Why Buy Rice?

First of all, I'm not endorsing other rice alternatives nor am I discouraging people from consuming rice. I like rice and you can pretty much guess it's a part of my diet since I'm Asian. However, I want to talk about the alarming rate at which the government is importing rice from other nations. Just recently, the countries from the Indochinese region banded together to form the Organization of Rice and Exporting Countries or OREC. Rumor has it that they are planning to regulate the price of rice in the international market just like how OPEC regulates oil prices. It's clear why this is happening. The global food crisis is still not over and it looks like it will stay here with us for a while. And what does the Philippine government do about it?

Would you believe that they plan to import more rice and pursue an "aggressive" buying policy? Haven't they seen yet what's been happening in Asia lately? A lot of rice producing nations have already refused exporting their products. Just a few days ago, the National Food Authority (NFA) held a bidding session for a potential supplier. And would you believe that only one bidder from Vietnam attended? And that bidder was not even qualified to be an NFA supplier? In other words, the bid was an epic failure. In addition to that, the recent typhoon in Burma will surely hurt the global rice supply especially since Burma is a member of the OREC. With all this happening and the government still plans to keep on buying? Why not use all the stagnant land all over the country for farming? It would greatly increase food supply and would even help the farmers. A lot of lands were turned into golf courses and subdivisions that only benefit a few (and nobody even likes).

So why does the government insist on buying instead of producing? Simple. It's because they are only doing what they do best - slowly killing the country, ignoring the needs of the people and not listening to the international community.