Groups push right to adequate food

MANILA, Philippines - Everyone has the right to adequate food.

With this battle cry, more than 100 participants representing 50 non-government organizations signed the “Declaration on the Right to Adequate Food” to mark World Food Day yesterday.

Led by the National Food Coalition (NFC), the groups also called on President Aquino and Congress to pass a framework law on the right to adequate food.

Aurea Miclat-Teves, NFC convenor, said the declaration stands firm on the need for the passage of a law that will rectify existing incoherent, non-complementary and conflicting legal mechanisms to contribute to the realization of right to adequate food in the country.

The groups urged the government to declare right to adequate food as a national policy priority.

Teves said the declaration also affirms the country’s obligation to secure the right to adequate food, which is “closely intertwined with the right to land, water, work, education, health, and housing — the right to adequate standard of living” for its people.

NFC hosted the first national conference on “The Right to Adequate Food: A Collective Action for Policy Reform,” which tackled governance of rural development, environmentally sustainable growth as well as redistributive justice in February.

The NFC also recommended a national food policy with the participation of all concerned sectors, including the most vulnerable groups; rationalize the food framework law, institute capacity development of the right to adequate food and promote rights-based approach for its implementation.

“Right to adequate food orientation and human rights training are key elements in educating individuals and groups in grasping the hunger and poverty situation in the country and in joining the NFC, right to adequate food documents and materials were translated into Filipino to help raise awareness of people,” noted Teves.

The NFC is holding workshops and consultations for the promotion and development of a draft bill on right to adequate food, of which indigenous peoples, fisher folk, urban poor and youth, are among the participants.

Over 50 organizations and federations with more than 10,000 members, representing the urban poor, peasants, indigenous peoples, fisher folk and the middle class, comprise the NFC.

They had identified poverty, inequality and the resulting failure of the poor to access available resources as the main drivers of hunger in the country.