Ensuring Local Food Security through the Establishment of Food Hubs in the Philippines

With the liberalization of economies, people have become dependent on global supply chains for their food needs. Through the establishment of groceries, food hypermarkets and restaurants, accessing food has been made convenient and, to a certain extent, affordable. Similarly, food production has been shaped by global demands and taken on by agri-business corporations.

Though this situation poses some problems to local food producers and may have a negative impact on health and nutrition, such a phenomenon has been well accepted especially by those residing in urban centers. Unfortunately, this does not augur well with small farmer producers who have been sidelined in the food value chain. They have been pushed to the uplands and marginal areas with limited access to land and basic services. This resulted in high rates of poverty and malnutrition among rural households.

Providentially, this precariousness of the global food systems has been unmasked by the COVID-19 pandemic. The travel restrictions, limited contact, and prohibition of gatherings in public places have disrupted the food supply chains resulting in inadequate food supply to consumers and surplus products that cannot be marketed by the producers. This resulted in hunger in urban communities and rotten products on the farmers’ fields.

With the pandemic projected to stay on for years, the impact can be enduring and enormous. It threatens the livelihood of smallholder farmers and indigenous communities to the extent of even losing access and control over their productive resources. With rotten products and no income, they become susceptible to unfair lending practices and unscrupulous marketing arrangements with a big risk of losing their lands.

The immediate response is to secure the food needs of the family by growing vegetables in the backyard. Unfortunately, at the household level, stability of supply is not assured, and diversity of food is limited. Government agencies and civil society organizations recommend ensuring local food sufficiency in securing food security at this time of pandemic. This can be realized through the establishment of community food hubs where small food producers and urban poor consumers are connected and engaged.

This policy brief further discusses what community food hubs are and how they contribute to securing food sufficiency especially in the time of this pandemic. This material also presents the result of a feasibility study conducted in piloting a food hub in Cagayan de Oro City and the Province of Bukidnon, Philippines.