Breadfruit a disappearing staple?

By Herman Semes

To Pacific islanders, breadfruit is an important staple food such as rice to other people in other parts of the world. Today rice has displaced breadfruit in most Pacific islands, if not all. When you think about the health aspect of breadfruit and rice, we know that breadfruit is better. When we look at the economic aspect of it, the amount of money sent out to foreign countries to help their employees grow rice for export to FSM is ridiculously high while our breadfruit falls to the ground and rot.

What is the problem? Is it the lack of interest among entrepreneurs to process breadfruit into value-added products for export? Is it the cost of breadfruit that discourage people from patronizing the local produce markets? Is it the people responsible for preparing food for the family that prefer rice to breadfruit because of the easy work involved in cooking rice? Is it because people today do not understand that our own breadfruit is healthier than imported rice or other processed foods? Is it status symbol that one must have rice even if the breadfruit is rotting away?

Eating and getting used to a particular food is an acquired habit that is developed over time as people grow up. Micronesians were spoiled and are still spoiled by the displacement of our traditional food values by imported foreign food, especially rice. I say spoiled because it all started by the government when during the TT period US provided "hot lunch" program in the schools where the youth then who are now young adults were fed with rice and canned foods. The decision makers then were authorizing purchase of imported food rather than investing the funds in local staples so that our young people would get used to eating their own local food. Instead, tons of rice were purchased and kids acquired the habit and got to like the rice. Today it is rare to sit at a table in a family setting and eat the same type of food. The older generation would eat local food while the young eat rice. Think about the health and the economic benefit of this eating behavior.

Reinforcement of habits continued under Compact I and unfortunately we see the same thing happening under Compact II. We continue to see purchase of rice for our young children in schools. The children of the young parents who acquired the habit of eating rice during the TT period are now feeding their young kids with rice. So the cycle continues.

Should we then process our breadfruit for export to bring in foreign exchange to buy more rice? Why not, it is an open global market today as the G8 are telling us in the developing countries.

For those of you who do not know about the valuable collection of breadfruit trees we have in the Botanical Garden (the former TT/State Agriculture Station site), during the TT all breadfruit varieties in Micronesia were planted there. It is a rare collection of various species of breadfruit which are not being cared for today.

So what should we do or what can we do to make people of FSM take pride in eating their own food since it is healthier and they can save the money spent on rice to pay for things that can help improve their standard of living?

It is a complex question, but I say we can start at the schools today where another young generation is growing up. People who make decisions in our government to buy food for the schools should put priority on purchase of local staples such as breadfruit, yam, taro, banana, etc. It may seem more expensive but if you think of the combined health and economic benefits, they outweigh the savings made from buying rice or other imported food. If you work with farmers closely, they will tell you that during breadfruit season, breadfruits are wasted. Why not make it a requirement to buy local food first? Where are the FSM JEMCO representatives? In the recent JEMCO meeting in Palikir, the US JEMCO representatives, I understand, maintained a strong position that certain amount of compact funds will be set aside for textbooks. Why not set aside some funds for purchase of local foods for schools before we venture into some fancy use of these local staples?

My apology for this lengthy comment but I share everyone views about this important natural resource that is abundant in FSM. When we talk about allocation of scarce resources, we must consider using ours first. After all, we are a dependent independent country that is trying to be truly independent and let's be serious about it so that FSM can stay intact after 2023.