Written by the Web Team
Science City of Muñoz, Nueva Ecija – Be RICEponsible, a campaign that aims to help the country continually increase its rice production, partnered with a community church to instill appreciation towards farmers` hard work and brown rice.
In a mass feeding program with the San Sebastian Parish Church, Gemma Oreña, 12 years 
old said she valued more the work of his father, who is a farmer, and learned that brown rice is healthy.
“My father is a farmer-tenant. He works for us to have something to eat. We need a doctor once in a while, but we need a farmer three times a day,” Oreña said in Filipino.
Oreña, who was served with brown rice porridge, is one of the 60 children adopted by Church in its Limos mo, Pagkain ko program.
“It`s my first time to eat brown rice and should I be regularly supplied with this type of rice, I know that I’ll be healthier,” she said in Filipino.
Studies show that eating brown rice or unpolished rice may reduce the incidence of cardiovascular diseases such as hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, heart disease, and stroke. Cancer and diabetes may also be diminished by eating brown rice.
In Midsayap, students of Salunayan Elementary School were also taught on the nutritional benefits of brown rice during the country`s celebration of Nutrition Month.
“I did not expect that brown rice tastes good,” Xyrus E. Almazan, a grade six student of the school, said in Bisaya. He said that when he learned that he will be served with Brown Rice he hesitated. But he immediately liked it when he tasted it.
Be RICEponsbile, which is implemented by the Philippine Rice Research Institute, urges the public not to waste rice; consume brown rice; eat healthier sources of carbohydrates such as camote, cassava, and banana; and value the hard work of the rice farmers.
