Youngblood
Asia’s rice: Asia’s fall?
By Danicar Mariano
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 02:53:00 08/30/2008
Throughout Asia, rice is life. In many Asian countries, to invite one to eat, you say, “Let’s eat rice.” In South Korea, rice means living “the good life,” while Filipino beggars will sometimes say, “Please, even just to buy rice.” Believing that rice plants can “purify the air,” Japan’s national identity is also closely linked to its now heavily subsidized rice farming.
Among rich nations, however, production subsidies often give rice farmers an unfair advantage over their Third World counterparts, discouraging rice production elsewhere. Moreover, when the World Trade Organization forced open Japan’s rice market in the 1990s, allowing the import of unwanted, subsidized California rice, the imports ended up in warehouses and then were sent out as aid to North Korea or used as chicken and pig feed.
More recently food riots caused by hunger for rice cost seven lives in Cameroon and the jobs of several officials in Haiti.
Indeed, for many nations, rice is a matter of national security. Leaders of the hardest hit rice-import-dependent countries have scrambled to find remedies. The Malaysian prime minister launched rice production subsidies, while the Philippine president ordered the prosecution of hoarders and a stop to the conversion of farmland to subdivisions.
Rapid industrialization, global warming, high inflation, the population boom and agricultural neglect all set the stage for rice prices to skyrocket. Farmers are now also utilizing land for more lucrative crops like corn or grapes. In the United States, corn, which can be turned into biofuel, has gone up in value. In Australia, land is being used to grow grapes for wines.
Behind this, however, is an ethical question. Rice is a staple for most of the world’s poorest populations, chardonnay and biofuels are not. Increases in the price of rice may be just an inconvenience to the middle class, but they mean the difference between survival and starvation for the poor who are already spending 80 percent of their income on food.
Due to rising costs of fuel and grain, major rice exporting countries like Vietnam and Thailand have refused to export rice until its domestic needs are secured. China’s growing middle class has also been blamed for the increase in demand for the staple. Plagued by a severe water shortage affecting 300 of its villages, the Asian giant had also sought more grains and halted exports.
This is unfortunate for China’s North Korean comrade who recently asked for its aid. Although the Philippines is seen as the “epicenter of the storm,” the secretive and isolationist country is probably hit worse by the crisis. But reportedly angry at North Korea for detonating a nuclear device, China slashed food delivery to the country by 200,000 tons. Disagreements about nuclear disarmament have also entangled South Korea’s usual delivery of 300,000 tons of fertilizer and 400,000 tons of rice to the region, leaving many worried that the famine of the 1990s will recur.
Amatya Sen has pointed out that famines are not caused by food shortages per se but by government’s failure to intervene on behalf of the poor. The rice crisis has indeed put Pyongyang’s resolve to the test, as it has to be more open to aid and the conditions that come with it.
The Asian financial crisis of 1997-98 also taught us that during trying times, regional cooperation is needed. Ironically, however, many countries have tightened their rice imports and increased production subsidies with the aim of being “self-sufficient,” even though more trade would have been a better solution. Unsustainable over the long term, rice production subsidies have also mostly benefited farmers that are better off, whether in the United States or in the Philippines. This growing “fend for thyself” sensibility prevents countries from exploring their comparative advantage producing the kinds of food they produce more efficiently, and ignores the reality that complete self-sufficiency is practically unattainable for most island countries like the Philippines, where the land is better suited to growing coconuts and corn.
Unfortunately, countries near the equator where many developing nations lie are the ones that are the worst hit by global warming. Losing their harvests due to cyclones and typhoons means they have to depend more on countries farther from the equator, which initially benefit from the warmer climate.
To achieve food security, East Asian countries need to junk their narrow-minded “starve thy neighbor” policies in favor of freer, fairer trade. Farmers and policymakers must also consider the ethics of shifting to cash crops at the sacrifice of staple food crops. We also have to realize that we can’t carry on as if it’s business as usual and start to curb population growth, global warming and over-industrialization, all of which jeopardize food security. With the price of rice going as high as three times this year, hunger has spread and the stability of the region is at risk.
Danicar Mariano, 25, is a Yuchengco Center for the Pacific Rim scholar at the University of San Francisco.
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