Last of two parts

TAKING the need to address the importance of a concentration on three basics of life further, I venture to suggest our food situation is in crisis. We don't provide enough food to feed a too large population. One that has grown 120 percent in the past 50 years while food production has increased only half that at 60 percent. Total agricultural imports were valued at some $18 billion in 2023, accounting for 14.2 percent of the nation's overall imports, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority. That's a worryingly high 18.2 percent of the total food Filipino households consumed. And what we do eat is not sufficiently nutritious. Rice, which makes up far too much of the Filipino diet, is primarily carbohydrates. Yet among the poorest, rice is over 90 percent of what they consume. We imported around 20 percent of this basic staple in 2023. I took two of my household staff to a good Chinese restaurant. They ate a huge bowl of rice and just nibbled on the nutritious, delicious (to me) other goodies.