Food sovereignty

By Ma. Ceres P. Doyo
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 01:45:00 07/30/2009

"Why should we prioritize the production of corn to feed animals in Korea when we cannot even feed all the Filipino people?" asked Arze Glipo, lead convenor of the Task Force Food Sovereignty (TFFS). Think about that.

A number of readers sent feedback on last week's column piece ("Global land grab, agricolonialism") and expressed alarm. One came from a Korean who felt shame that Korean companies are out to take over vast tracks of land in the Philippines and in other developing countries in order to meet Korea's needs for food and biofuel. Korea is not the only country doing this.

A Filipino working in an organic farm in Hokkaido, Japan also sent a letter. Another letter came from Alice Raymundo who belongs to the Task Force Food Sovereignty network. The NGO's name tells you there is reason to watch over our farmlands lest they fall into the hands of powerful countries that have only their own interest at heart. We used to think that sovereignty was only about territorial authority of the political kind. Now we can see that it also has something to do with the food on our table.



Here are excerpts from Raymundo's letter:

"Thanks for your column piece 'Global land grab, agricolonialism.' We really need to shed more light on this alarming trend of 'leasing' large tracts of land to agri-business corporations because it endangers all of us Filipinos, especially poor farmers who will be more marginalized from land. This trend also poses a very serious threat to our food security and our national sovereignty.

"At the rate the country's agricultural land is being leased to foreign corporations, the government may not even need Charter change to lift the prohibition on foreign ownership of land. Note that the 'lease' could last up to 50 years, as in the case of the contract with Pacific Bio-Fields Holdings involving the lease of 400,000 hectares in Pagudpud, Ilocos Norte, which is almost equivalent to a farmer's entire farming life. This means that the youth in the countryside of Pagudpud, for instance, would not be able to use the land until after 2059 or only when they are about 68 years old!

"We agree with you that there should be a mechanism to monitor and to regulate all these land transactions. Considering the recurrent rice crisis that we experience, the last one in 2008 barely resolved, we may also add that there should be a moratorium on the lease of irrigated farmland. There should also be ban on shifting the use of rice land for the production of agro-fuel crops and other export crops.

"I do not know if you have heard of the Philippine Agricultural Development and Commercial Corp. (PADCC), an agency under the Department of Agriculture. It looks like it may have a lot to do with the lease of land to foreign corporations. Look at their website, www.philagribiz.com, and see the amount of land that is up for lease to interested parties.

"In a recent interview, a PADCC official explained that the corporation's main purpose is to overcome the legal and logistical obstacles that foreign or domestic entities have in the Philippines in creating large agri-business facilities.

"He said that when a company, particularly foreign, wants to purchase large areas of land in the Philippines, it would be nearly impossible (for the company) to deal with the numerous small land owners. PADCC then acts as an intermediary for large-scale land consolidation. Land consolidators go around individual communities to persuade them to lease their land to the agribusiness and they negotiate the terms between the investor and the small holders.

"PADCC's role also involves helping resolve tenurial issues which could mean interacting with the Department of Agriculture, Department of Environment and Natural Resources and National Commission on Indigenous Peoples.

"Looks like PADCC has its hands full with all the current and prospective land leases it is working on, including one with Saudi Arabia, Korean Electric Power, Unilever and San Miguel Corp."

In a statement, TFFS's Glipo denounced the awarding of 400,000 hectares to Bio-Fields Holdings when there is a food crisis. "It is pathetic that the government can simply give away this much land for the production of coco-diesel for export when we have just barely solved the rice crisis last year," Glipo said.

Glipo added that the awarding of land, and for free at that, betrays "the government's lack of sincerity in its food self-sufficiency aims." If the same hectarage will be utilized for rice production, Glipo said, it will generate an additional 1.2 million metric tons of rice, an amount that can cover a significant portion of our annual rice deficit.

"What good would a handful of jobs that Pacific Bio-Fields promises if we continue to jeopardize the country's food production?" Glipo asked.

TFFS had earlier also expressed outrage over the news that the government had leased, yet again, 94,000 hectares of agricultural land in Mindoro to a Korean corporation, Jeonnam Feedstock Ltd., to grow corn feed for 25 years.

"Is the government bidding out the entire country?" Glipo asked. "The present government seems to consider only the very narrow and most immediate gain from such transactions and completely disregards both the short- and long-term development goals of the country."

TFFS is calling for an immediate stop to all future land leases and a suspension of all existing leases to foreign corporations. Otherwise, the country will end up importing more food in the future.

Raise the alarm.

