Rotting rice not even fit for the birds and the beasts!
By eileenleyva
@eileenleyva (27562)
Philippines
August 3, 2010 5:29pm CST
There had been an over supply of rice! And yet the rice we had been buying for the past two years had been so expensive. I purchase the one priced at Php45/kilo. I surmised it was the choice amongst the many that looks eatable. The NFA (National Food Authority) rice gives me asthma. And it doesn't taste good at all. I wouldn't even buy it for my dog.
And now we learn that there had been rice good enough to put three meals a day for even the poorest of the poor. And these rice are now rotting and would not be even fit for my dog and my birds.
There is no alternative but to distribute the rice to the marginalized sector in a scheme called rice for work. This could be detrimental to the health so they should be posting something like eat at your own risk.
2 people like this
14 responses
@petersum (4522)
• United States
3 Aug 10
Reminds me of when I lived in Karachi, Pakistan. Some aid agency with more money than sense sent a huge load of American rice to Afghanistan. Now you know Asians like Basmati rice. American rice is inedible (unless you are American) so it was sent back to Karachi where it remained for years - probably still there now! Why anyone would ship rice half way round the world, when it grows locally, is just ridiculous.
2 people like this
@Hatley (163781)
• Garden Grove, California
3 Aug 10
hi why bash Americans we have basmanti rice and other kinds here and I think I know when rice is edible or not edible. I am not responsible for our relief angencies and what they do but why always sell Americans short in mylot?I do not bash other countries here myself.yes thats a good question if a lot of our own peope are going hungry lets keep the rice here since you do not like American rice anyway. lol.
@petersum (4522)
• United States
4 Aug 10
You have a severe attitude problem!
1. American rice IS inedible to an Afghan who has spent his whole life eating locally grown rice.
2. It was NOT one of YOUR agencies involved.
3. No one said that YOU were responsible for anything.
4. I am NOT bashing Americans.
Read my comment again, particularly the last sentence.
@eileenleyva (27562)
• Philippines
4 Aug 10
Hi Hatley, the Php45/kilo up there is the California premium. It is good. The grains are whole and long. We like it very much.
But you have a point, peter, the locally grown rice has a distinctive taste. The masa prefer our own dinorado and sinandomeng even if compared to Vietnam rice which is also tasty.
@manilatop10 (371)
• Philippines
5 Aug 10
Oh my God, are you serious?
Rice is food and for those that are truly poor, it is not the flavor that makes it so important diba?
as always, IMHO, Eric.
1 person likes this
@eileenleyva (27562)
• Philippines
5 Aug 10
Eric, what is IMHO?
Absolutely serious! The post above is the unforgivable crime.
@jlamela (4898)
• Philippines
5 Aug 10
You are absolutely correct, there are excess rice supply stored by NFA that are now rot. I remember this is one of the anomalies expose by President Noynoy in his SONA, NFA imported more than three times the needed tons of rice supply for the Filipinos so the result excess supply of rice and NFA incurred P1 billion deficit which will be shouldered by the past administration contributing to the national deficit. Oh gosh why the people in NFA are not wise enough to determine the correct budget and needs of the public?and now they are having wasted products.
@eileenleyva (27562)
• Philippines
5 Aug 10
What is that Chinese maxim...a grain of rice could spell the difference? Indeed! Had the past administration been not greedy and distributed the rice the way they should have, the poor people could have been worrying about their livelihood now instead of their stomachs.
@New_Guy (45)
• Philippines
5 Aug 10
Greed of course. I just hope that those who are responsible won't get away with it. There was this news the other day about a politician who used rice donations from Japan for his campaign. He had his face printed on all the sacks and gave it to people. He won by the way.
1 person likes this
@saphrina (31552)
• South Africa
4 Aug 10
How can the rice be so expensive, sweetie?
What are your government doing?
I mean really, here we pay not even half of what you pay for rice and we will never get a product that is not fit for people to eat.
