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“ All Rice “

April 20, 2008

(This is a write-up from my guest blogger, Eygee who currently lives in the Philippines. I live in Canada now and have trained myself not to eat rice everyday lol! Open-mouthed It’s hard to believe that there is a shortage of rice in the Philippines. It’s sad. - Ate G.)

Before anyone reacts, yes ,you read it right it’s not a typo..my topic is about rice…all about rice….the most important food product… a major staple food in the Philippines…a part in every Filipino’s grocery list….”the Rice”.

By this time, it’s already in the news, the soaring rice price hits the Philippines…the shortage of rice supply…the hoarding of supply…the long lines for rice subsidy….the announcement from the government that Filipinos should now eat and cook only half of the rice that they’re used to eat…people panicking for their supply of their beloved rice…but how can that be?

When we are one of the biggest producers and exporters of rice…well…that’s easy…we are also one of the biggest consumers and importers of rice. With the increasing popularity of fancy rice around the globe more people are now craving for rice, Asians are not the only people who now eat rice…and with the soaring prices of fertilizers and gasoline, farmers can no longer afford to plant rice even with the increase in the price of rice plus the fact that their farms are now paved to give way to subdivisions and golf courses…Filipinos eat rice in the morning, rice for lunch, rice for supper and even for their snacks…I myself can have a good lunch eating only bagoong with calamansi with my rice but no “ulam” (i.e. viand) would taste good without rice…… this is not funny anymore ….people are getting arrested and thrown to prison for hoarding rice…poor people (even not so poor ones) line up in government stores to be get 1-2 kilos of rice (NFA rice) and as if they’re voting for an election their pointer finger is marked with ink to be sure that there are no “flying buyers” or people who line up twice in a day for their rice subsidy. Some law makers even proposed that the president should be given emergency power so that she can use her position to correct the situation on the rice shortage…even the church is being tapped to distribute and sell the NFA rice just to ensure that everyone will get a fair share…with all these attention about rice…rice farmers should be grinning ear to ear but no like the rest of the 85 million or should a say a very big part of the majority, these farmers are frowning also because they can no longer afford the P1,800 per sack (about 50 kilos) of rice so instead of selling they’d rather keep their produce and save it for the rainy days. If this thing continues…instead of Spam and corned beef maybe I’ll get rice when I open my balikbayan box….

www.i-filipino.com

Written by filipinocanadian · Filed Under BLOG, Lifestyle, OFW, Personal, Politics & Gov't, Tourism, Travel, Women 

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