The Silent Crisis: Imports vs. The Filipino Farmer 🌾

** Quick Summary:** Lower prices at the market often come with a hidden cost: higher chemical exposure for you and bankruptcy for our farmers.

When the price of vegetables drops because of a flood of imports, it feels like a win for the consumer. But have you ever asked why those imported onions or garlic are so cheap, and how they stayed "fresh" after weeks of shipping?

The answer might make you lose your appetite.

The government's "import-first" policy is trading public safety for temporary political points.

❌ The Safety Gap: A Double Standard

While our local farmers are strictly regulated, foreign produce often enters through an "express lane" to lower inflation quickly.

The Hidden Health Risk

• The "Express Lane": To stabilize prices fast, imported goods often skip rigorous testing at the ports.
• The Chemical Cocktail: To survive long ocean journeys, foreign crops are often treated with strong preservatives and pesticides (some banned in the PH).
• ⚠️ The Irony: The FDA imposes strict standards on local products but turns a blind eye to the chemically laden imports filling our wet markets.

📉 The Economic Trap: Crushing the Local Farmer

The government tries to fix prices at the end (the market) instead of the start (the farm).

The Unfair Fight

• The Price War: A Filipino farmer spends ₱15 to grow a kilo of produce. Subsidized foreign produce arrives at ₱10.
• The Result: Local farmers are forced to sell at a loss or let crops rot.
• 💸 The Long Term: Bankruptcy forces farmers to sell land to developers. Once the farms are gone, we will be 100% dependent on expensive imports forever.

💡 The Real Solution: Input Regulation

The reason local produce is expensive isn't greed, it's the uncontrolled cost of farming inputs.

Why Prices Are High

• Fertilizers & Pesticides: Prices are dictated by global conglomerates with zero government cap.
• No Subsidies: Unlike our neighbors (Vietnam/Thailand), Filipino farmers receive little support for these inputs.
• ✅ The Fix: Instead of importing food, the government must subsidize inputs and regulate fertilizer prices. If farming costs drop, market prices drop naturally, safely and sustainably.

Quick Comparison

Conclusion

We cannot feed a nation with dependency. Reliance on unsafe, chemically treated imports is a failure of policy.

We don't need more imports. We need protection for our producers and safety for our consumers.

Support Lokal. Demand Better Regulation. 🇵🇭