mention a target to eradicate hunger by 2025.

A commitment to increase aid also fails to specify target or timeframe.

“There is no more food. Unless help is extended to us, we will start counting the dead on Monday!” This statement opened Jack Castaño’s article in the October 11 issue of The Philippine Star, and was allegedly sent to him by an Itbayat resident.

Like the person who sent me the link, I was so worried – well at least at first. After checking its veracity through texts and calls, I was so comforted that it wasn’t at all true. There was rice shortage, alright, but it was not enough to leave the self-sufficient, tough Ivatans to die of hunger.

After asking my parents, I sent the following text messages to two high school classmates – Lita Viola, a teacher based in Itbayat, and Criselda, an Itbayat native who teaches in Basco.

“Angu uyud aya sitwasyon du Itbayat? Uyud a masngen dana mamidang su nadiman du kapteng?” (Ano ang totoong sitwasyon sa Itbayat? Totoo ba na malapit na magbilang ng namatay sa gutom?”)

These were their responses, en toto.

Lita said “Sa 22o lng kht bnana ay d n2mba. How cme na may mamatay dhl s bgyo?” (Sa totoo lang kahit banana ay di natumba. How come na may mamatay dahil sa bagyo?”

I then clarified that it’s not because of the typhoon but because of hunger, and that the information was supposedly from an Itbayat resident. So she texted back:

“Na cnu paru itbayat aya? Nwala ang rice n bilhn pero ala naman nagu2m no?” (Sino kayang Itbayat yun? Nawala ang rice na bilhin pero wala naman nagugutom no?”)

Criselda has this to say “Hay naku ja grabe dan news writer nio saya ***** … D naman tay2 pa sa mamiesta daw du 2 days ayam, nad rice shortage lang nung 2wks na walang 3p ng bngka e mula Fri nag hatd na cla ng nfa jan kya ala pa namatay dun ska me camote pa naman jan.” (Hay naku masyado naman ang news writers nyong mga *****. Di naman kasi two days na nga sila nagpepyesta dun. Nagkaroon lang rice shortage nung 2 weeks na walang trip ng bangka e mula Friday nag hatid na sila ng NFA jan kya wala pa namatay dun saka me camote pa naman jan.)

Granting, for argument’s sake that the text message was indeed sent to the author; in this age of mobile phones we can always check the veracity of any news. There is no need to paint our kaydians as helpless, dependent people. Ivatans have been known to withstand even the strongest supertyphoons.

This report is so outrageous and insensitive, verging on idiocy!

Was it meant to call the attention of national government? If yes, then it could have been done in a more appropriate and accurate means. In the first place, where are our leaders who inched their way to power through massive vote buying, home appliance distribution, and staged ambush? Kabugin nyo rin sila!

By Francis Allan L. Angelo

ILOILO is projected to produce 942,000 to 1 million metric tons of rice this year, according to Iloilo provincial agriculturist Ildefonso Toledo.

In 2008, Iloilo yielded 942,286 MT, or 42% of Western Visayas’s total rice production of 2.117 million MT.

Iloilo enjoyed a 164% rice sufficiency last year because of its high production rate, according to the National Food Authority (NFA).

Authorities foresee a rice shortage in the country after Typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng battered Central Luzon, the country’s rice granary.

Toledo said the absence of major weather disruptions, such as Typhoon Frank in 2008, bodes well for Iloilo’s rice production.

“Last year, we managed to produce almost 1 million metric tons of rice (even with) Typhoon Frank. This year, we expect to breach the 1 million mark because of favorable weather conditions and the use of hybrid seeds,” Toledo said.

Iloilo has been a posting production growth of 14.44% since 2007 due to intensified use of location specific interventions (LSI), active participation of agricultural extension workers and favorable weather condition which increased the number of rice areas planted.

Larry Nacionales, Department of Agriculture regional director, said Iloilo was sending rice to Tacloban and Cebu last year to augment the two provinces’ production deficit.

Nacionales said rice production in Western Visayas has been on the upswing since 2007.

Last year, Western Visayas contributed 12.52% to the national rice production last year and raised its rice sufficiency level from 110 in 2007 to 116 percent in 2008.

