The interconnection between the farmer, the food processors and the food consumers is a focal point when talking about agrifood. In the Philippines, our supply chain is still somehow handicapped thanks to the inability of the Philippines to guarantee food security to its citizens and also its inability to raise the bar of competitiveness to international standards.
There are various issues hindering this such as the lack of well developed farm to market infrastructure that can facilitate a smooth supply chain. In the Philippines, between 20% and 50% of the agricultural produce is damaged when being transported from the market to the consumer. The post harvest losses are estimated at around 30%. This is in sharp contrast to that of Thailand that is estimated at only 6%. A significant amount of the fresh produce that comes out of our farms goes to waste and that represents a significant loss for farmers that keeps millions of them in a poverty cycle.
Another limiting factor in the Philippines agricultural supply chain is the lack of a well developed support infrastructure such as effective and efficient cooperative structures that can guarantee farmers access to the markets at fairly competitive pricing. This makes a lot of Filipino farmers vulnerable to the middlemen.
Intensive extension work is key to agricultural success!
An important aspect of the agrifood supply chain in the Philippines that is unfortunately not at the top of everyone’s priority is that of the excessive use of antibiotics, especially in poultry farming and various other kinds of livestock farming such as hog farming.
Antibiotics are used in poultry farming and animal husbandry throughout the globe including in some of the most developed countries with fairly stringent food safety regulations. In the US alone, up to 80% of the antibiotics produced are used on animals.
Antibiotics do serve a useful purpose. They help boost the health and survivability of animals that are bred for food. Given the crowded conditions in which the animals are raised in modern intensive farming (factory farming) concerns, the use of antibiotics is necessary to ensure the outbreak of diseases does not wipe out your entire flock.
The main issue is the indiscriminate use of antibiotics as this can have a long term health impact on the eventual human consumer of products from animals that have been under intensive antibiotic administration.
The health issue that arises from ingesting too much antibiotics from animal by-products is antibiotic resistance that can expose you to deadly bacterial but treatable conditions.
Currently, more than 700,000 people die annually from infections caused by antibacterial resistance. If the current trend of antibiotic resistance continues, it is estimated that up to 10 million will be dying annually from infections caused by antibiotic resistance by the mid-century.
In the Philippines where there has been a long term indiscriminate use of antibiotics in animal husbandry by numerous unregulated farming concerns, a significant portion of the population is already showing antibiotic resistance. Patients now need more powerful antibiotics to treat conditions that could be treated easily by normal antibiotic prescriptions and that portends a critical future health issue. The situation is aggravated by the fact that there is no serious national regulation or surveillance on the use or abuse of antibiotics in animal husbandry. That could potentially create a very severe health threat in the future.
But there are steps that can be taken in order to reduce the indiscriminate use of antibiotics in animal husbandry. Some of these could be pushed by consumer advocacy groups. However, the players in the value chain best placed to enforce more humane and healthier animal husbandry practices are the retailers and wholesalers. By simply defining the standards of the products they wish to put in their shelves, they can shift the whole game and conversation on how animals should be raised.
In some mature markets, many retailers have already taken the steps and some are stocking products that are exclusively from farms that have been certified as adhering to ethical and healthier production methods.
Such efforts could also be spearheaded by consumer advocacy groups that could put pressure on retailers to make certain quality and ethical commitments. Of particular importance should be the elimination of the use of human antibiotics in animal husbandry. These are likely to have the most adverse impact on your health when your body develops antibacterial resistance.
As a consumer, you should inquire on the type of antibiotics used by your main poultry suppliers. If these are antibiotics that also used by humans, then they could pose a serious risk. The widespread and unregulated use of antibiotics is an entrenched industry issue and more concerted effort will be required to minimize their use or eliminate them altogether.