HIGH FOOD prices — both at the local and global level— may push a million people back to poverty, said Stephen Anderson, the Philippines’ country director and representative to the United Nation’s World Food Programme (UNWFP).
Anderson spoke at “Crice-sis: An In-Depth Look at the Current Situation of the Rice Crisis,” on August 6 at Escaler Hall. The Development Society (DevSoc) organized the forum, together with the Development Studies (DS) Department, the UNWFP, and the Sanggunian.
Anderson compared the global food crisis, specifically the rice crisis, to a “silent tsunami” that swept over nations quickly.
Anderson also said that rice in the Philippines is still at an average of P35 per kilo (its lowest in eight weeks), and that the country is importing 2.4 million metric tons of it from neighbouring nations.
“When they [the government] started to look for countries to import from, they introduced export bans…this increased panic beyond what should have been,” he said.
Anderson emphasized in the forum that the crisis, overall, can affect the stability of governments. “With large families depending on rice and reserves, this could become a serious security issue,” he said.
Anderson cited Africa and Haiti as countries where there is social unrest because of the crisis.
He enumerated five drivers of high food prices all over the world. Topping the list is the rise of oil and energy prices, which affect the entire value chain of food.
The economic boom in nations such as China and India also contribute to the crisis, said Anderson. These countries now have an increased demand for cereals, which are fed to hogs, because of these countries’ higher demand for higher-valued foods, like meat.
Weather-related events and bad harvests, especially in Australia, the competition between food and fuel, and the rise in global stocks, are also major causes of the world’s food crisis, said Anderson.
Fighting worldwide hunger
The UNWFP is a frontline humanitarian agency with over 90 million beneficiaries in 80 countries. “We usually target the poorest of the poor,” said Anderson.
WFP is the UN’s arm in fighting global hunger. The program helps in refugee crises and emergencies, improves nutrition and the quality of life, and enables development by promoting self-sufficiency in countries that need it.
The UNWFP works with national governments mainly for “policy advice and support,” said Anderson.
He added that the Philippines responded quickly to the rice crisis. “[The Philippine government] had aggressively imported rice…they had cracked down on trade importers,” he said.
‘A corrupt government’
During the program’s open forum, Aaron Marc Dimaano (IV AB DS), The Assembly president, asked how the UNWFP manages a corrupt government, like the Philippines.
Anderson responded by saying that the UNWFP has a checking and counterchecking system for food and money. He added that the UNWFP is a small player in the Philippines, and their primary focus for aid is Mindanao.
Political Science Lecturer Hussein Macarambon asked Anderson, “Is there a policy problem in the Philippines?”
Anderson said he cannot comment. He said, however, that the long-term solution for the crisis includes economic development and addressing structural and government issues.
Multi-faceted development
DevSoc Research and Advocacy Committee Head Josephine Andrea Dela Cruz (IV AB DS) said that one of the forum’s goals is to make students aware of the rice crisis. At the same time, she said that awareness should go with action.
Crice-sis is one of DevSoc’s efforts to ground issues in the reality of the Philippines, said Dela Cruz.
“In Development Studies, we try to address that development is an economic issue, a political issue, a social issue, and even environmental,” she added.
