Uh oh...rice shortage

The idea of rice shortage is foreign to me, until now. This is so because, 1) I've always known that the Philippines is an agricultural country, 2) rice is our most basic commodity and 3) I really dont want to think about it, because it would be a nightmare for me. Hehe. Like most Filipinos, life would not be the same without rice, even the most delicious dish would not taste as good without it. Sabi ko nga before, when I needed to trim down my rice consumption because of high cholesterol, "Ang lungkot ng buhay pag walang kanin!"

But on a serious note, this rice shortage thing is very alarming. What used to be a Php 30/kilo is now Php38/kilo. Lucky for those who can still afford to buy commercial rice in the market, which is just a fraction of the country's population,but not so fortunate for those who cannot. Like I saw on the news the other night, they had to line up for hours, just to avail of the NFA rice which is P18/kilo. These families sometimes just eat rice alone because that's what they can afford and now, because of this shortage, it's becoming burdensome for them to buy rice as well. It got me into thinking, what has led this agriculutural country suffer from this crisis? Are we so wasteful with what we eat that sometimes we buy so much but we actually cannot finish it, thinking we have so much to spare? Or have we transformed so much of our vast lands from rice fields to malls,commercial places and residential areas, not thinking that soon we won't have anything to cook for our (future) kids. Shouldn't have the government foreseen this happening a few years back and made some preventive measures and not just act on it now that it's smacked right on their faces? These are only a couple of things I could think of but I'm sure there's a lot, lot more.

For me, it is just so frustrating to know that no matter how high growth rates were reported by the government, it cannot mask the fact that most Filipinos feel that they are shrinking instead of growing...