by Eric Abalajon
The headlines never fail to catch attention—
Earn hundreds of thousand of pesos
for picking apples or mushrooms in Canada
or elsewhere the locals rather not work the soil.
Misleading since in converting currencies they leave out
the cost of living there, or the cost of being away
and the payment in between known as placement fee.
Reduced to a question of geography,
deep down everyone knows
food producers shouldn’t live in poverty.
Eric Abalajon is currently a lecturer at the University of the Philippines Visayas, Iloilo. Some of his works have appeared in Revolt Magazine, Loch Raven Review, Ani, Katitikan, Cha: An Asian Literary Journal, The Tiger Moth Review, Marias at Sampaguitas, Tint Journal, and elsewhere.
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