Nacionales said that from 1,992,426 MT in 2007, Western Visayas produced 2,117, 598MT, an increase of 125,172MT.

“Overall, Western Visayas has contributed 18.10% to the national rice production growth rate,” he added.

Manuel O. Olanday, regional rice program coordinator in Western Visayas, said the region has an average yield of 3.28 MT/hectare and posted a 7.41% increase in the total area planted from 601,595 hectares in 2007 to 646,197 hectares in 2008.

I love rice. Specifically, I’ve been brand-loyal to Mahatma Jasmine’s enriched Thai fragrant long-grain rice for years.

I was dismayed last time I went grocery shopping when I saw how the price of rice had shot up. I don’t know when the last time I’d bought rice was, but I guess it was before Cyclone Nargis wiped out the crop. I suppose, too, that rice from previous seasons could have been warehoused, but it was $11.49 for 5 pounds. I couldn’t believe it. Even though I love rice, and go through it slowly, and that’s not a price I would have to pay a lot of times in the future, I could not justify going home with it. I reluctantly switched over to ten pounds of some basmati rice in a burlap sack. Oddly, further down the aisle, on the opposite side, the rice selection picked up again. It was the usual selection of calrose rice and other unremarkable grains, and I assumed that it was the domestic products. Stores do like to lump food by ethnicity, you know. I found a five-pound bag of jasmine rice that was $4.99, and took that instead. How much worse, I figured, could American rice be?

I decided to kill the little bit of Mahatma rice I had left in the bag as a base for the pot roast juice and vegetables I have left over from last night’s dinner. I didn’t know if I would need the new bag of rice to fill out the scoop, so I had both bags on the counter and inadvertently performed a side-by-side comparison. Let’s just say that my mind was blown.

Golden Star Jasmine Rice, a prime grade long-grain fragrant rice, is not–as I had assumed–from the United States. It is, in fact, another brand of Thai Hom Mali rice from Thailand–just like Mahatma! So I haven’t tasted it yet, but I cannot figure out why one would be so much cheaper right now. They both sport the seal of the Thai Department of Foreign Trade, which lends a sense of authenticity. They both have a resealable plastic bag. They both “go bad” in 2010. So what gives?

Mahatma Jasmine Rice is actually enriched. They’ve actually added stuff. I’ve never noticed that difference before. A serving of Mahatma contains 8 percent of the RDA of iron, for example; Golden Star contains none. No thiamine, no niacin, no folic acid, either. I’m pretty astonished. I had assumed without ever seriously pondering the question, that all rice was enriched these days. After all, all Twinkies are enriched, and those aren’t even food.

Huh.

I now seriously have to decide if I care. I think I don’t eat enough rice for it to matter, but you can bet I’ll be watching my folic acid, niacin, iron, and thiamine intake for the next few days just to see. Considering, however, that even the Duncan Hines chocolate cake I baked last night contains 10 percent of my RDA of iron–per serving–I think I’ll be OK.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again–the powdered sugar frosting recipe rocks. This time I added the 1/4 of cocoa powder to the 1 pound of powdered sugar, 1 stick of salted butter, and 1/4 cup of milk and mixed for just one extra minute, and it came out great. Almost better than the non-chocolate version.

Funny scandals seem to appear everywhere I look these days. I just stumbled on two completely different scandals involving Thai rice. Breakfast, friends, has gotten political.

“The Controversy Surrounding Thai Hom Mali” (FoodMarketExchange, December 24, 2001)
“Behind the Run on Rice” (BusinessWeek, April 25, 2008)

Crock Pot Pot Roast

Many items of meat were on sale at buy one, get one free prices, so I came home with some large rumps. Our Crock Pot is neglected, and it’s so easy to use, so I looked up some Slow Cooker Pot Roast recipe online and went to work. When I disassembled my patio garden, I harvested all the ailing green onions; some of them had turned into pearl onions, and those went in the pot.

