The root of the crop we’ll never eat

The root of the crop we’ll never eat

EVERY morning, the Filipino farmer wakes up before dawn to till soil that yields a bounty their own family can barely afford to put on the table. It’s 2026, and yet seven out of every 10 Filipino farmers still do not own the land they cultivate. The country dedicates vast tracts of our fertile land to lucrative cash crops destined for foreign shores, yet ordinary citizens are left to bear the brunt of overpriced, imported rice at the public mark…