IKE SEÑERES
FOOD security is not a problem for the rich people because they would always have the money to buy food, assuming that there is still food to buy.
That is the bottom line issue in food security: to have food supplies to sell or to give away, depending on the situation. However, recent events affecting the supply of food have taught us a lesson that we could not always depend on commercial production or foreign importation as an assurance to have enough food supplies, and so therefore we should now consider the only remaining option, and that is no other than urban farming. We should now start an urban farming movement.
Recent events have also taught us a lesson that the supplies of water and energy should become part of our food security framework; otherwise, we would not have water and energy to cook our food, even if we would have the food to cook. In this case, I have used the term “energy” on purpose, because there are many other ways of cooking food without necessarily using electricity. As a matter of fact, most households are now cooking with the use of gas stoves, instead of electric stoves. Many households are still using wood, but that is not good for the environment if the wood species used are not the renewable varieties.
Corinthian Coffee Clutch (C3) member Nanding Juan has come up with two inventions that could help anyone cook without using gas stoves, electric stoves or wood stoves. His first invention is a device that enables people to heat water using only the small battery of a motorcycle. The device could also be used to power an LED bulb and to charge cell phones, among many other uses. Using the hot water, people could already have hot soups, teas, and coffees, and the soups could include the instant noodle meals. The hot water is also hot enough to blanch root crops and vegetables such as chopped squash, carrots, and sweet potatoes. His second invention is a solar oven that could cook rice and viands, and could even be used to heat and dry meats and fish.
Another C3 member, Engr. Ernie Labuntog, has come up with several inventions that could help anyone filter water without using electricity, so that the water will be safe enough to drink or to cook with. The source of water could be any natural source, including rainwater. Another C3 member, Dr. Antonio Mateo, has an invention that could collect rainwater from rooftops. If combined with the inventions of Engr. Labuntog, anyone could filter rainwater so that it will be good enough to drink. Using another technology, the invention of Dr. Mateo could be used for drip irrigation for the growing of backyard crops.
Dr. Pepz Cunanan, another C3 member, has come up with methods to grow vegetables vertically, so that these would actually grow in trees, fences, trellises, and walls. Using his methods, anyone could grow squash and other crops that could be cooked using the technologies of Mr. Juan. Dr. Ed Paningbatan, also a C3 member, has come up with methods for growing crops in hanging pots, using his own inventions of special soils. Dr. Paningbatan is a soil scientist, a retired professor from University of the Philippines (UP) Los Baños. Using either hanging pots or planters on the ground, he could also grow upland rice and upland kangkong (river spinach) without irrigation water, and other crops such as carrots and sweet potatoes.
Another C3 member, Bormeo Modanza, says that intercropping could be done in an urban setting, adding that bananas could be planted in vacant lots and intercropped with sweet potatoes and gabi (taro). If bananas are planted, the saba variety would be better, because it could be boiled or blanched using the invention of Mr. Juan. Putting together the vacant lots espoused by Mr. Modanza and the crawling plants of Dr. Cunanan plus the hanging plants of Dr. Paningbatan, we would never have a shortage of food anymore, and we might even grow enough upland rice to eat, assuming that commercial rice would be hard to come by.
Prospective C3 members Gil Marzo and Engr. Aldrich Alvarez have their own contributions to the urban farming movement. Mr. Marzo is a graduate of the UP School of Fisheries and he has developed technologies for urban fisheries. Using only recycled blue drums, he has designed fish tanks that could be mounted inside houses or around the backyards, including any kind of empty space. Using his own formulation of fish feeds, anyone could grow fish for their own consumption or to sell when there is a surplus. Engr. Alvarez, on the other hand, has developed a feed additive that would enable anyone to prepare their own feeds using kitchen waste and thus be able to cheaply grow pigs and chickens in backyard pens.
Putting together all the available technologies that I have mentioned here, it is now possible for any family in any urban community to grow all kinds of food items for their own consumption or to sell for some profits. I am not too optimistic to say that urban farming will solve all of our food supply problems, but it is possible that some urban communities would be able to produce more than enough for themselves, so much so that they could either sell or give away their surplus to the other communities around them that may have some shortages.
Maybe it is too early to think about a worst case scenario, but if we start an urban farming movement, coupled with technologies for water and energy, we can be very sure that we will not only have food to eat no matter what. What is important is for us to develop the awareness for readiness, while we are still living under normal times. At the risk of sounding too redundant, I have to say again that there should always be a complete supply chain of food to cook, and water plus energy to cook it with.
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