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Food insecurity in Southeast Asia and The Philippines

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Food insecurity in Southeast Asia and The Philippines

Post by August Luna

Southeast Asia holds one of the largest hungry populations with 60 million of its total 630 million are suffering undernourishment and the total of 65.8 million are severely food insecure, many reported going days without eating. One of those countries is the Philippines, which has one of the highest rates of food insecurity in 2023. One out of ten households are currently food insecure and most rely on coping strategies to buy food. Like most southeast asian nations, the average Filipino household consumes less nutritious foods and more frequent fats and sugar based foods.

In recent decades, Southeast Asia has made improved development and security in terms of calories intake however there are few huge hurdles that southeast asia have to face when it comes to adapting to climate change and implementing and maintaining widespread sustainable agriculture practices to improve farmers’ livelihoods. The Philippines is contant target for climate change disasters, resource depletion, and population growth thus demanding a more innovative approach to agriculture. Filipino farmers have trouble adopting more sustainable agriculture practices due to many reasons such as financial constraint, lack of education/ training, etc.


One website I looked at when researching this issue in the Philippines was the TraceX Tech supply chains website. This website talked about the idea of regenerative agriculture initiative in the Philippines, and how government programs and policies are promoting this practice to help sustainable agriculture develop in the nation. Some of its core principles are to improve soil, fertility, and biodiversity, while also promoting climate resilience. Working with nature rather than against it, this includes low or no till farming crop rotation, and livestock integration; This helps increase soil organic matter and improve nutrients cycling.

References

World Food Programme – https://www.wfp.org/publications/wfp-philippines-food-security-monitoring-october-2022

World Food Programme / Remote Household Food Security Survey https://docs.wfp.org/api/documents/WFP-0000145277/download/?_ga=2.15860158.94609403.1732499284-1112568148.1732499284

TraceXtech – https://tracextech.com/regenerative-agriculture-with-filipino-farmers/

“First, Do No Harm” Human Rights and Efforts to Combat Climate Change Discussion

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This article of “First, Do No Harm” Human Rights and Efforts to
Combat Climate Change by Naomi Roht-Arriaza mentions the effects of Climate Change and it made me wonder how different parts of the world get affected due to globalization. Roht-Arriaza explains and shows off past examples of this throughout the reading of how certain regulations all failed in the past. How human rights get affected due to these impacts and the people who get affected are already in poor situations.

“These may include violations of the rights of farmers or forest peoples, especially indigenous peoples, massive involuntary displacement, or evictions as certain lands become more valuable. The climate change regime may also create undesirable indirect human rights impacts, affecting food, water, and energy security, and further impoverishing those that are already poor,” (Page 595.)

I noticed a pattern about how these multiple different ideas for solutions end up bringing more issues in the process. In reading the introduction, Roht-Arriaza painted a clear picture of how complex the issues are when dealing with the overall process of taking on climate change. How intertwined Climate Change is to globalization and how it’s not a matter of black and white. It made me wonder if there is ever going to be one right solution to our climate crisis; from the notion of what priorities comes first, the moral obligations to protect others human rights, or what we need to do to solve climate change, and/or many more. There might be a way to appease all, but can countries around the world cooperate with one another to come up with these future solutions? I don’t really know.
The article also shared an example of the deforestation palm oil crisis in Southeast Asia, a topic we discussed last week. It goes into more depth than what our blog provided and shows how deforestation is especially affecting core resources such as housing, food, and other services that directly affect nearby rural and indigenous groups.

Indonesia palm oil deforestation

Article – “First, Do No Harm” Human Rights and Efforts to Combat Climate Change 

Post by August Luna

Malaysia’s Palm Oil Industry

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Malaysia, a country in South East Asia, is about 127,700 square miles. For reference, that’s about the size of New Mexico. Despite its small size, Malaysia is the second leading producer of palm oil in the world. According to the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service, Malaysia produced 19.7 million metric tons of palm oil in 2023 alone. Palm oil is an edible vegetable oil that comes from the fruit of oil palm trees. Despite the negative health and environmental effects it can have, palm oil is used in a wide array of commodities ranging from baked goods to cleaning products. This is because oil palm trees have a high yield and a long lifespan.

Global palm oil production (2014-2023)

Even so, for decades oil palm trees have played a big part in the widespread deforestation of Malaysia’s forests. Old growth forests are crucial ecosystems that have worked to maintain the earth’s balance for centuries. Forests help reduce soil erosion, maintain biodiversity, provide materials for people, and sequester CO2. By cutting down and/or burning these forests down to replace them with palm oil plantations, we risk throwing that delicate ecosystem out of balance. While some may argue that oil palm plantations are still large tracts of land dedicated to trees, they aren’t nearly as effective as natural forests. Oil palms must be treated for pests which not only disrupts food chains and displaces wildlife, but also leads to the infiltration of harmful chemicals into the soil. 

Because oil palm trees are more productive than other sources of vegetable oil, and the world is so dependent on palm oil, it cannot simply be erased. Palm oil needs to be more sustainably harvested in order to ensure a future for Malaysia’s forests. Fortunately, since 2013 major palm oil companies have implemented NDPE policies. According to ProForest, NDPE is a commitment to no deforestation, no peat, and no exploitation. These policies are meant to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, protect and restore surviving land, and respect the human rights of plantation workers, shareholders, and local communities. While there is still demand for palm oil that’s grown unsustainably in the “leakage market,” these policies play a crucial role in the movement toward sustainable palm oil. 

Sources:

Effects of Climate Change on Women in Japan

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Effects of Climate Change on Women in Japan

Annika Bettenhausen and August Luna

Climate change has become an increasingly prominent issue since around the 1980’s when the ozone hole was discovered. Today, the effects of climate change can be seen all over the world. While negative effects on the weather, ecosystem, and public health are unmistakable, it also has played a part in the perpetuation of gender roles. In Japan specifically, gender inequality is a major issue that is often overlooked. According to Statistica, “In 2023, around 71.4 percent of the male population and 54.8 percent of the female population in Japan were in the workforce nationally. This is astounding as women and men have a very similar tertiary educational attainment rate. As women in Japan are more likely to complete their tertiary education, you would think that their employment rates would be better represented in the national workforce. Unfortunately, there is still a bias against hiring women over men. Even though the female employment rate in Japan reached an all time high in 2023, half of those women are still mostly doing non-regular employment (part-time seasonal work.) It’s been shown that employment rates start to drop after the age of 29 due to life changes such as marriage or childbirth. This change makes many women dependent on their husbands for financial support while also assuming the role of family caretaker.

Percentage of people in the labor force among the total population aged 15 years and older in Japan from 1973 to 2023, by gender

In 2011, Japan experienced a powerful earthquake off its northeastern coast. This earthquake triggered multiple tsunami waves that destroyed many coastal towns. According to an article by Marisa Ensor and associates, “[w]omen who were evacuated to displaced centers were tasked with preparing meals which they did without being paid.” She goes on to detail how male evacuees were not met with the same expectations and were instead offered paid opportunities to help remove rubbish. Large natural disasters such as the earthquake experienced in Japan are few and far between; however, due to climate change they are starting to become more frequent. Ensor writes that, in the aftermath of disasters, there’s often a significant increase in unpaid care and domestic labor. As these are culturally seen as roles for women, the burden falls disproportionately on women and girls. Women in all parts of the globe are more susceptible to the effects of climate change due to the fact of less leadership positions accessible, ultimately to losing control of resources to better help them understand and adapt to natural disasters due to climate change.

Picture after 2011 Japanese earthquake and tsunami

Citations