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is voor de kritische stem ook . Die laten we ook horen in dit persbericht van onze Filipijnse partner Masipag, een organisatie van boeren en wetenschappers die weet waarover ze praat.
In de Filipijnen blijft honger een groot probleem. In een bevraging van Social Weather Stations van maart 2026 zei 23,2% van de Filipijnse gezinnen dat ze in de drie maanden ervoor minstens een keer honger hadden geleden.
Ook in België hebben mensen moeite om voldoende en kwalitatief voedsel te betalen, al kunnen we de cijfers niet één op één langs die van de Filipijnen leggen.
De conclusie blijft dat in ons huidige voedselsysteem te veel eten geproduceerd wordt dat niet bij de juiste mensen terecht komt. Een derde van het voedsel wordt weggegooid. Er is een immense ongelijkheid die geen schaalvergroting of industrieel systeem kan wegnemen.
Agro-ecologie is een sociaal, eerlijk alternatief.
PRESS RELEASE: On World Hunger Day: Food on the table and support for our farmers, not corporate capture! Resist the unjust system and strengthen our alternatives towards just and sustainable food systems!
Some tables do not have food, and many farmers do not own the land they till. That is why hunger is not just an abstract concept or an individual problem, it is a crisis brought about by systemic issues.
As we commemorate World Hunger Day, Magsasaka at Siyentipiko para sa Pag-unlad ng Agrikultura (MASIPAG) stands in solidarity with our farmers who continue to cultivate our lands and struggle to produce safe food for our tables, yet continue to be neglected. The farmer-led network believes that the solution to hunger is already right in front of us: genuine agrarian reform, farmer-led agroecology, and support for our farmers to strengthen our local food systems. However, until today, food remains a privilege as our country continues to experience imperialist plunder of our land and natural resources.
This year, alongside the persistent problems in agriculture, farmers continue to be sidelined by government programs as chemical and capital intensive agriculture paired with successive development projects threaten their livelihoods and, more broadly, our food sovereignty. One example is Pax Silica, which threatens to convert agricultural lands into a massive semiconductor and data center hub.
In addition, corporate-led renewable energy projects, including large solar farms in Nueva Ecija, pose another concern. These projects not only convert agricultural lands for renewable energy development but also create impacts on the farming communities and agricultural activities in surrounding areas. In Bicol, coastal communities are endangered to be displaced and lose their livelihoods due to a project including a 23,000-hectares offshore wind farm in San Miguel Bay, Camarines Sur. Meanwhile in Quezon, ACEN is developing the Quezon North Onshore Wind Power Project, which may have implications for nearby communities.
What is more concerning is the impending Super El Niño that will surely accelerate and intensify these environmental consequences affecting most especially farming communities and our local food systems. These developments also raise serious human rights concerns, including violations of farmers’ land rights, threats to their livelihoods, and reported cases of intimidation and displacement in communities affected by renewable energy projects.
Despite these challenges, farmers continue to resist and strive against the odds. For decades, MASIPAG farmers have developed and practiced their own technologies while asserting their rights to seeds and land. Through MASIPAG’s programs, such as CCR, LMPS, DIFS, trial farms, among others, they continue to advocate for and strengthen sustainable agriculture and work toward putting healthy and safe food.
Alternatives exist, both in the short and long term. However, the network recognizes that while these alternatives can be practiced today, they cannot be fully realized without a conscious resistance against the structural systems that continue to undermine our food systems. Until corporate capture ends and farmers gain genuine ownership and agency over their seeds and land, these alternatives will remain limited in scale.
And because we do not want development to remain in the hands of corporations and oppressive forces, we must choose to strengthen our collective action. As we celebrate October as Peasant Month, the network continues to launch campaigns and initiatives that strengthen its advocacies and advance the rights of farmers.
In line with this, MASIPAG Visayas will launch Hacienda Women on International Day of Rural Women. The campaign will highlight experiences and struggles of women farmers working in haciendas in Negros as well as their aspiration and campaign for a just and inclusive food system,
Moreover, MASIPAG is one of the organizers of this year’s Gulay Pa More Makiling 2 on October 18 at Baker hall, University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) from 8AM-8PM. The event will have three different activities namely: agroecology fair, biodiversity tours, and knowledge fiesta.
GPM Makiling 2 is part of the network’s activities on Green Action Week (GAW) that advocates for sustainable consumption. But most importantly, Gulay Pa More! seeks to build a culture of food justice by bringing people closer to the farmers, biodiversity, knowledge, and traditions that sustain our plates, while creating spaces where communities can imagine and practice more just, resilient, and ecologically grounded food systems.
“We can do something. The network believes that building sustainable food systems is not impossible. We must continue to be a part of the movement that strives to put food on the tables of marginalized communities and helps shape the future of our food systems,” MASIPAG National Coordinator Alfie Pulumbarit emphasized.
READ: https://masipag.org/press-release-on-world-hunger-day-food-on-the-table-and-support-for-our-farmers-not-corporate-capture-resist-the-unjust-system-and-strengthen-our-alternatives-towards-just-and-sustainable-food-sys/