The meat turned out a little stringy, but that could be the pot roasty goodness factor. I don’t love stew meats usually, but this wasn’t choke-you dry. It’s probably an artifact of the process. I maybe, however, overcooked it, but I honestly can’t tell with slow cooker stuff. It was in the pot on low for seven hours. My big mistake was adding the carrots and potatoes too late; the ones on the top were still vaguely crisp. I had been skeptical of adding two cans of condensed cream of mushroom soup, because of the creamy, sticky whiteness it brought to the pot. I was not expecting the rich, brown, mushroomy wonderfulness that resulted. It did not perform the way I had assumed it would perform. Had I been less rushed, I might have scouted around for a different pot roast recipe that called for another liquid instead of picking the first one I saw. I am glad that I didn’t. Of course, they could all call for two cans of cream of mushroom soup.

I added extra garlic and spices and was not particularly careful about measuring out the vegetables into the pot. It didn’t matter. It was a pretty good dinner, with plenty of leftovers. What with the split pea soup I have left over from Sunday, I shouldn’t have to cook for the rest of the week!

Lest you, Gentle Reader, assume that I have forgotten about Thanksgiving, I will clarify that we are going to spend Thanksgiving in some condos in the desert, and eat at restaurants. Let that be a lesson to you. Who’s the racist now?

I think it is about time I break my silence on this issue. 

I grew up in the world of rice. My grandfather owns a rice farm and I am well aware of the process, the labor and the love that goes into cultivating rice. I have never experienced rice shortage. My grandfather makes sure that we are supplied with rice from his harvest. I never knew rice was expensive and I prefer eating bread.

I became a rice researcher. My adviser in UPLB assigned me to do my experiments in IRRI for my thesis. At first it was just a task that I need to accomplish, a requirement for my graduation. But IRRI cast a spell on me. For more than a year that I was doing my thesis, I fell in love with rice research and its importance for humanity. My advisers in IRRI opened up my eyes to the bigger picture of what I was doing.

I did not apply to any other job or company. I know what I want. I want to work for IRRI. I want (and I am) to pursue graduate studies on rice. I love rice. 

So when this rice crisis/rice shortage happened, I was devastated. How is this happening? 

The poorest of the world’s poor are the 1.1 billion people with income of less than a dollar a day. Around 700 million—almost two-thirds—of these people live in rice-growing countries of Asia. Rice, the dominant staple in Asia, accounts for more than 40% of the calorie consumption of most Asians. Poor people spend as much as 30–40% of their income on rice alone.  Ensuring sufficient supplies of rice that is affordable for the poor is thus crucial to poverty reduction. Given this, the current sharp increase in rice price is a major cause for concern. – Source

Long ago, my grandfather told me that the government and private buyers do not want to pay an adequate amount of money to the farmers. Do you know that the farmers spend a fortune on cultivating rice? They devote all their time and effort but nobody wants to recognize. The tendency is for the farmers to stop cultivating and to instead plant another crop which is more in demand or in many cases, sell their land to become subdivisions. 

Do you know that the Philippines used to export rice? Do you know that we can produce rice twice a year compared to other countries? But why are other countries supporting us?

And how about IRRI? People are throwing stones at us, the rice researchers. The International Rice Research Institute is based on the Philippines and yet the country is experiencing rice crisis?! What is IRRI doing? What are the rice researchers doing all this time?

Dr. Robert Zeigler, IRRI chief, explains that the rice shortage is  due to a convergence of events such as rapid population and economic growth in Asia, decrease in farm lands, and decrease in water supply. He calls for another green revolution and increased investments in rice research. – Source

I simply sigh. IRRI has been doing their best not just for the Philippines but for the whole world. The whole world needs to cooperate to achieve the goal. Let us not blame one for the fault of many.

Let us all remember that the one suffering from all these are the poor people, which is a very large part of the world’s population. They are the ones who doesn’t have enough money to just shrug this issue off. They are the ones dying of starvation. 

So what can we do?

IRRI’s goal

How about you?

• Let’s try to help by eating just enough rice. You don’t need to eat a plate-full every meal. 
• Finish your food and let’s not make left-overs. So many people are not eating and you would just throw away your food?
• Try to give to the poor. There are many people in need of our help. Let us reach out to them. 
• Be involved. We share the same world. Let us reach out to one another.

