Name: Jewel O.

Canete Subject: CRWTs

Section: BSMT Dash7 Activity #2

The Hidden price of Food Security

Reference:

https://www.manilatimes.net/2022/10/12/opinion/columns/the-hidden-price-of-food-security/
1861941

The Editorial article I chose to make an opinion of was from ‘The Manila Times’ and it was
written by Daphne Oseña-Paez, published last October 12 entitled- ‘The hidden price of food security.
The issue of Food Security is somehow one of the sensible issues that the Philippines and many other
nations are facing. The issue of Food production, trade-offs, and inflation is interconnected with the
Issue of oil production and in-fight between the first world countries. Furthermore, when we talk
about Food security; economics as well as the environment comes in. Hereon I agreed with the
author’s statement when she stated that it is not easy to balance these three, it needs the Higher-ups
such as the president to do the job and the Department of Agriculture to make the best decision to
maintain and survive in this crisis. We don’t want to become like Sri Lanka which chose practicality
over quality which certainly ends up in catastrophe. I also agree that the current administration
should no longer slack or do mistakes, The past 100 days are enough to test the waters, and the next 6
years will be in their hands since they got the power they want. Therefore, As Marcoses are known for
diplomacy and agriculture the expectation is high, it is their expertise so they must show us, people,
how competent they are.

On the other hand, I disagree that the Marcoses could not make the price of Rice per kilo into
20 pesos. In some ways it is not impossible, they could achieve it by providing the farmers with what
they need; irrigation, fertilizers, etc. or directly buying the rice without going to traders who pay them
less than they should have. However, just like what was told in the article, it is still a trade. We
taxpayers would pay more tax to sustain the needs of farmers, but we should remember that we
could gain more and we could help those poor people who can’t buy quality rice with the sacrifice we
do. In addition to that organic fertilizers infused with commercial ones could still be a way, but with
monitoring. We should learn from the mistake made by the Sri Lanka government. We must be
careful with our decision, it does not mean that we save some penny; we should be happy, because
just like they say “don’t count the eggs, not until they hatch”. I also agree that farmers should rotate
their crops, they must adapt to the environment so that they could have a better production of crops,
fully depending on one thing would not give them progress and desirable outcome. There are a lot of
alternatives actually, we just have to be practical and critical.