UP Professor: Let people handle own food security

Food security should be placed in the hands of the people themselves, said University of the Philippines Manila College of Medicine Professor Romeo Quijano.

This was in support of Farmers Development Center’s campaign for food security as food accessibility and food safety through genuine land reform and sustainable agriculture.

In a luncheon media conference yesterday, Quijano, of UP Manila’s Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, said that Filipinos must change their lifestyle to avoid phenomena such as the recent melamine invasion in milk products manufactured in China and exported here.

He said that the best way to avoid this is a direct “from producer to consumer” system of trade which is more self-sufficient. He said people have to ask themselves why they let big corporations control the food production while they can do it more safely than big corporations can.

Quijano wants to promote urban gardening and simpler lifestyle for the people to ensure that what they are eating is produced from their own means, hence they can be sure this is safe.

He said the government has weak monitoring system and is undervaluing the protection of health and environment over corporate interest.

The toxic chemical called melamine is not accidental but intentionally put, he said, to increase its nitrogen content which supposed to come from protein.

Products such as milk should contain a certain amount of nitrogen before it can qualify for production.

He said the profit-oriented corporate culture decided to save on production costs and made melamine a source of nitrogen instead of protein.

Quijano said that confiscating products that contain melamine is not a long-term solution to the problem on food security.

He said mechanism for appropriate monitoring and timely intervention should be established by the government and food security should be placed high in the political agenda.

The safety of the people should be prioritized first other than making power through corporate successes at the public’s expense, he added. —Jessica Ann Pareja/BRP (THE FREEMAN)