Grappling for grain towards the bottom of the barrel. Aren’t you prepared for the worst rice scenario? Is the United Nation looking into a soon-coming day of famine when people are hurting and situation is worsening and the government of the nations cannot assure us of food security?

The years 2007-2008 saw dramatic world food price rises, bringing a state of global crisis and causing political, economical instability and social panic in both poor and developed nations. Indeed, Asian nations have reacted to the mere prospect of shortage with something close to hysteria.

Recently, in a dramatic development for US consumers – groceries, shoppers, warehouse clubs and restaurants of Asia and India alike started out panic buying, running the race on rice, snapping up two to four bags rice limit imposed by their suppliers.

But the shortage of rice is made aggravated by hoardings and widespread worries about food inflation that drives the price hike in many rice-growing nation. Several countries have imposed export bans or sharp limits that led to a sharp reduction of rice available for trade in the global market.

India and Vietnam, two of the world’s biggest rice exporters, Cambodia, Egypt and Brazil have all ceased to export. Thailand, the world’s largest’s exporter is halting the market play. Philippines and Iran both were large net importers of grain having large rice-consuming population get worried for the whole year’s requirement to feed their country. The Philippines is courting Vietnam for 600,000 tonnes of rice, a government-to-government deal. The National Food Authority ( NFA ) plans to borrow 8 billion pesos more this year to fund its rice purchases – an average of about $1,136 per tonnes up 60% from a $650 per tonne.

Lines at the government subsidized rice stores are getting longer. People are hurting and situation is worsening because the world is reaching the bottom of the barrel. A new face of hunger, when people who were not in the urgent category are now moving into that same category. Food experts estimate that 405 million tonnes of cereal stocks remains an 8-12 week’s reserve for the world’s population. Alarming, an estimate of $160 million plus is needed to keep the WFP’s commitment, and an infringement on this agreement would mean more millions are crossing the line of starvation.

The current crisis is a global predicament which entails global considerations. Otherwise, the world is on the edge of mass riots as in Egypt, Haiti, Cameron, Burkina Faso. Can the UN blame India, Vietnam, Thailand and other rice exporting nations for restricting rice exports just to protect their national interest? I don’t think so, each nation would have learned and have forseen before what these brilliant countries have long-forseen. Nevertheless, the UN should be in wary seeing and securing radical solutions for the world tomorrow and save millions from impending famine.

Rice is life both for the rich and the poor. It has become the cornerstone, the world’s language and the culture. There are an estimated 140,000 different varieties of rice that small farmers in Asia have generated without the help of monopoly and laboratories.

Looking at the brighterside, IFAD sees the food and climate crises offered opportunities for increased investment in agricultural and rural development.

FYI: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuv2duHwyOU&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WI_qMORLOcM&feature=related

.

Photo: Sandy Gates

“My mom is the type of person who likes to know exactly where her food comes from,” one of the girls explained her mom’s preference for buying groceries from farm stands than, say, supermarkets, because they are not processed.

I like seeing exactly where my food comes from because it makes me appreciate all the work that has gone into each single grain of rice I have on my plate every day.

The worldwide shortage of rice has sent prices of rice through the ceiling, but as many in the non-profit sector have said during our trip, it means the rice business has become much more profitable for these farmers.

As of now, they no longer feel the need to migrate for work; for better opportunities; for money.

This photos was taken in Northeast Thailand, where many prefer to move to the big city, Bangkok, for better-paying jobs. Away from their support community and foreign to the city, many become vulnerable to being trafficked.

Staying home, on the other hand, means having access to family and one’s natural support group, and the high price of rice means they don’t need to go anywhere to attain a more comfortable lifestyle.

Now it isn’t just great to know where my food comes from. Knowing where the money is going, and who it’s supporting makes it easier to shell out the extra dollar or so for my staple food.

Over the past three months, have you “experienced hunger and did not have anything to eat?”

This was a question from the Social Weather Stations, a non-profit social research station in the Philippines. Their findings show that more Filipino families are going hungry more often. More Filipino families are answering the above question with “a few times.” When asked how often they went hungry, a growing number of Filipinos simply responded, “All the time.”

