Food for all, but without destroying the planet
26th July 2010 by Andrew Matheson, Manila | 2 Comments
Feeding 9 billion people by mid-century will be a huge challenge. But to do it while limiting agriculture’s contribution to climate change will take a real balancing act. Agricultural activities connected with food production already contribute about one-sixth of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. Meeting the food production challenges of the future, while controlling those emissions, is not going to be easy.
That’s why New Zealand has initiated the ‘Global research alliance on agricultural greenhouse gases’. The alliance was launched in December 2009, and now has 29 member countries around the world. I’m particularly pleased that the Philippines is one of them.
The alliance will encourage and coordinate research among participating countries, aiming to ensure that greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture don’t increase at the same rate as food production. The alliance will also find better ways to share research results, technologies and best practices, and get these out to farmers on the ground.
Rice, staple food for Filipinos
I had some interesting discussions with Philippine policy-makers in the lead-up to the alliance’s formation. This country is very vulnerable to extreme climatic events. It’s in the typhoon belt, and has a lot of low-lying land that is both heavily populated and important for agriculture. We saw that with two ‘supertyphoons’ killing more than 1,000 people last year.
The Philippines is very focussed on adapting to the effects of climate change. But as an agricultural country it also needs to pay attention to reducing the contribution that food production makes to climate change. So joining the alliance makes sense for the Philippines, especially as one of the three research groups formed so far is on paddy rice production. Rice is a staple food for the Philippines’ 100 million people — and the national research institution PhilRice has close links with the International Rice Research Institute, which has its world headquarters in this country.
New Zealand has launched a global research alliance, to help to feed the world while limiting agriculture’s contribution to climate change. Being part of this alliance will help the Philippines in the years ahead.
Hello Mister Ambassador. I’m not ‘Kiwi,’ ‘Kinoy’ nor ‘Piwi’ but I hope you don’t mind me dropping by even if I’m simply Pinoy (‘Pinay’ to be exact).
The current trends that you mention concerning global food supply is genuinely problematic. A bloated surplus of rice imports in a country where rice technology was once its edge is equally perplexing. If the pragmatic test of time has taught my country, the Philippines, one important lesson from last year’s massive floods, it’s found in warehouses stockpiled with undelivered government rice. In stark contrast, up to 14 million Filipinos still go hungry everyday. The Philippines has to take firmer steps in meeting its own challenges concerning food security. Its participation in the New Zealand-led initiative towards sustainable agricultural activities clearly is one of them. Rice is a cultural heritage as much as it’s a national staple here and although we have experience and expertise when it comes to rice production under our belt, it’s a disgrace that metric tonnes of this life-sustaining grain are in varied states of decay at the NFA.
I hope that my country continues to participate in intercultural dialogues on shared global issues. Hunger and prosperity are two sides of the universal coin, and the will to confront starvation in the Philippines should cut across all sectors—private and public, government and civilian. Executive decisions, however, have to be treated as moral directives in the hands of public officials who are duly elected and designated to ensure that every Filipino meet their basic food needs. Until Filipinos are capable of exercising prudential judgment in times of crisis, we run the risk of applying band-aid solutions to problems that are internal in nature, and repeating the same mistakes. We were once a competitive producer and exporter of rice; one would think this country could satisfy future deficits locally. If the new government hold true in their promise to bolster education in science and technology, I don’t see a reason why that projection would be farfetched. The Philippines can be a strategic partner in harnessing and promoting sound practices in rice production if Pinoys can be self-aware and self-reliant as a nation and regard moral integrity as a human virtue that all Filipinos are capable of achieving. Only then can the Philippines contribute intelligently in the multinational debate concerning world prosperity.
My best regards to you, the Global Research Alliance, and the New Zealand mission in the Philippines. May your blog become a vehicle for further exchanges that’s accessible at a global scale.
Hello Anika
Thanks very much for dropping by. Your thoughtful comments are a useful contribution to the debate about these important, but complex, issues.
Andrew