Not Your Ordinary Rice

by Kimberly Mae V. Llano

At age 43, Mary Jane Llano was diagnosed with diabetes. Her mother was diagnosed too with the same disease and complications got worse which caused her death at the age of 69. Diabetes, a disease which Mary Jane refers to as already part of their bloodline, says it came to her by surprise and worries her even until now.

To help herself avoid and possibly escape the danger zone brought by diabetes, her doctor prescribed her costly medications which she must take regularly. Also, she was advised to avoid consuming high-sugar food and instead of taking meals with white rice, she must rather eat brown rice.

From then on, Mary Jane started eating brown rice even if it was expensive and tastes differently.

Yes, she is my mother. And that’s when I knew that brown rice exists and what it tastes like as I have tried it myself.

Rice country

Given the title as the world’s eighth-largest rice producer, Philippines is the home of different varieties of rice. Among all those popular and even the less-known variety of rice, the rice-eater Filipinos still prefer the white ones or the polished rice.

Generally, rice is the most in demand staple food making it the basis for most meals especially to Asians.

In a report by the Department of Agriculture in 2014, Philippines is said to be the country with the highest percentage increase in milled rice production among all rice-producing countries over the past five years.

On another point, as written in an article in The Manila Times, due to geographical conditions, lack of agriculture infrastructure and the failed implementation of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program, critics said that rice sufficiency in the Philippines is unlikely within the next 10 years.

In addition, the country has already reached the 96 percent self-sufficiency level in 2013 based on a study involving rice production, per capita consumption, and population. The said percentage is actually higher compared to the 82 percent sufficiency level in 2010.

In an article written by Ma. Rea Felinda Apun et al, Dr Flordeliza Bordey, the program leader for Impact Assessment Policy Research and Advocacy of Philippine Rice Research Institute, said that every Filipino is wasting 14 grams of milled rice per day, which is equivalent to about 3 tablespoons per person per day. With this estimate this year, if there are 100 million Filipinos wasting rice, then we are wasting about 510,000 metric tons of rice, an amount, which according to our competition, can already feed about 4.2 million people for the whole year.

Now, is there any way to solve the pressing problems of the Philippines in terms of rice? Is there such a way to help achieve the rice self-sufficiency goal of the country?

The brown rice campaign

As part of their ‘Be RICEponsable’ campaign, the Department of Agriculture (DA) urges the Filipinos to eat brown rice. The said campaign is in line with DA’s mission to achieve the rice self-sufficiency goal of the Philippines.

“Aside from other staple foods such as corn, camote, cassava, and adlai, we encourage the consumers, especially the youth, to try the brown rice because of its nutritional content”, said Mary Grace Sta. Elena, Regional Information Officer of Department of Agriculture Region X.

Implemented on 2014, the ‘Be RICEponsable’ campaign of DA is still on-going as it is spread on the whole country. In the regional office of the Department of Agriculture, the officers are actually carrying out their campaign.

As shared by Paolo Dibudado, Regional Project Development Assistant of DA Region X, the whole staff of the DA Region X, are encouraged to consume only brown rice during Wednesdays. On their oath, brown rice was given a focus which says, “Akong sulayan ug kaon ang brown rice o nilubok nga bugas, akip ang ubang pagkaon sama sa saging lung-agon, kamot ug mais”.

With DA’s campaign, their goal to help the country be rice self-sufficient actually has a lot of factors that can contribute or affect to the said goal. These factors can be the increasing population wherein it would mean increase in the consumption of rice. Also, increase in production level of rice would mean decrease in area because of the conversion or commercialization.

As added by Sta. Elena, consumption of brown rice can help the sufficiency level on rice if people will only just take it a habit to eat such rice right on their own homes.

Brown rice: why or why not?

“There is no variety of brown rice”, said Sta. Elena.

Produced by millers, brown rice or unpolished rice is only processed once wherein only the hull or the hard protecting coverings of grains of rice is removed but the germ and its bran are retained.

Compared to the usual white or polished rice, brown rice is definitely more expensive as it is produced only in few places in the Philippines such as in Davao City and Metro Manila. Having only less producers, its commercialization is not massive making it costly and available only in chosen markets.

Although the brown rice has a tasteless flavor and its texture is chewy when cooked, it is actually more nutritious than the white rice.

Due to its health benefits, brown rice is used as a substitute for white rice by the diabetics. It has less sugar content which is helpful to the patients.

In addition, the unpolished rice does not only benefit the diabetics as it may lower the risk of heart disease and certain cancer.

***

Eating brown rice as part of the ‘Be RICEponsable’ campaign of the Department of Agriculture, is just one of the ways of the government to help achieve the goal of the Philippines to be a rice self-sufficient country. With its high nutritional content and health benefits, there is no doubt that brown rice could be the way to make Filipinos food-sufficient and healthy at the same time.

Sources:

“Recent developments in the rice sector” by Ricepedia (http://ricepedia.org/philippines)

“Philippines posts highest milled rice output growth among all rice-producing countries – US report” by The Manila Times (http://www.manilatimes.net/)

“The problem with rice” by Ma. Rea Felinda Apun, Conrad Bidaswa, and Merve Kirikkanat (http://www.rappler.com/)

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