And Filipina women are bearing the brunt of this hunger. According to Gabriela Women’s Party Representative Liza Largoza Maza:

It is the women who are hit hardest by the food crisis. Mothers who make up the majority of those lining up for cheap NFA rice, are most often, the last to eat.

The Arroyo government has linked the Philippine rice and food crisis to a larger “world food crisis” as well as a “global price crisis” caused by soaring fuel charges. Her response is to call for “comprehensive agriculture program” to prioritize food production. She also helpfully suggested that the poor could mix rice with yams or switch to cheaper cereals in order to stave off hunger.

However, the seeds of this crisis were planted much earlier than Arroyo suggests.

Since the 1990s, women’s groups like Amihan and Innabuyog have resisted World Bank- and World Trade Organization-mandated development policies like land conversion and mining. Activists have used their bodies to block bulldozers and other machines sent to convert farmlands to factories. They have conducted analyses linking globalization and trade liberalization to the displacement of peasant women all around Asia. They have warned that the emphasis on cultivating export crops like cut flowers and tobacco will have dire consequences for an agricultural country whose main staple is rice.

The “Food Over Gold” campaign launched by the Asia-Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APFWLD) in 2005 is an ongoing campaign to study the impact of mining on women and food sovereignty. Innabuyog Chair and APFWLD member Vernie Yocogan-Diano participated in a study of mining communities in Mongolia. The team found that while foreign mining communities are profiting,

Government policy on the mining sector and its implementation do not respect, promote or protect the rights of herding families. Currently, 45% of Mongolian territory had been given away for mining. In some provinces, 70-80% of the land is given to mining licenses.

While mining is looked upon by the Mongolian national government as a key economic survival for the country, herders and local people do not truly benefit from it. The right to livelihood and healthy environment of herders are being denied because of the tremendous destruction caused by mining.

However, there is encouraging news. The team also found local resistance, as various women’s and civil society organizations mobilized and worked towards alternatives to this aggressive and destructive mining.

The effects on mining aggression in Mongolia, the Philippines, and other developing countries, and the growing instances of hunger are all testament to economic development policies that do not address the needs of people. These are policies that prioritize gold over food, mines over farms, corporations over people.

It is these false development policies such as these that cause some 500 million people around Asia—majority of them women and girls—to go hungry.

[This post was written by tanglad for tanglad: feminist, runner, activist, dog-lover.]

I AM not lifting my chair but I say VCO is perfect for health and beauty maintenance. I’m not a business woman by profession, in fact I have very poor skills in sales and I don’t have the charm to sweet talk a person into buying a product. That said, I’m not surprised PR firms won’t hire me. However, my mother was able to persuade me to sell VCO (Virgin Coconut Oil) which is manufactured by a Chinese biochemist and a good friend of our family.

As the country continues to face the dreadful oil price hike and rice shortage, our biochemist friend has every reason to raise the price of his VCO goods. But he did not. That’s why I’m still offering my 250 ml VCO at P130 and each VCO bar at P100. On the other hand, multinational companies that order from him in bulk have increased by P10 to P15.

You might think that this is all about business. Not so. I just hope I can encourage men and women alike to use VCO because of its wonderful benefits. Aside from being a yummy beverage and dessert, coconut contributes to our total well being.

Using coconut oil regularly creates gradual improvement on your skin’s tone and texture. By applying it religiously on your face, neck, arms and legs, you strengthen the skin and underlying tissues on these areas. Coconut oil also promotes speedy healing of wounds, cuts and insect bites. As a matter of fact, it’s what I use on my daughter every time she has insect bites. You don’t have to wait long for the red mark to disappear. What’s more, coconut oil proves to be helpful in fending off invading germs that cause infections and illness.

Aside from its topical application, VCO can also be taken into the body. Daily consumption of VCO will reduce the risk of heart disease. People who experience discomfort due to their digestive system’s irregularity are advised to take a spoonful of VCO before every meal. You have the assurance that it will normalize that tummy of yours.

Three and a half tablespoons of VCO is the general recommendation for average-sized adults but if you want to have more, help yourself. There’s not a recorded case of VCO overdose so you can take as much as you like. It’s just like having your favorite fruit. Others mix their VCO with their vegetable or salad.

