MEDIUM RARE Jullie Y. Daza Why is rice so expensive? Because our farmers aren’t planting enough, because the costs of planting are going up, and because, even as that is happening, smugglers are bringing in imported rice and hoarding tons for bigger profit margins. According to Cathy Estavillo, spokesperson of Bantay Bigas, part of the problem could be solved by returning the mandate of National Food Authority to: 1) buy 25 percent of locally sourced rice at P279 billion for the next three years; 2) store rice stocks; and 3) regulate pricing. Back in the bad old days of the first Marcos administration, when the secretary of Agriculture was the peerless Bong Tanco and his fearless partner in NFA was Jess Tanchanco, the two were a formidable tandem to the extent that their performance record has never been replicated, at least as far back as consumers can remember; our rice fields were greener then. On ASPN on Net 25, Ms. Estavillo said that while a bill is pending to penalize rice hoarders and smugglers just as consumers wish for Kadiwa-priced rice at P25 a kilo, a movement is afoot to gather 70,000 signatures for the abolition of the rice tariffication law with its minimum tariff on imported rice. As we speak, what’s the national appetite for signing petitions? How about another movement against dine-in customers wasting rice and other food as these are served in restaurants that offer smorgasbord meals? Buffets are designed to give diners a taste, a choice, not to force them to eat more than they should or would or could. I shared a table last week with a bon vivant who enjoys dining out every so often, and was surprised to hear this mouthful from his lips: “Can you stomach looking at people who pile up so much food on their plate and then stand up from their table with so much left untouched?” Hoarding for a hungry tomorrow? Self-induced gluttony without a matching belt size? Or simply a wanton display of bad manners? People love the sight of food, the more the merrier, the way we love parties and fiestas. But with millions unable to afford milk for their babies and children suffering from stunted growth, we need to feed more, not trash more.