Global land grab, agricolonialism

Last week the Inquirer had a front-page story, “S. Korea leases 94,000ha in Mindoro; agri execs surprised”. It coincided with the July 2009 cover story of World Mission Magazine (“The Global Land Grab”) whose cover blurb says: “Huge amounts of farmland in poor nations are being bought or leased. The Philippines is on the map as a lease hotspot.”

World Mission (WM) is a Catholic monthly published by the Comboni Missionaries “as part of their ministry and program of missionary awareness in Asia.” It is not a pietistic publication. It deals with world social issues (hunger, poverty, disease, the environment, inspiring persons, religious dialogue) as well as spirituality and faith in these times. I know WM’s editor, Fr. Jose Antonio M. Rebelo MCCJ (wm.editor@gmail.com) and I’ve written a couple of articles for his feisty magazine. It is very well designed too.



The Mindoro story caught many by surprise, government officials among them. They were caught napping. The news said “A southwestern province in South Korea has leased 94,000 hectares of farmland in Mindoro to grow 10,000 tons of corn a year for feed for 25 years…And the South Korean province wants to lease more land in its efforts to cut costs.

“South Korea, the world’s third largest buyer of corn for food and feed, imported 7.5 million tons of corn for feed in 2008, and is one of several nations, from China to the Middle East, seeking farmland abroad after steep food price inflation last year highlighted the need for more food security. Jeonman Feedstock Ltd. has leased about 94,000 ha. of farmland in Mindoro to grow low-cost grain for feed production…”

From the Inquirer Research Dept. was a sidebar backgrounder on a Fil-Japan venture that would allow a Japanese company to use “at least 600,000 hectares of land in the Philippines for biofuel production in Pagudpud, Ilocos Norte.” There were talks with Qatar and China but because of protests the Dept. of Agriculture suspended plans to allow China to use 1.24 million hectares of Philippine farmland. Pres. Arroyo, during her trip to Qatar last year, reportedly opened talks for the lease of at least 100,000 hectares to the emirate.

OMG! Before you know it we’ve been taken over by other nations. Agricolonialism, anyone? Food security and sovereignty for sale? WM quotes Joachim von Braun, director of the International Food Policy Research Institute, as saying “There is a major lack of transparency in these land deals.”

In the Philippines, who is monitoring and regulating these deals? It is obvious that this is not a sexy issue, so will our lawmakers bother to spend time and investigate? To borrow words from a T-shirt blurb, there is no “katri”, no “hayden camera” in this.

According to WM, European, American and Asian countries and corporations are buying or leasing farmland in poor countries to secure their own food supplies and for the production of biofuels. One of the prime vulnerable targets is Africa as well as poor regions where communities do not even have legal tenure over land. And there are hardly any protests. The exception was Madagascar, WM points out, where the announcement of a 99-year contract to lease 1.3 million hectares to South Korean’s Daewoo Corp. triggered the recent revolution.

More than 20 million hectares of farmland in Africa, Latin America and Asia are now held by foreign governments and companies. Rich countries with not enough land could always buy their way into their poor neighbor’s properties.

That many of these agricultural ventures are for biofuel production poses another problem. We have been enamored with supposedly eco-friendly biofuels (I use E-10), but have we looked into how they are produced? How much environmental biodiversity will be sacrificed for the mono-crops? What happens to the food farms? How will local communities be affected?

Rich nations can’t eat biofuel. They also want to secure their own food supply and food market. As these rich nations’ food resources dwindle they scramble to find ways to meet their needs. This is not to say to them, drink your gasoline. We are all citizens of the same planet and Planet Earth’s resources should be shared by all, but not at the expense of the poor and powerless.

Questions need to be asked. Are these deals violating people’s existing rights enshrined in our laws and in the constitution? Are they trampling on the indigenous people’s culture and traditions? Will threatened communities succumb to vague promises of jobs and infrastructures? Will the deals really trigger economic growth?

And after the lease period is over, and the land has been robbed of its biodiversity and substance because of mono-cropping and GMO-farming, after the once rich and fertile vastness has been laid to waste, what happens?

In same issue of WM, Fr. Sean McDonagh, internationally known ecologist and author who spent more than 20 years in the Philippines (I have written about him several times), warns of GMOs (genetically modified organisms) and the famine they could cause. GMOs are not the solution to feed the hungry world, they will bring more trouble.

I wish our politicians could get hold of the latest WM issue on the global land grab. And by the way, in this issue, there is a great article on Julius Nyerere, first president of Tanzania, whose cause for beatification has been started. It is a good read, too, for heavy breathing, moist-eyed presidential wanna-bes and for those who want to lead humbly and well.