If you want to experience the wonders and magic of VCO, head to the nearest drugstore or health section of a mall. But before you pick up that bottle, check out its label for the line that says it has passed the Halal Certifying Board of the Muslims. By being Halal certified, the product is rest assured permissible since harmful ingredients are nonexistent. See, the Muslims are very cautious. They only take in what is proven pure and that is what makes them admirable. A VCO in the market that is not Halal certified isn’t made from 100% coconut oil. It has incorporated additives which do not guarantee the benefits only a genuine VCO bottle can offer.

 It is interesting that Malaysia PM Abdullah Badawi urged participants of the World Economic Forum (WEF) to think again on the shift towards biofuel production (from food production).

Maybe he has neglected to look at his own backyard.

When 30 years ago, you got to enjoy paddy fields, buffaloes, kampongs, rubber plantations, tin mines, cliffs and forests along the country roads, today, you see nothing but palm oil plantations along the North-South Highway. 

On a flight from Singapore to KL, you will marvel at the endless sea of uniform palm greenery below.

Back in the 60’s, Malaysia was self-sufficient where rice was concern.  Today, it imports 30% of the staple grain. 

The ongoing food shortage is a wake up call.  That is where PM Badawi is coming from in his address to the WEF. 

His government has recently decided to encourage rice farming on a massive scale again.  It has identified the East Malaysian state of Sarawak for the purpose, and the state is supportive in providing more land.

Sound policy it is.  The next question then, is where the land will come from.  Will biofuel production hectares be converted, or will it involve clearing of more forests yet?

*related article here

Here’s a mash-up of interesting articles this week.

[1] If you are heartless, dump your future ex-lover like any of these 50 mostly immature and hurtful ways.

[2] After ruthlessly breaking up with him/her, how would you know that ex-lover still loves you? Here are the top 10 signs, mostly based on actual experiences phoned in by listeners of a popular radio show.

[3] What do you call an unknown person or place in Australia? in New zealand? It’s funny to imagine when Fred Nerk has got to pee at sparrow’s fart in waikikamukau.

[4] What comments will an english teacher give to a tech blog article like this? Hopefully my own blog doesn’t get murdered like that.

[5] Here are several reasons why rice is running out. Perhaps rice shortage, at least here in Manila, can be partially blamed for urbanization. People from the province, for example, are leaving the fields they inherited from generations back. Instead, they go to big cities (Baguio and Metro Manila) or abroad to find work. Not that I’m generalizing, though, but it happens.

[6] The Banaue Rice Terraces, a truly monumental masterpiece built 2000 years ago by human hands, are often regarded by Filipinos as the Eighth Wonder of the World. Other nations have their own 8th wonderkid in their backyard, too. My favorites are the Easter Island Heads and Machu Picchu.

Here’s a mash-up of interesting articles this week.

[1] If you are heartless, dump your future ex-lover like any of these 50 mostly immature and hurtful ways.

[2] After ruthlessly breaking up with him/her, how would you know that ex-lover still loves you? Here are the top 10 signs, mostly based on actual experiences phoned in by listeners of a popular radio show.

[3] What do you call an unknown person or place in Australia? in New zealand? It’s funny to imagine when Fred Nerk has got to pee at sparrow’s fart in waikikamukau.

[4] What comments will an english teacher give to a tech blog article like this? Hopefully my own blog doesn’t get murdered like that.

[5] Here are several reasons why rice is running out. Perhaps rice shortage, at least here in Manila, can be partially blamed for urbanization. People from the province, for example, are leaving the fields they inherited from generations back. Instead, they go to big cities (Baguio and Metro Manila) or abroad to find work. Not that I’m generalizing, though, but it happens.

[6] The Banaue Rice Terraces, a truly monumental masterpiece built 2000 years ago by human hands, are often regarded by Filipinos as the Eighth Wonder of the World. Other nations have their own 8th wonderkid in their backyard, too. My favorites are the Easter Island Heads and Machu Picchu.

MUDGE’s Musings

Here in the replete West, such as at the home of yr (justifiably) humble svt, rice is an occasional side dish, a refreshing change from a potato, or pasta, usually accompanying a steaming chunk of animal protein.

In the hungry not-West, rice is entirely it.

