Both foreign colonizers and Filipino politicians never prioritized food security for our people and our country.
Tobacco, sugar, abaca, pineapple, bananas –export more than food– received the support from past foreign/local administrations.
Continuing hunger as well as poverty have remained because of political abuse and vested interests. Past and present budgets have also not prioritized agriculture, food production, and food security.
Cebu Governor Pam Baricuatro and Cebu City Mayor Nestor Archival’s expressed commitment to prioritize food security during their administration is promising and laudable.
Within the next three years, will we finally have food security, less or no hunger here in Cebu?
The 1996 World Summit and the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization define food security as the condition ‘when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.’
This definition focuses not only on physical food access (having sufficient food consistently available) but on other dimensions including ‘economic access (people must be able to afford the food that is available], social access (there should be no social barriers such as discrimination preventing certain groups from accessing available food), sufficient quantity (the amount of food must meet energy requirements), quality and safety (food must be safe to consume/nutritionally adequate), and, cultural appropriateness (food should align with cultural preferences and dietary habits).’
As food security is intended to benefit all, everyone’s participation should be widely encouraged.
Everyone should be empowered, enjoined to learn to grow and produce their own food. Remember the proverb: If you give a hungry man a fish, you feed him for a day, but if you teach him how to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.
If everyone is taught and learns how to produce his own food, then no one will ever be hungry again. No one will ever be poor as well.
The Regional Center of Expertise on Education for Sustainable Development is urging LGUs to pilot this six-month multisectoral participatory Cebu Green Garden campaign for food security to intersect with waste management (WM).
With strong LGU support and incentives, please involve individuals, households, communities, schools, businesses, churches, other organizations and institutions.
Let us intensify extensive education of all multilevel participants to produce compost from kitchen/food/yard wastes.
Then, involve interested sectors as well 1.) Pilot assigning practitioners for wet waste composting within their areas, and, 2.) Systematically collect wet wastes and deliver to agreed-upon LGU-designated compost areas.
Producing compost from segregated wet wastes will remove 50%/more from total waste disposed in dumpsites, allowing LGUs to save substantial amount of their waste disposal budget.
Less disposed wastes will free more lands that can be utilized for more productive uses other than landfills. Health risks and pollution will also be minimized, allowing for positive climate action contribution to protect people and planet.
Producing compost waste is simple, not time-consuming at all. Start by chopping kitchen wastes into tiny pieces. Then, in a container, layer the wet wastes (like lasagna or club sandwich for the worms) with soil at the bottom and on top, with soil in between layers.
If one has no land available for composting, one can use any available container they have –plastic bags, used PET bottles, etc.
Remember to punch holes at the bottom and sides of the container. Sprinkle with water. Set aside outdoor for about three weeks. The layered wet wastes/soil combination will subside within that time. Strain to produce compost for vegetables/other plants.
Seeds/seedlings can be freely received from the City Agriculture Office.
Within two months, enjoy eating your fast-growing vegetables –alugbati, camote tops, okra, ampalaya, others! Or sell your home-made compost fertilizer, seedlings, or vegetables as income.
Ready to start this food security-WM-intersect campaign?