The Philippines is a country with a long history of revolution dating back to Spanish and American colonisation and Japanese occupation. Bitter Rice focuses on the story of Bernabe Buscayno, alias Kommanda Dante, a legendary figure who has devoted his life to the struggle for a free Philippines. Using economic means to fight political ends, Dante formed the People’s Livelihood Foundation, a co-operative of rice farmers in Capas. Having seized their land, the PLF then took on the multinational fertiliser companies, the middlemen who market the rice and set the prices - and the banks whose interest rates cripple the farmers.