According to Department of Agriculture – Agriculture and Fisheries Information Service (DA-AFIS), every Filipino is wasting two tablespoons rice. The whole wastage is equivalent to 1.7 million kilograms which is enough to feed 2.7 million people.
How rice is wasted? The following except for the last were solely based on my assumptions.
Natural Calamities. Tons of rice are washed away during floods brought by strong rains and typhoons. Rice intended for the masses are drenched by water. No people on earth is powerful enough to go against it.
Harvesting and processing. Grains fall to ground during harvesting, threshing, drying and polishing. I never know the extent but what I said is not far from reality. There might be more waste than I could imagine.
Storage, transport and selling. Rice sacks are piece of woven plastics. Easily torn apart when pierced by finger or by any hard object. Can be intentional or accidental. That’s why rice grains on floor of warehouse, transport vehicle and rice store is a common sight.
Home. Accidental waste due to container breakage and during washing. Rice grains are small. Picking them all by hand requires a lot of time and patience. Sweeping them will include lots of dirt. Others… burnt/charred rice, tutong can be depending on one’s appetite, plate leftovers and spoiled rice/panis na kanin.
Over eating. Yes! eating more than what you need is considered as wasting. Eating four servings a meal and doing nothing but watching television will surely make you fat. Big belly and bloated muscles make the movement harder and going to give diseases eventually. Too much rice eaten gone to waste.
NFA warehouses. According to television reports, there were cases which the National Food Authority itself was involve is rice wastage. Several kilos to tons of imported rice were left infested by weevils. The management stated the it could still be saved by chemical treatment.