Art in the time of swine flu

Sorry for corrupting the title of a great novel but just now I can’t think of how to describe a great and daring effort to showcase Philippine art in these dreadful times when health and home are under threat.

Manila will have its first international art fair, “Manilart 09”, starting today until July 19 at the NBC Tent, in Bonifacio Global City in Taguig. At last we have our own, and we don’t have to envy our next-door neighbors Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong and Taipei which regularly hold international art fairs and attract art lovers from all over the world.

Support Philippine art. Go, please, go, and go home with some great art pieces if you have the money to spread around. Enjoy what you buy. Your descendants will enjoy them too.



We Filipinos have always taken pride in the fact that our artists do very well abroad and bring home honors and honors. This bolsters our belief that we are indeed an artistic and talented nation. We want to shout to the world and say that there’s more where they come from. Whether it’s in film, music, dance, literature or the visual arts, we have what it takes.

Time and time again we have received affirmation overseas and that is fine. But why can’t we also showcase our talents ourselves, here, where they abound? It is very good to go out there and be affirmed and recognized. It would also be very good, if not better, if the world out there, people from different climes, would come here—in droves—and see for themselves. Why can’t we make them come in droves? Are azure sea and azure skies all we have?

Our neighbors (you know what countries these are) mount their own huge artistic productions, but using a whole caboodle of Filipino talents, making OFWs of our fine artists who have to leave home for long periods in order to earn, and more important, to showcase their talents and fulfill their calling.

A friend of mine, veteran NGO writer Manolita Gonzales, has shared with me her long article “The Business of Selling Art” and her interviews with artists and with Manilart 09 project director Jonathan Sy. “Manilart 09,” Gonzales says, should get wide support and could I please write even just a paragraph on it?

It is not all aesthetics, there is an economic component to all this, in these hard times, Gonzales tells me. The country would be served well if Philippine art could come into its own in the world market. Why, China and Vietnam have found their niche and could leave us behind if we don’t perk up our own art scene and flaunt it to the world.

Manilart 09 is a joint project of the Bonafide Art Galleries Association (Bago) and the National Commission for Culture and the Arts. More than 40 galleries are participating and more than 500 works of art (paintings and sculptures) will be on display. Some Southeast Asian groups have been invited.

Why Manilart 09? Manila has always been considered one of Southeast Asia's most vibrant cities and has a pulsating contemporary art scene. Filipino artists are highly regarded by the global art community because of their distinct style and creativity. Philippine art fares well at international art auctions and exhibitions. Filipino art collectors and enthusiasts are among the most sophisticated in the region.

Manilart 09 it is not just be an exhibit, it is a festival. Filipinos with or without money to buy should come even just to immerse themselves in the beauty of these creations. It’s like going to an art museum except that many, if not all of the pieces, will be snapped up and we may never see them again.

Sy told Gonzales: “You’ll be astounded by the sheer magnitude because it’s the first time this is happening. I’ve seen it abroad, in Singapore. It takes you two hours to enjoy all the pieces. I am excited because here you will see that Filipinos are indeed very talented. We are second to Indonesia in terms of prices. There are foreign collectors who love Philippine art. Our art is quite diverse, like Indonesia’s, and it has oriental Malay, American and European influences. You can see that our Filipino artists are very nationalistic.”

The opening night is tonight (invitational). Manilart 09 will be open to the public tomorrow until Sunday. I will probably go tomorrow. Entrance fee is P200 (students and senior citizens get a 50 percent discount.) There will be lectures, demonstrations as well auctions.

Txtrs unyt! Cell phone users continue to raise their complaints and those I’ve received I sent to leon@cp-union.com and kathangkatotohanan@gmail.com, the addresses of the advocacy group lobbying on behalf of hapless cell phone users victimized by cell phone companies and product promoters. Am glad to know that load life will be tripled starting Sunday.

Here’s one more complaint:

“Thank you so much for your 'Texters unite!' This week I could no longer bear the incessant ringing of my cell phone, receiving numerous text promos - especially from 2728. I deleted these unwanted msgs, only to get 6 to 10 text promos back each time I deleted their msgs. This went on for days. I told them to stop. I did not ask for the promos; they had invaded my privacy. To no avail.

“I berated them. Their reply was severe and vicious. They INCAPACITATED my cell phone! Now I continue receiving their promos. However, I could not text back. I could not even use my cell phone to text or call anybody else. How could then the NTC regulate monopolies which could disable any mobile?”

'Biskwit'

Welcome back, Mildred Perez. We are very proud of you.

And you, Chip Tsao, what say you? (We have not forgotten.)