I wonder what this world is coming to when people waste food?
TATA.
@New_Guy (45)
• Philippines
4 Aug 10
It was her choice of rice that is expensive. At PHP45/kilo (roughly $1), at least for me. :) But just like what the TS said, some of us still prefer local produce which retails at around PHP30+. Fortunately for me, we have neighbors in the province to be able to buy at a discounted price.
1 person likes this
@saphrina (31552)
• South Africa
5 Aug 10
I am not very fond of rice, sweetie.
But i only buy one brand and that is the best brand here.
It is not expensive though.
I really think someone should look into this.
Brand names don't always make a difference in the price.
Some think they can hike the prices as no one will notice.
And that is wrong. Everyone's suppose to afford buying food, not just a specific class.
Would that government eat that rice that are not even fit for animals??
1 person likes this
@New_Guy (45)
• Philippines
6 Aug 10
saphrina, I guess that puts everything into perspective. Rice is not expensive there since not a lot of you are fond of eating it. :)
Eileen, I buy Sinandomeng rice. Quality is better if bought directly from farmers. I think it retails at around PHP36.00+ at the grocery. NFA rice comes from Vietnam, Thailand and China. Regular well-milled NFA rice is 75% whole grain mixed with 25% broken rice. And it costs at around PHP18.25+/kilo.
1 person likes this
@manilatop10 (371)
• Philippines
5 Aug 10
How do you get Asthma from rice?
It too made me mad when I read the SONA transcript.
Perhaps the distribution of "pet food" is better managed?
Rice for Work with a decent salary attached is a great idea.
Eric
1 person likes this
@eileenleyva (27562)
• Philippines
5 Aug 10
There was a research years ago that found out how difficulty in breathing is caused by eating poor quality rice. The recommendation was asthmatics must refrain from eating inedible rice.
@manilatop10 (371)
• Philippines
6 Aug 10
ok, thanks for explaining; it appeared from your earlier post that you were stating that there was a cause-effect relationship i.e. eating rice caused asthma.
Eric
1 person likes this
@eileenleyva (27562)
• Philippines
4 Aug 10
There are rice that cost 60 to 75 pesos per kilo. The black or brown rice cost much more.
@eileenleyva (27562)
• Philippines
5 Aug 10
Same here. I eat white rice only. My daughter tells me though that whenever she eats with her rich friends in their beautiful glass mansions, black or brown rice is served and it tastes good. I wonder!
@chiyosan (30184)
• Philippines
4 Aug 10
I know!! it was such a huge story and for those who might have forgotten why people should actually react on this issue was that everyone was greatly affected by the so called lack of rice supplies during Gloria's time! It was at the time where rice shortage was an issue and that there even has a limit of only 1 kilo per day per household should be bought in stores! And now, there is this news about the rice that are just lying in the warehouses... these rice which could have been eaten, distributed in the times of the shortage was caught rotten now! How irresponsible these people are! what were they even thinking!!!
1 person likes this
@eileenleyva (27562)
• Philippines
5 Aug 10
Hi chiyosan, you remember well. I did feel aghast around that time. Some friends had encouraged me to buy a sack, for tummy security purposes. My budget was limited though and I had to join the mainstream of sighing citizens watching the prices go higher each day.
I am angry, yes. This is an unforgivable crime.
@Hatley (163781)
• Garden Grove, California
3 Aug 10
thats so horrible , no they should not be giving spoiled rice to people to eat.If they do not have enough good rice why not grow potatoes and send potatoes to the poor, still a starchy food and lots of countries depend on them.Or any other starchy alternative. some people are allergic to bad rice.even here in the US rice is fairly reasonable in price even basmanti.
1 person likes this
@eileenleyva (27562)
• Philippines
4 Aug 10
Hatley, the rice was spoiled because the previous government did not distribute it. They imported too much so they can benefit from the large cut they could get. But there would be an economic malfunction if they sell the rice at a low price. So they allowed the rice to rot.
