PH National Food Policy – Toward Satisfying Hunger For Food. What About Hunger For Prosperity?

Thank you, Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles, being Chair of the Inter-Agency Task Force on Zero Hunger that handcrafted PH’s National Food Policy, NFP, which you launched 16 October 2020 at the Bureau of Soils & Water Management, BSWM, headquarters in Quezon City (18 October 2020, ANN, “Phl Launches Nat’l Food Policy, Capping World Food Day Celeb,” DA-AFID). And thank you for recognizing that “hunger is a multi-dimensional problem caused by a combination of inter-related factors, and thus collective action of everyone is crucial in addressing it effectively.”

(Physical hunger for food is a given. But not physiological and psychological hunger for prosperity, of which I am equally interested in promoting by media, if not more so. I will note here that I began blogging for PH farmer prosperity earnestly about 15 years ago – and thankfully, we now have Secretary of Agriculture William Dar and his “The New Thinking for Agriculture” with “8 Paradigms” as contributing to its enrichment.)

According to ANN:

The NFP has outlined six key result areas, namely: 1) review and rationalize existing policies, rules, and regulations related to zero hunger; 2) ensure available and affordable food; 3) secure nutrition adequacy; 4) secure food accessibility and safety; 5) ensure sustainable food systems, food resiliency, and stability; and 6) ensure information, education, awareness, and people participation. (image of prosperity food plate[1] from Nytimes.com)

I note that the NFP goes after both food quantity and quality, Q&Q, sufficient and nutritious. The food we eat is not only for our physiology but also for our psychology. For the benefit of everyone, our food systems must be sustainable.

Now, the #6 key result area is the one that attracts my attention greatly: “ensure information, education, awareness, and people participation.” And so:

Information –
I can see that we need all the Q&Q helps that the public and private media can extend to carry out the NFP in all its complexity.

Education –
The public and private educational institutions are also called upon to help cultivate the NFP. The adults must be taught, the children too.

Awareness –
Naturally, I look at the mass media to cultivate in the public mind the consciousness that we all need to contribute what we can for the fulfilment of the NFP.

People Participation–
This must be real. Since Martial Law, some leaders and followers have never stopped complaining that the poor farmers have always been neglected by the State. While that may be true, the poor farmers have not done what they could to:

Improve their farming in order to improve their bottom line and thereby improve their living. If they don’t know how, they have not been asking!

So I will add to the list of the Path to Prosperity, this one:

Via Extension –
Not simply Training, which is for those who have time to spare. By Extension, the farmers learn throughout their farming, from seed to sack, from planting to marketing. how to decrease costs and increase returns, so they can by themselves fill up their Plates of Prosperity!@517

 

---

[1]https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/08/dining/recipes-for-happiness-and-prosperity.html