ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR III
It was one hearty lunch that as an officer of the Region Eight Administrators League I was part. The REAL 8 President pointed out to the fact that we need to finish our rice servings as he knew that an estimated 7.2 worth of Rice is being wasted every year. Talking about the wisdom of Dr. Max Aljibe and his agile and deep thinking, the kind of wit that creates initial puzzlement and then enlightenment. And just like that, I ventured into finding the reasons and cause of that estimate.
In terms of estimates, the Department of Agriculture (DA) reported that 255,000 metric tons of rice were wasted annually as of 2019. This amount could feed approximately 2.8 million Filipinos for a year. Efforts are being made to reduce this wastage, such as promoting the “half-cup rice” initiative, which encourages smaller rice servings to minimize leftovers.
Perhaps we can attribute this to the cultural wastage culture. Think about it , on Birthday buffet, we get a small mountain of rice and when we are full, we have left a pile of it on our plate. The presumed left-over is a result of our craving for carbohydrates yet after this craving is met and quenched, the rice we so desire before became unpalatable and to wastages it goes.
Another suspect of this Rice wastage is the lack of proper storage facility. Local farmers often needs to be given assistance in creating bodega of sorts so that stored grains will be safe from the elements. When Bernadette Reyes of GMA Network disclosed that every single Filipino wastes 2 spoons of rice per day, I realized that may be the case. And that when accumulated wastes are gathered, it may be worth 7.2 Billions of pesos.
I remember vividly our Grandparents penalizing us with one Our Father per 1 grain strewn in our table (nakarag). And it’s a sad thing because I was unable to impose the same to my kids. And perhaps most of us did not cascade the same to the next generation. This I swear is true, we were never as stern and as serious as they were before. Thus , we are wasting so much Rice this days.
