The rising trend of food crisis in the Philippines is beginning to blow out of proportions as this problem is expected to continue until 2010. According to one of the economic advisers of President Gloria Arroyo, the surging global demand for food supply is adding to the burden of the country’s recent crisis.

Albay province Gov. Joey Salceda identified the reasons of the country’s worsening food crisis such as government’s wrong agricultural policy, climate change, rapid population growth and increasing incomes of the developing countries. Because of these, it is expected that the supply and the price of the basic commodities will get higher in the days to come.

But the present scenario that the country is facing has already been showing detrimental effects to the consumers and food businesses. The prices in the basic products or ingredients used in daily cooking have already shown significant changes. Prices of products such as corn, rice, coconut oil, soybean and wheat have increased. As a result, all food preparations using any of these products have higher price.

With these, I don’t know what the future holds to minimum wage earners two years from now. Presently, many Filipino families have tighten their budgets to have a decent meal three times a day.With the old-time problem on low salaries and another obstacle like this coming, surely the percentage of Filipinos getting hungry will soar. A hungry stomach is a start of having more street protests and other interconnected problems in the country.

I hope the Arroyo government will have an immediate plan to lighten the existing burden of the country. The food crisis is a big issue and Mrs. Arroyo’s inability to give solutions to this national problem as soon as possible will be a failure to her governance as her term is nearing to end.