Rice has been distressingly newsworthy lately, as prices have been climbing.

Even before this month’s very bad news (the story below, as well as the Burma cyclone of a couple of weeks ago that hit Southeast Asia’s rice bowl (Burma’s Irrawaddy delta) the hardest), there were shortages and unrest, sometimes violent, due to skyrocketing rice prices.

But the NYTimes makes clear, the latest threat to rice, and thus to the staple food of billions, is the lack of momentum in agricultural research.

Today’s villain is called the brown plant hopper. And it could have been stopped in its tracks, had the research establishment kept its eye on the ball.

The Food Chain

World’s Poor Pay Price as Crop Research Is Cut

By KEITH BRADSHER and ANDREW MARTIN | Published: May 18, 2008

LOS BAÑOS, Philippines — The brown plant hopper, an insect no bigger than a gnat, is multiplying by the billions and chewing through rice paddies in East Asia, threatening the diets of many poor people.

Researchers at the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines, the world’s main repository of information about rice, are trying to deal with problems like the rice hopper, which destroys plants, by developing stronger varieties of rice.

The damage to rice crops, occurring at a time of scarcity and high prices, could have been prevented. Researchers at the International Rice Research Institute here say that they know how to create rice varieties resistant to the insects but that budget cuts have prevented them from doing so.

Science has achieved stunning breakthroughs over the years in agriculture: crop yields increased substantially, and disease and pest resistance were bred to create ever more hardy strains. The stunning result: By the 1970s, for much of the world, with some pesky exceptions in Africa, the food supply was no longer a daily crisis.

That was then.

Agricultural research was a victim of its own success.

The trouble is that nature doesn’t go down to defeat quietly, if ever. So while the scientific community rested on its laurels, or more likely, found sexier (i.e., more attractive to fund-granting organizations) programs to pursue, conditions continued to evolve.

Nothing, but nothing stands still. The globe keeps rotating, the human population continues to expand itself, as well as the once-arable land it confiscates for habitation, commerce and other purposes, until a crisis strikes.

Polio and tuberculosis were terrors for our great grandparents and grandparents. Then, due to scientific progress by the 1950s polio and TB were believed so much under control that two generations only knew them as childhood vaccinations. Complacency set in. Science went looking for new challenges; there were no lack of those: AIDS for example. Sadly, recently both dread diseases have been making a comeback.

So it is with the Green Revolution of the 1970s.

“Agriculture has been so productive and done so well, people have kind of lost sight of how fragile it really is,” said Jan E. Leach, a plant pathologist at Colorado State University who works with rice. “It’s as if we have lost track of the fact that food is linked to agriculture, which is linked to human survival.” …

Additional factors prompted wealthy countries to shift their donations away from agriculture. For instance, advocacy groups criticized some of the environmental problems arising from intensive farming, weakening support for the Green Revolution. And urgent new priorities like the AIDS crisis in Africa captured the world’s attention.

Advocates for agriculture fought a losing battle to stop the cutbacks — nowhere more than in the World Bank, the huge institution in Washington that makes low-interest loans to poor countries for development projects.

Adjusted for inflation, the World Bank cut its agricultural lending to $2 billion in 2004 from $7.7 billion in 1980.

Meanwhile, the brown plant hopper, dealt with successfully many years ago, didn’t disappear. It evolved.

But brown plant hoppers adapted swiftly, and the resistant strains started losing their effectiveness in the 1990s. An important insecticide lost its punch, too, as the hopper developed the ability to withstand up to 100 times the dose that used to kill it.

While the insect was adapting, the rice institute was being gutted.

Leading to the latest crisis.

[Please click the link below for the complete article -- but then please come on back!]

World’s Poor Pay Price as Crop Research Is Cut – New York Times

And lest you think that the problem has been contained to the Philippines, source of today’s story, sorry, no. China is working to battle the pest.

But the true fix is genetic, and that takes investment money and time, both once available in abundance, like rice.

Now, due to apathy, entropy and more interesting research targets, money, time and rice are in increasingly short supply.

It’s it for now. Thanks,

–MUDGE

Share this post :

del.icio.us it!

digg it!

reddit!

technorati!

yahoo!