Back two days ago from Hong Kong was the praiseworthy 38-year-old Filipino domestic helper who returned P2.1 million (HK$350,545) in cash and checks which she found in a garbage bin several months ago.

Why in a garbage bin? Because Mildred was scavenging. Because she had quit her job. Because she had an abusive employer. She had been rummaging through garbage piles for scraps in order to support herself and find means to pursue her case in court against her employer. She was out of work.


Hong Kong law prohibits foreigners who have sued their employers from being employed while their case is being heard. And so fate led Mildred to a foul, slimy and vermin-filled pile that yielded an envelope that could have been her family’s ticket to a better life. It was like manna from heaven. A cinematic moment indeed. Mildred could have become, to borrow a movie title, a slum-dog millionaire. There’s a lot Mildred could have done with what she found.

Instead, Mildred searched for the envelope’s owner. She found the owner. She returned the cash and checks to the owner. As a reward for her honesty and effort, Mildred—unemployed and hungry—received a can of cookies from the envelope’s owner.

“Biskwit”—that’s what Mildred said she received. That was the word she used when airport reporters interviewed her upon her return. She said it with a straight face, with nary a hint of self-pity.

“Biskwit” is a Filipino generic term for biscuits, cookies and crackers. Biskwit is a cheap, light crispy flour-based snack that is better than the artificially-flavored, cholesterol-laden, artificially colored chips in non-biodegradable foil packs. I grew up on Marie biscuits, Graham crackers, Fita and Skyflakes that, I later learned, are all generically called biskwit. Jacob’s I found too bland.

Biskwit and coffee are what the Filipino masa usually serve in wakes. Biskwit used to come in cans; now they are in colorful plastic tubs and all-purpose buckets. They are sold in bus terminals and piers, are the perfect pasalubong (homecoming present) for a waiting brood in remote areas where there are no groceries.

While pursuing a story in a poor, far-flung community many years ago, I was served, several times, a barrio-style buko (young coconut) drink with biskwit floating on it. I will never forget that and it still makes me smile.

Some years ago, a photographer friend asked me for a title for his photograph of a shy boy in a relief center receiving a biscuit pack. The boy was about to break into a smile. I insisted on the title, “Biskwit.” The photograph won an award and it’s still hanging in the Inquirer photo gallery.

So what brand of biscuits/cookies/crackers did Mildred receive from the lucky owner of the cash and checks? Were they Danish, English, Chinese? With or without melamine? Did she partake of them by her lonesome or did she share them with fellow OFWs? I will be honest to say that if I were in her place, I would be very happy to receive some monetary reward from the Chinese owner of the envelope. Mildred was jobless and without money—that’s why she was scavenging.

But an honest deed goes a long way and it is heartwarming to know that it is in the Philippines, and from her fellow Filipinos, that Mildred is getting her material and psychic reward. She cannot expect that from Hong Kong where many, the likes of magazine writer Chip Tsao, regard Filipino OFWs with contempt. Tsao openly mocked them and us here in the Philippines by saying that we are a nation of servants and other demeaning things.

A native of Nueva Vizcaya, Mildred is the mother of two teenagers, is married to Eddie, an honest tricycle driver himself, who several months ago also returned the money that a passenger had left behind. He also went out of his way to search for the owner.

Nueva Vizcaya Rep. Carlos Padilla paid for Mildred’s trip home. He and the provincial government have promised P150,000 in cash for the Perez family, plus scholarships for the children. I hope more people would pitch in because Mildred has to go back to Hong Kong to pursue her case of indecent assault against her former employer. I hope he goes to jail.

Padilla announced that he will be inviting Mildred to the House of Representatives to personally receive commendation from Speaker Prospero Nograles. Politicians should meet her and look her in the eye and behold honesty in person.

If you are poor, P2.1 million is very, very big. If you are very rich, you can just splurge it on one big SUV.

Sometimes I feel uneasy when honest deeds by poor persons are made much of in the media. It is not that they do not deserve the accolade. But have honest Filipinos become so rare, are we a world of dishonest people that we showcase these acts of honesty? And not just the honesty, but more important, also the poverty. Not that it’s hard for the poor to be honest, but that the rich have a lot to learn from them.

* * *

Texters unite! Speaking of honesty, the cell phone companies have a lot of repenting to do for the unused vanishing loads that revert back to them, for stealing them, in the millions, from hapless consumers. I have to add to the list of complaints (which has not been brought up by the text advocates) the fact that cell phone cards have expiry dates (like in food items) at the back. You have to load them before the expiry date, and once you’ve loaded, you are slapped another expiration date before which you should consume your load.