We don’t need a diploma on Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs to assert that food and water undisputedly top the list of people’s daily demand to live. Without these, all else in the pyramid that leads to a person’s self-actualization won’t stand a chance.
Let’s talk nutrition for now. And have a brief break from the politics and raging issues that beset everyone without exemption. The peace talks with the decades-old leftist insurgents just collapsed, although some luminaries and activists, such as Rep. Carlos I. Zarate, are trying to save what’s left of the historic efforts to achieve peace. The transport sector is up in arms. Inflation is just around the corner, and would strike anytime. The exchange rate is a bit alarming. Thus, let’s have a respite. Let’s find a humble contribution to address the issue on hunger and malnutrition.
In the recent survey of Social Weather Stations, an estimated 3.1 million families are said to have experienced involuntary hunger at least once in the fourth quarter of 2016. This is 13.9 percent, or 2.2 points, slightly higher than the same period in 2015 (11.7 percent, or 2.6 million families).
According to the survey agency, the 13.9 percent stands for the combined rate of those who said they experienced “moderate hunger” (those who experienced hunger “only once” or “a few times” in the last three months) and those who said they experienced “severe hunger” (those who experienced it “often” or “always” in the last three months).
While factors that contributed to the country’s current self-rated hunger state are not mentioned in the study, a recent article by Barbara Unmuessig, president of the Heinrich Böll Foundation, offers plant-based solution to hunger. Her postulations deserve a closer look from concerned government agencies and advocacy groups.
Unmuessig raises the correlation between meat-dependent consumption and its toll on poverty, malnutrition and hunger. Because meat production requires animal-feed production, agricultural lands are being inefficiently used to accommodate such demand in levels detrimental to humans. It argues that more plant-based food is needed to feed livestock than we would need to feed ourselves directly through a plant-based diet.
“Animal-feed production, and the intensive cultivation of agricultural land that it requires, is not only destroying ecosystems and reducing biodiversity; it is also fueling climate change,” Unmuessig further claims.
Going down to numbers, the head of an agency whose tenets are ecology and sustainability, democracy and human rights, self-determination and justice, Unmuessig cites that the competition for land between humans and livestock is itself a fight for survival.
She explains that land access, which is more unevenly distributed than incomes, is a deciding factor in whether someone suffers from malnutrition: 20 percent of households that experience hunger do not own land, and 50 percent of people who experience hunger are small-scale farmers.
How can the Philippines respond to the challenge of addressing hunger through agriculture?
At a time when a growing number of Filipinos consider themselves suffering from involuntary hunger, it would be wise to seriously look into the possibility of addressing the dire problem through the route of plant-based consumption.
For instance, Moringa oliefera, also known locally as malunggay, is renowned worldwide for being the most generous and nutritious tree on the planet. According to the Food and Nutrition Research Institute of the Philippines, it is one of the world’s most useful plants. It is used as food, antibiotic, source of oil and even coagulant for turbid waters.
Meanwhile, senior scientist Andreas W. Ebert, gene-bank manager and global theme leader of AVRDC —The World Vegetable Center, underscores moringa’s value as a vegetable tree for improved nutrition, health, and income of smallholder farmers. In his presentation at the First International Symposium on Moringa in Manila in 2015, he also emphasizes the high value of malunggay for sustainable food production and nutritional security, even amid various climate-change scenarios.
Clinical pharmacologist Dr. Monica Marcu, one of the most referenced scientists on the study of moringa, supports the claims on its high nutritional value. She affirms that it is an extraordinary plant, and it comes very close to be a perfect source of nutrients in terms of variety and concentration.
More than 3 million Filipino families are hungry, yet our rich soil can bountifully yield malunggay, which is scientifically proven to address malnutrition and hunger. With due support from the government in terms of policies, programs and funding, this miracle tree just might do the wonder for low-income families.
And our people won’t have to go hungry again.
For comments and suggestions arielnepo.businessmirror@gmail.com.
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