On the evening news, a Davaoeña woman was reported to have branded her young son’s leg with a piece of scorching firewood that she used for cooking.  The young boy, looking about 6 years old, had spilled the little that remained of their rice – National Food Authority (NFA) rice that his mother queued up for hours.  Frantic about the wasted grains, she picked up the still smoldering firewood and set it to her son’s ankle.  Extreme and isolated might be this example, it is nonetheless indicative of the sense of food insecurity that is being felt, not just in the Philippines but in the rest of the Asian region .

Philippine media have shown nothing but images of the current food crisis over these past few weeks.  And it is not just in the Philippines.  The same sense of panic is felt elsewhere in the Asian region as well: street protests to lower the price of food in Jakarta this March, long queues for cheaper grain in Bangladesh, and countries such as Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia restricting their rice exports and some banning them altogether.

“Indeed, Asian nations have reacted to the mere prospect of shortage with something close to hysteria,” reports Time-CNN.  In a region where rice is so tightly woven into the fabric of everyday life – in Tagalog, Thai, and Mandarin, “rice” is the same word as “to eat” – how could the reaction not be?

Reaching the Bottom of the Barrel
Food experts estimate that only 405 million tonnes of cereal stocks remain – an 8 to 12 weeks’ reserve for the world’s population.  Why is there so little?  Various circumstances have contributed to this situation.  Paint a burgeoning world population with an increased appetite against the back-drop of rapid industrialization and urbanization; the shrinkage of farmlands vis a vis an abandoned agricultural industry; a petrol crisis; climate change; and a combination of bad food policies.  In many nations in Asia and the rest of the global south, the dearth of farming subsidies and the plenty of disincentives has slowly but steadily been starving the agricultural sector.  Governments, instead of stimulating their own agro-industries, have preferred to import their foodstuffs instead – a seemingly bright idea in the short-term, with all that comparative advantage, but in the long run, an imprudent and lazy cop out.  It seems that policy makers still refuse to learn that even the most aggressive proponents of trade liberalization and surrendering all to market forces do not practice what they preach.  “Japan,” Conrado deQuiros observes, “for whom buying rice would have been worlds cheaper than producing it, continued to produce it even at a great cost to itself.”  Lately too, the pursuit of biofuels means we have been more concerned in feeding our vehicles than ourselves.

Global Linkages
Responses to the crisis have been somewhat varied: Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo personally negotiated for 1.5 million metric tonnes of rice from Vietnam, while some rice-exporting countries have opted to hold back on their harvests and keep them at home.   Sumitr Boca, a Food and Agriculture Organization policy officer, warns however that “by stabilizing your domestic market, you are basically exporting the instability abroad.”  Indeed this crisis on food exposes our intricate, albeit such volatile, global connections.
Journalist Peter Ritter is keen to point out that “tight world supplies create a zero-sum calculus: Vietnamese rice going to the Philippines is rice that is unavailable for Africa – or for the NGOs that feed the world’s most vulnerable populations.”
A New Hunger
In what is described by Josette Sheeran, Executive Director of the UN’s World Food Program (WFP) as “the new face of hunger” wherein “people who were not in the urgent category are now moving into that category.”, the prospect of hunger and its potential for social unrest – one that has already begun to manifest itself – is alarming.  The food crisis is also bound to impact the food aid programmes in an enormous way.  An estimate of $160 million+ is needed to keep the WFP’s present commitments.  The absence of this additional funding could mean some millions more will cross the line from survival to starvation.

Today’s Menu
David Burton, IMF Asia and Pacific Department Director says, “I think the best sort of response is to allow market forces to operate, to allow prices to rise so that there can be a supply response.  I think historical experience suggests that you would expect to see a significant (production) response to the sort of price increases we have seen."

The current rice crisis is a global predicament, and thus, begs for a global response.  Despite the urgency of the matter, the solution cannot be one that will provide tonight’s meal, yet not tomorrow’s.  “Letting market forces to operate” seems hardly a proper response.

Sources:
Aguilar, J. L.  (2008, April 12)   Long queues for rice may affect stocks in lean months: ex-DA chief. Newsbreak.   Retrieved on April 15 2008, from http://newsbreak.com.ph/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4366&Itemid=88889051

Belcher, H. (2008, Marc 28) Asian rice crisis starts to bite.  Aljazeera.   Retrieved on April 13, 2008, from http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/CB6E8E48-C288-4066-90B8-8F23DFDCDFEE.htm

David, R. (2008, April 12).  Rice: A policy blind spot.  Philippine Daily Inquirer.  Retrieved on April 12, 2008, from http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/columns/view/20080412-129890/Rice-a-policy-blind-spot

deQuiros, C. (2008, April 8)  What you don't know can kill you.  Philippine Daily Inquirer. Retrieved on April 13, 2008, from http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/columns/view_article.php?article_id=128994

Devraj, R. (2008, April 9).  Development: Food shortages an emergency -- FAO Chief.  Inter Press Service. Retrieved on April 14, 2008, from http://www.countercurrents.org/devraj100408.htm

Jagan, L.   (2008, April 2). Asia: Rising Rice Prices Threaten Aid Program.  Inter Press Service.  Retrieved on April 9, 2008, from http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41824
McCartan, B. (2008, March 31).   White Out: Asia's Rice Price Crisis. Asia Sentinel.  Retrieved on April 14, 2008, from
http://www.asiasentinel.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1127&Itemid=32

McManus, B. (2008, April 14). Food crisis moves up global agenda at IMF, WBank meets.  Philippine Daily Inquirer.  Retrieved on April 14 2008, from
http://business.inquirer.net/money/breakingnews/view_article.php?article_id=130233

Ritter, P. (2008, April 10).  No Grain, Big Pain. Time.  Retrieved on April 14, 2008, from http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1729546,00.html

Walt, V. (2008, Feb 27).   The World's Growing Food-Price Crisis.  Time.  Retrieved on April 13, 2008, from http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1717572,00.html