THE idea of food security is becoming a global concern brought about by the global impact of the pandemic and multiple issues relating to climate change, global supply chain and logistics, and the growing population.
The recent COVID-19 pandemic is highly suspected to be coming from the food system in Wuhan, where wild animals were commercially sold for food. This incident raised the alarm of a possible accelerated global hunger.
The world is seeing various angles on the framework of food security.
For years, it was believed that food stocks of the world are done in silos, that every country can rely on its food supply and that global supply disruption won’t lead to severe hunger across the world. This was the manner they conceived food supplies before the pandemic, and it proved to be wrong.
When the global supply was altered, the quick signal was for countries to shore up food for survival, and cut production for commercial use to avoid rapid depletion of resources.
Additionally, climate change is a game changer never been seen to alter the global food supply significantly.
Two camps appreciate climate change differently.
The neo-Malthusian strategists espouse technology to increase the yield of limited land.
They assume that farmers adapt to new farming techniques, including new seed varieties resistant to dramatic changes in the climate. These experts are saying that the presence of high carbon dioxide in the atmosphere makes plants yield better.
The other side, the alarmist, tolls the bell for the people and governments to revive the lost nature, protect the global ecosystem and work to protect the future by combining climate adaptation and mitigation strategies.
But the inconvenient truth remains. The lower crop yield poses a threat to feeding ten billion mouths.
Such threat is more pronounced in tropical countries where climate change results in more intense and heavier rainfalls, occurring at much shorter intervals between droughts and dry spells, and stronger typhoons.
The tropical rainforest forecasts include an expected reduction in vegetation production, temperature uptrend due to deforestations, reduction in precipitation, and longer dry spells.
The global prognosis has a particular impact on the food supply and security in tropical countries like the Philippines.
The country’s experience of food supply capacity in the last two decades follows an erratic but peculiar pattern. The prevalence of undernourishment shows no significant alterations with food supply changes.
What does this mean?
It means that food can be grown in the backyard, yet the consuming public sourced food elsewhere.
It means that local food is available but is not purchased, not consumed, not patronized.
Too much import hurts domestic firms, disincentivizes local producers, and depresses consumption behavior from welfare satisfaction to status consumption.
There is nothing patriotic in importing too much. It bleeds our domestic economy.
Buying local products, even when expensive, is called patriotic buying. This is how to survive as a nation, this is how to rev up domestic production, this is how to fight off global food insecurity, and this is how to ensure food security.
Just be patriotic in your purchases. If it is hard to be one, then be compassionate. After all, in the abundance of the heart comes generosity.
Buy local and grow your food.
Adrian Tamayo is the head of the Public Relations of the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA). He teaches economics at the Graduate School of the University of Mindanao, and currently on a scholarship grant for a Master of Public Safety Administration (MPSA) at the Philippine Public Safety College (PPSC).
