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In the blink of an eye, the world has become so much smaller with advanced technology. Communication is only a fingerpoint away. In a matter of minutes, international transactions can be completed through electronic mail and cell phones. Computer networks are democratizing access to information. Airplanes and jetplanes are making next door neighbors of Asia and Africa. Indeed, with so many sophisticated technologies, worldwide linkage has become a byword. Time and space have collapsed. But the world still starves.
I speak as a Filipino youth with my historic burden of poverty and want. I live life everyday in candid black and white. While I eat three square meals a day, many families lie huddled together on torn-woven mats, sleeping away their pangs of hunger. On my way to school everyday, I see barefoot, filthy street kids rummaging inside the garbage can for morsels of food - bits and pieces of scraps that even the dogs won't eat. On the papers, on radios, and even on their national TV, I hear of and see farmers who, having paid for their land in sweat and watered it with blood, now bemoan of lands made barren by systematic exploitation and improper cultivation. Poverty is stamped on every toiling man's paycheck. Reality lies in seeing faces twisted in hunger-stricken grimace.
This is the bitter truth that I live with everyday. This is the bitter truth that I keep hoping to change.
There are things that we can negotiate. Or even compromise. Food is not among them. It never was, it never will be. It is the nation's lifeblood. And as such, food should be a driving priority for every country that prides itself on a humane, just, and equitable economic policy. And there lies the catch. For countries like the Philippines totally bereft of funding, technical know-how, agro-ecological technology, and manpower, asking for genuine food security is like chasing phantoms in the mist. We cannot achieve this on our own. We cannot ensure, or even realize, a sustainable food security program without the help of the rest of the world. The disparity in the food supply between rich and poor countries is but another testimony to the driving need for international cooperation. Food security must be the collective effort that would bring the rest of humanity together.
This is not asking for a transient piece of the moon. Every country in the world, every person in the planet, every man and woman - young or old, rich and poor alike - can do so much to protect, ensure, and uphold the continuity of human existence through sustainable food security. How? For one, economically advanced and powerful countries like the United States, Japan, Canada, the UK, and many others could help facilitate and maximize information exchange among all agricultural countries. This information exchange would verify, test, and disseminate crop and crop-based technologies that will solve location-specific problems in crop production. Then, after the initial information exchange program, an International Council for Food Security could be organized. This council would allocate funds coming from an international aid for countries who need financial help in shifting their comprehensive agricultural reforms program into high gear. This council would also be in-charge of providing timely information for policy formulation that will stimulate food production, marketing and distribution as well as consumer consumption. Coordination of the international network of food stations in the different parts of the globe, formulation and implementation of a comprehensive and extensive human resource training and development program that will enhance the performance of the crop industry, and the development and testing of alternative food technology would also be under the direct jurisdiction of the council. For their part also, the countries under the council's program should make food security a paramount national priority. In this manner, the problem of sustainable food supply would be addressed critically.
This is a vision we should all take heart with. This is a ray of hope we should all cling to. In spite of the hunger and deprivation amidst the widespread misery and suffering around us, let us continue our fight for collective survival. We hold in our mortal hands the power to put an end to all forms of human starvation, poverty, and want. We have it in our power to redeem ourselves... or destroy our future forever. Let us not forget that we all help shape the fate of humanity. The challenge has been handed. Let us go forth from this time and place, break through the barriers of atavism and festering individualism and work together towards a common, unifying goal. Together we can end world hunger. Together, we can protect, ensure, and uphold global food security.
This is the only lasting legacy that we could leave
to those who would come after us. Years from now,
my kids are going to ask me what part I played in ensuring sustainable food security. Years from now, my kids are going to ask me what part I played in changing the world.
I will tell them I was one of those who tried to make a difference.
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