Oxfam and Mikael Daez urge Pinoys to eat more brown rice

To say rice is an important part of every Filipino meal is an understatement. In fact, it seems impossible for most Filipinos to go without rice even for a single day.

With this overwhelming demand, different varieties of rice—red rice, black rice, glutinous rice—are in the market, but white rice or "polished rice" remains the most consumed in the country.

An anti-poverty organization, Oxfam International, believes this should change.

During the recent launch of its online campaign #GrowChallenge, Oxfam said the food system in the country needs reorganizing to benefit most Filipino consumers and even farmers—which includes the promotion of shifting to "unpolished brown rice" from white rice.

"To be able to sustainably feed more people in the future, we have to change the way we produce our food," Kalayaan Pulido-Constantino, acting country director of Oxfam in the Philippines, told GMA News Online during the launch.

Pulido-Constantino, in a separate statement, said the online campaign aims to be part of the "solution towards achieving food justice in a resource-constrained world."

Going brown

According to #EatBrownRice ambassador and Kapuso actor Mikael Daez, the white rice commonly sold in stores have undergone post-harvest milling processes, which removes the nutrients and fibers.

"Ang white rice na kinakain natin, walang sustansya iyan. Kapag pinoproseso ang white rice, lahat ng sustansya, natatanggal na," he told the audience during the #GrowChallenge launch at Trinoma Thursday night.

"Brown rice is unpolished rice, so ibig sabihin nun, buong-buo pa ang grain. Naririnig naman siguro natin, whole grains are better than normal, processed grains," he added.

Citing information researched by Oxfam, Mikael said every one cup of brown rice has 3.5 grams more fiber, which is good for digestion, than its equivalent amount of white rice.

"Ang fiber na makukuha natin sa gulay, makukuha rin pala sa brown rice," he added.

Mikael added that the production of brown rice is relatively cheaper compared to white rice, but costs more.

"Iyon ang problema ngayon, ang brown rice, mas mahal siya. Pero para gawin ang brown rice, sa totoo lang, mas mura talaga. Kasi kung iisipin, may palay sila, 'yung brown rice, 'yon na 'yon. Pagkaputol mo ng palay, iyon na 'yung brown rice," he explained.

He said supporting brown rice can help local farmers because of its lower production cost and shorter milling time.

"'Yung white rice, ipo-polish pa nila, ipo-process pa nila, nag-aaksaya ng kuryente, nag-aaksaya ng gas, nag-aaksaya ng oras. Sa totoo lang, ang brown rice, mas mura dapat iyan. Ang problema lang ngayon, alam ng mga tao healthy ito, patungan pa natin, pwede pa nating patungan, kakagatan pa rin ng mga tao," he added.

Commitment through social media

Mikael said one way to promote his commitment is to use social media.

Through an online platform, Oxfam not only hopes to encourage Filipinos to commit to eating brown rice (#EatBrownRice), but it also includes commitments in reducing food waste (#ReduceFoodWaste), buying local goods (#BuyLocal), saving water (#SaveWater), and conserving energy (#ConserveEnergy).

"Social media now is so powerful in reaching out to people and people can actually relate with you. They can use social media themselves to demonstrate that they are taking action. And so we thought that this will be a great way to get people, who probably will not totally be interested in about policy issues around food but who can relate because they all eat," Pulido-Constantino said.

"We want and hope that this will just kick-start questions among individuals and that they take action, and once they take action, take one of the challenges, for example Eat Brown Rice, and they can continue with it, and changes their lifestyle, changes their reference to what they would consume and maybe take more interest in the issues around food," she added. — BM, GMA News