DAVAO CITY—The Davao City Council urged restaurants, food chains and other food establishments in the city to help the Department of Agriculture promote the consumption of brown rice — locally known as “pinawa.”
In a resolution passed Tuesday, the Sangguniang Panlungsod called on food establishment owners to include brown rice in their menu to accept the DA’s #BROWN4good challenge that raises awareness of the nutritional benefits of brown rice.
Marissa Salvador Abella, chairman of the SP committee on agriculture and food, said brown rice is much healthier than white rice.
Abella said study shows that brown rice has more protein, dietary fiber, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants.
It can also reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes, cancer, cardio vascular diseases and high blood pressure.
Abella added that consuming brown rice can help the country achieve rice sufficiency and boost the income of local farmers “because compared to white rice, it has 10 percent higher milling recovery than white rice.”
“The additional supply will also help decrease Philippine importation of rice,” she said.
Meanwhile, the steps in accepting the #BROWN4good challenge are as follows: 1. Order brown rice in eateries or cook it at home; 2. Post a photo of your meal on Facebook, Twitter or Instragram; 3. Caption with #Brown4good #(your region) and; 4. Challenge others to do the same by tagging them.
Each post will translate into a cup of brown rice donated to charities.
“For the entire country, we are aiming to attain one million hashtags from FB, Instagram and Twitter and, if this is reached, the DA will give P3.5 million worth of brown rice to charities for the entire nation,” Abella said.
“For Region 11, our goal is to achieve 50,000 #Brown4good so that DA will give 100 sacks of brown rice to chosen charities,” she said.