Revised Food Law is Urgently Required
Revision Act No. 7 / 1996 on Food should be done immediately. So says Prof. Dr. Hardinsyah of Bogor Agricultural University, in the Discussion on " Food Acts Revision" held by the Faculty of Human Ecology and the PERHIMPUNAN SARJANA PERTANIAN INDONESIA (the Society of Agricultural Scholars of Indonesia), on Wednesday, 9 February 2011, at Darmaga Campus. "We get a lot of nutritional problems, contrary to the condition that we have excessive food production and supply. I propose the amendment of the Acts on Food Security and Nutrition into the Acts of Food Security the Prevention of nutrition problems, "said Prof. Hardinsyah.
Prof. Hardinsyah regreted to know that the food security as appeared in the previous law was subjected entirely to market mechanisms. It seems that both central and local government put their hands off and effortless to help the poor and at risk groups (elderly, pregnant women and children). In the previous Food Acts, according to Prof. Hardinsyah it was not stated clearly that the government was really support food policies in favour of the poor and sustainability. "The agro-industries which are expected to contribute higly to achieve food security, was actually became the most frequent violations of the concept of sustainability and environment destruction ever," said Prof.. Hardinsyah.
Similar statement was made by the Researcher of Department of Soil Science and Land Resources, Faculty of Agriculture, Dr. Dwi Andreas as saying that the government has established a policy on food access for the community but the government does not deliberately clarify whether their access would be through self-reliance provision in domestic or merely resting food imports. "I criticized the revised Acts on Food, especially the reason for the amendment, whether they are the result of food tsunami suffered by various countries, particularly Egypt and Indonesia as those two countries have become the world’s largest food importing countries? If it is true we need to emphasize the concept of of food for the community through sovereignty-based food supply, "said Dr. Andreas.
According to Drs. Andreas, food importation was the result of the Agreement of Agriculture (AoA), and the World Trade Organization (WTO) as well. The International agreements have caused the decrease in government support on food or agricultural sector, the increase access of imported food to markets, and the reduction of export subsidies. "For developing countries including Indonesia, such condition in fact will enlighten of government burden to support food supply as well as to save a lot of the national budget, as world food prices are much lower than the cost of domestic food production, "explained Dr. Andreas. But in the long-term, it will cause Indonesia on import dependence, will fall into food trap and prolonged food crisis.
To increase food self-sufficiency, Dr. Andreas proposed to reorganize Bulog into its original position, and in the future revision of the Law on Food BULOG should not be commercialized. (Wied).
