Food security, who are you kidding?
Achieving food security by empowering our agriculture sector is now on the hands of the private sector, this time led by what my kapitbahay describes as the most powerful business family in the current administration.
My kapitbahay says Pres. BBM “met with representatives from the Private Sector Advisory Council (PSAC) to discuss recommendations to increase local food production and supply.”
PSAC, led by Sabin Aboitiz, and the government are now talking on using agricultural technology to boost food production in our farms.
They talked about digital farming methods and supply chain improvements.
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Pres. BBM also ordered access by farmers to information to guide them on making their farms more productive on top of other concerns like the African swine fever on pigs and pork, and the revival of the salt farming.
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While the government and the private sector were plotting moves to improve production in farms, the Department of Agriculture was too busy crafting rush measures to bring Urea fertilizer to the farmers.
Experts are discouraging the use of Urea in our rice farms. They say chemical fertilizers are poisoning our soil.
Sonny Domingo, one of our OpinYon columnists, does not tire telling the Department of Agriculture to stop the use of Urea in our farms. But looks like the government is not listening.
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Domingo says our rice farms are already badly damaged. In five years, the damage done by Urea on our farms will be irreversible, he added.
So what food security are we talking about if our soil that produce the food we eat is already sick, in fact dying?
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When talk of fertilizers come up, we always remember the Napoles scam that had some of our senators ending up jailed inside Camp Crame.
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Reports say that the Department of Energy is now controlled by the Aboitiz group. This suspicion got some traction after PBBM appointed key officials in that department, many are former executives of the Aboitiz group.
No tycoon could be more powerful than the Aboitizes. If suspicion is correct, they have good control of the energy sector where they are a major energy supplier, and now they are in agriculture.
As they say, when it rains, it pours. For the Aboitizes, it is like a storm.
But maybe they can solve the problem on high cost of energy and bring down the cost of food.
That would be a miracle the country badly needs.
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Fiends were exchanging notes on their wedding experience.
“Did you get any present?, asked the first.
“My father, who is mayor in our town, promised to get me a food mixer,”
“How sweet and caring is your Dad.”
“No, not at all sweet. But true to his character. When I opened the box, it was a wooden spoon.”
Very much like Filipino politician.