@LetranKnight25 (33121)
• Philippines
4 Aug 10
Hello there.
[b]
NOW, I CAN REALLY HATE THE Past administration ON THIS ONE[/b]. that's for sure. had the nerve to run again.do you remember the rumored rice shortage? i can't believe that people where actually given cards just to be given rice and now we have too MUCH!
Eliminate the Middle Man. but I've watch the news and the Dept. of Agriculture is willing to propose a Work-for-Rice Program to give rice to those who would work for the government. i guess they're aren't giving really these for free.@eileenleyva (27562)
• Philippines
4 Aug 10
The repercussions of giving the rice for free is actually more detrimental to the people. The masa must work so that they would not wait for free rice in the future.
Knight, did you get to hear about Congressman Bello lambasting the former incumbent in the plenary? Crime does not pay, knight. Either justice is done in this life, or the nexr!
@vandana7 (98834)
• India
4 Aug 10
Hi eileenleyva, I sincerely dont understand why they did that! Was the procurement cost so high that they couldnt even consider exporting it? Out here, we buy rice at 33 rupees a kg. I dollar is about 45 rupees. But a few months ago, I did purchase rice at 36 rupees a kg. So you know how the situation is. Current year, the crop is expected to be good, since we've had good monsoons. Therefore, it might go down some more. Else, the government might opt to export. We also have rat menance. So exporting it is better option I think. That way the price of rice across all parts of the world would stabilize.
@eileenleyva (27562)
• Philippines
4 Aug 10
Hi vandana, the over supply of rice was procured because the purchaser could make a huge cut. But they didn't want to put the rice in the market because that would mean the people would have enough food. When the people are not hungry, it is difficult to make them obey. This is how a friend explained to me the grim nature of greedy leaders exercising power!
@nangisha (3496)
• Indonesia
15 Aug 10
Hi eillenleyva!.
Here we also have some problem like that, cheap rice from government usually near rotten. Its usually sell if the rice price going up like now. M
y family never eat because my dad can handle it because he got used to premium rice. He is diabetic and he just eat small amount rice so we always cook the one he like.
The whole my life I never try cheap rice from government, because my dad had a principle we will use the rice even if we had to it only with salt. I think we just need to think thats we are lucky and grateful for what we have even if we are not rich.
1 person likes this
@akopoaysi (739)
• Philippines
6 Aug 10
we always saw this news on tv. how could they import too many sacks of rice? i think it is okay for them to import but just to compensate what we are lacking and not to buy everything due to panic buying. and they should know when it should be delivered so no sacks will be stock. Plus, it should be 1st in 1st out rule!!
our taxes are wasted because of this!!
what are they going to do with these rotting rice?
1 person likes this
@damned_dle (3942)
• Philippines
3 Aug 10
You will be surprised what people will eat nowadays just to curb their hunger.
@eileenleyva (27562)
• Philippines
4 Aug 10
I did see a picture of a child eating roots.
At a corner of the hi-way, a bunch of street boys are inhaling rugby from a plastic, so they will forget hunger.
@babz02 (250)
• Philippines
4 Aug 10
Did you guys remember the ZTE SCANDAL? This is just a speculation, but that was the time when the Dept. Agriculture declared that there was a shortage of rice! Then, (parang bula) the issue on ZTE was put into silence coz people were too busy hording rice and fighting on relief centers for a pack of rice that they thought was REALLY scarce! Because of that so called "calamiti/scarcity" of rice, the attention of the country shifted its focus on the rice issue and not on the people behind the ZTE scandal. That gave enough time for the perpetrators to WASH their hands and eventually get away with it. Now that's what i call a contingency plan for a big heist! (Still a speculation though)
1 person likes this
@eileenleyva (27562)
• Philippines
5 Aug 10
Twin tragedies, the other made up to cover one! No wonder many would like to break in and make pr
ison their home.
ison their home.1 person likes this
