Rice Crisis?

Read this editorial in the Philippine Daily Inquirer about global warming. It mentions that sea level will rise because of global warming.

What got me concerned was the report that rice yields in the Philippines could drop by 50 to 70 percent by 2020. That's a scary and sad at the same time.

The Philippines was always considered to be a rich country pretending to be poor. Rich in the sense that the Philippines has abundant natural resources. From rich soil, good climate, mineral resources and rich ocean resources.

Unfortunately for the Philippines, years of abuse and exploitation by the government has denuded the forest, polluted the oceans, gave away mineral rights for bribes and neglected all the potentials of the country.

To read that rice production will drop by 50 to 70% is shocking. Considering that the International Rice Research Institute or IRRI was established in the Philippines. A lot of Asian countries like Vietnam and Thailand envied the Philippines in the 1970s because of that and went to the Philippines to learn rice production.

These countries used to import rice from the Philippines. Thirty years later, these countries like Vietnam and Thailand are now exporting rice TO the Philippines. What happened?

Can you just imagine the massive famine that will happen if rice production in the Philippines dropped by half? Just look at what happened in 2007 and 2008 when agricultural prices shot up. Didn't the Philippines have a rice crisis?

Famine is not the only problem. When this happens in the Philippines, just imagine how bad the peace and order situation would be. These are the things that worry me about the future of our children.