At least credit the mindless tree huggers and moon worshippers for consistency – in being wrong, that is.

Mining and food security are not mutually exclusive, stupid!

They are not an either/or proposition, a zero-sum game.

In fact, they can be a win-win proposition.

New technologies, generally accepted best industry practices, tougher international protocols, and stricter government standards are built-in guarantees that modern mining methods can work in harmony with nature while giving all industry stakeholders – investors, the government, workers, and host communities -- their rightful dividends.

Besides, various local government units, religious, environmental, and  tribal, and even industry organizations keep a constant watch on mining operations to make sure they are compliant with environmental laws.      

And so we strongly disagree with environmental and food safety activists: It is not a choice between an industry and food on trhe table.

Senator Francis Pangilinan, agriculture committee chairman, listened to the groups’ concerns during the  hearing.

And we agree with Pangilinan that destructive mining is the real environmental threat. 

He condemned “irresponsible mining (as) a grave threat to our efforts in attaining food security.”

Pangilinan said the Department of Agriculture should conduct an inventory of all “vulnerable farming and fishing communities because of mining activities”.

“I am not against mining per se, but as we saw and heard today, irresponsible mining is a grave threat to our efforts in attaining food security,” a major broadsheet quoted him as saying.

“Clearly, there is a need to address the loopholes in the regulation and practices of the mining companies that operate in the country. We cannot sacrifice our food security for the sake of tapping the potential of an industry that obviously needs further evaluation based on data that we have received today.”

For his part, the head of the Chamber of Mines of the Philippines, lawyer Ronald R.S. Recidoro, told the broadsheet that mineral production was being closely monitored by the Mines and Geosciences Bureau to ensure that public welfare was protected.

“There is an existing process where companies that want to mine are required to make baseline studies on the environment and their prospective host communities,” he said.

Recidoro said that from a tax angle and from an environmental perspective, the government should focus more attention into regulating small-scale mining, since its operators were at present not monitored.

“The government would do well to implement R.A. (Republic Act)  7076 since it will place small-scale mining under the supervision of the DENR (Department of Environment and Natural Resources) together with large-scale mining. This way there is a common monitoring body, and we can weed out those companies that do large-scale mining while masquerading as small-scale miners,” he said.

Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Assistant Director Benjamin Tabios Jr. said separately that while mining might be harmful in some ways to agriculture, the output “of much of these mining activities enter into agriculture.”

He cited as an example iron, which he noted was a basic metal for producing agricultural and fisheries equipment such as farm tools, motor pumps, vessels and engines.

“Mining, if done properly, can be an engine of growth also to agriculture and fisheries,” Tabios said.

Our thoughts, exactly.