Beer Over Food: Alcohol Industry Exacerbates Sri Lanka’s Rice Shortage

A growing rice shortage in Sri Lanka has sparked concern, with reports linking the crisis to the diversion of paddy into beer production. The Agrarian Unity Forum has sounded the alarm, highlighting how the alcohol industry’s demand for scarce resources is contributing to food insecurity and undermining the country’s efforts to achieve critical development goals.

This case reveals a fundamental conflict of interest: the alcohol industry’s need to exploit natural resources to produce and sell beer directly clashes with society’s need for food security, nutrition, and community resilience. In a country where rice is a staple food and a vital component of national food security, prioritizing beer production over feeding people exposes the exploitative business nature of the alcohol industry.

While alcohol companies reap profits, their production processes consume large quantities of essential resources – whether it’s rice, water, or land—that could otherwise support food systems and local livelihoods. At a time when Sri Lanka faces economic challenges and food insecurity, diverting rice for beer production is both irresponsible and harmful. Alcohol production diverts food crops away from feeding communities, exacerbating shortages and driving up prices. It also undermines critical Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG 2 (Zero Hunger) and SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-Being), obstructing national efforts to ensure healthy nutrition and food access for all. The consequences of food shortages hit vulnerable populations hardest, deepening poverty and inequality.

Sri Lanka’s government and civil society have a clear opportunity to address this conflict of interest and protect the country’s food security. Strengthening alcohol policies – such as taxing alcohol products more effectively, and regulating resource allocation – can help prioritize public welfare over corporate profits.

Sabotage is Big Alcohol’s deliberate actions to damage and obstruct people’s access to public goods. This strategy comprises calculated actions to break and undermine society’s rules, laws, and regulations. This strategy also includes willful activity that jeopardizes people’s access to essential resources such as water and basic food. And it includes Big Alcohol’s deliberate activities to damage or disrupt the proper functioning of society’s institutions, preventing them from addressing alcohol-related harm in the public interest.

Examples of this strategy include corruption, bribery, tax evasion and avoidance, price-fixing cartels, violations of alcohol marketing rules, and other unethical practices, such as depleting scarce drinking water.

Source:
https://island.lk/rice-shortage-linked-to-use-of-paddy-for-beer-production-claims-agrarian-unity/

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