WE ALWAYS enjoy a generous piece of chicken and more than a cup of rice. We think more of the flavor and the dessert savoring its after-taste when eating them. But what is food, after all? Aside from the joy it gives especially when it is deliciously cooked, food is meant to give us health.
But recently, the rise of genetically-modified (GMOs) food that meant to gain more profits defeated the purpose of food as a health-giving agent. More mouths are fed and yet, more lives are at risk instead.
Healthy food is available. In the midst of canned goods, noodles, best-textured rice and vegetables are the organic-grown crops. Although not as flawless as the “edited” counterparts, and these organic rice do not come cheap, you’re buying yourself some more time - an extended life. After all, there’s wealth in health.
And here are the farmers who painstakingly till the lands with their sweat and blood, but oftentimes deprived of food for themselves.
This is the situation most of our farmers are facing even today: barely having any land to work on; and fewer farmers who prefer the organic way of farming.
I happen to come across some in Maranding, Lanao Del Norte, whose injustices of some organic farmers were unheard of and they were truly marginalized; their stories were remote, as remote as the soil they plant their rice in the field. Like those little grains of hope that came out of Pandora’s box, it is alive and yet it is unheard.
But then some might think, “what’s that got to do with us?”
Most of us complain that eating organic rice is costly, but what are extra pesos, if it also meant having extra years of life? (Nur-Saleha D. Dadayan, 19, Mindanao State University)
(Juventus Vox is SunStar Cagayan de Oro’s section for the youth’s perceptions and life’s views, feel free to contribute by sending in articles via cdosunstar@gmail.com)