On World Food(less) Day, the Center for Women’s Resources stands with farmers, fisherfolks, rights defenders, and various organizations in condemning the state’s failure to address the pervasive food insecurity and hunger in the country.
Rising food prices amid stagnant low wages, worsened by decades of agricultural liberalization, have contributed to the escalating number of hungry and impoverished Filipinos. Farmers and fisherfolks, who are our local food producers, often experience hunger themselves, and remain the poorest in the country.
Recent climate disasters have devastated rural communities, yet farmers have received little to no compensation for their losses. The government’s aggressive push for import liberalization not only hampers our capacity for local food production but also threatens the livelihoods of those in agriculture. The extensive land use conversion of agricultural land to non-agricultural uses like commercial and residential, also threatens food production systems, food sovereignty, and farmers’ livelihood.
Worsening this situation is the rampant militarization in the countryside, which makes rural communities—and especially rural women—more vulnerable to violence and displacement. Women farmers and peasant organizers who speak out for land rights and food sovereignty are being red-tagged, harassed, and attacked. Many peasant women leaders face trumped-up charges or have been killed for defending their communities and livelihoods. Among them, Amanda Echanis, a peasant organizer and artist who has been detained in Cagayan Provincial Jail since December 2020 for her advocacy for farmers’ rights and rural women.
CWR enjoins everyone to support our food producers’ demands for genuine land reform, protection of human rights defenders, and support for domestic food production. Only then can we ensure the right to food for a better life and a better future.#
