29 April

Reboot The United Nation’s 2015 Constrained Vision “Sustainable Development” To 2023 All-Embracing “Regenerative Development”!

Personally, a proud alumnus of UP Los Baños, I have long wanted if possible for the United Nations (the UN) to reboot its “17 Sustainable Development Goals” (SDGs) adopted in the “UN Sustainable Development Summit” held in Sept 2015 (United Nations, sdgs.un.org). To me, “Sustainable” is “Questionable”! 
(“Globe Hand” from freepik.com)

Here are the UN’s “17 Goals of Sustainable Development” (United Nations, un.org):

G1: No Poverty
G2: Zero Hunger
G3: Good Health and Well-being
G4: Quality Education
G5: Gender Equality
G6: Clean Water and Sanitation
G7: Affordable and Clean Energy
G8: Decent Work and Economic Growth
G9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
G10: Reduced Inequality
G11: Sustainable Cities and Communities
G12: Responsible Consumption and Production
G13: Climate Action
G14: Life Below Water
G15: Life on Land
G16: Peace and Justice Strong Institutions
G17: Partnerships to achieve the Goal[s].

All 17 are desirable for the world – each one a Mission to Accomplish the Vision: “Sustainable Development.” However, if the Vision is unacceptable – there go the Missions!

Intellectually, I envision of revising the Vision into “Regenerative Development.” Because: The term “sustainable” implies that it “can be improved somehow while essentially maintaining the current relationships” – in essence, status quo. In contrast, the term “regenerative” implies “rebirth, renewal” – essentially, change for the better. Why does not anyone want change for the better!?

Noted: “The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015, provides a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future.”

For “Climate Action,” the UN website mentions “sharply reduced” emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs), but does not mention Chemical Agriculture (CA) as a huge source of GHGs. Why not? My calculated guess is that if they mentioned CA as a producer of global enemy gases, the UN will be seen to be anti-capitalist!
(“Climate Change” from ausrawmilk.org)

Also noteworthy, none of the 17 SDGs either mentions, implies or signifies “Agriculture” – Why not? My guess is that “Chemical Agriculture” (CA) will come out, and that is anti-capitalist too! Organic Agriculture (OA) will also come out, and that is Definitely Murder!

Let us now take the case of OA as one of the Regenerative Agriculture (RA) practices/principles. So, what does OA regenerate? I see these 2 entities generated/regenerated:

(1) Farmers are financially enriched – arising from much lower overall cost of farming and, therefore, much higher returns from farming.
(2) Environments are organically enriched – natural soil enrichers are applied, therefore zero greenhouse gases are generated.

Yes, OA is murderous! These are the 2 entities that OA slowly but surely kills:

(1)   Farmer Poverty – I repeat: OA reduces much the total cost of farming and increases much the net returns; that is murder to those whose businesses rely on the manufacture and/or distribution of chemical fertilizers and pesticides!

(2)   Climate Change OA renews the natural fertility of the soil and does not generate greenhouse gases that generate Climate Change.

Today, as global development goals ignore elimination of Farmer Poverty and Climate Change, development is not sustainable!@517

28 April

Reboot LandBank To Trillion Loans For Farm Production To HEAL And Help Farmers To COPE2

We all should thank God for the Land Bank of the Philippines (LandBank) to have loaned more than PhP261 Billion to the Agriculture Sector, according to ex-Secretary of Agriculture William Dar (27 April 2023, “Lending To Agriculture And The Rise Of Fintech,” Manila Times, manilatimes.net). It is my hope as an advocate of regenerative agriculture and self-help that LandBank lends billions-trillions more for more cooperative projects for the agriculture’s higher health: healthy farmers and healthy farms.

Mr Dar says:

The figure of PhP261 billion is no small amount, and LandBank should be applauded for sustaining the bank's lending to the agriculture sector.

However, I still dream of lending to the agriculture sector reaching at least PhP1.5 trillion per year… Attaining that PhP1.5-trillion figure will definitely need a mobilization of financial resources from the government, private sector or banks, and bilateral and multilateral lending institutions.

Me, trillions more for loans, yes: I wish LandBank packages a lending program for “Cooperatives Operating for People’s Economics & Environment (COPE2)” – my brainchild. Note that COPE2 is for cooperatives to work for their farmer members as well as for the environment. COPE2 is for cooperatives to achieve economies of scale for its members as they go on with their agriculture to solve Farmer Poverty and resolve Climate Change. I have yet to read of any LandBank-supported program or project that addresses directly Farmer Poverty even while it aids all of agriculture in confronting Climate Change.

LandBank’s HEAL is the program to “Help via Emergency Loan Assistance for LGUs”; my COPE2 is designed not only to HEAL the communities sick of poverty but simultaneously to heal the land sick of Climate Change!
(“HEAL” from facebook.com)

I am thinking of COPE2 implementing regenerative agriculture (RA) to which Mr Dar himself subscribes (see his 2022  column, “It’s Time To Consider Regenerative Agriculture,” Manila Times, manilatimes.net). 2 years earlier, he said during the 69th anniversary of the Bureau of Soils & Water Management (BSWM) (Ellalyn de Vera-Ruiz, 08 June 2020, “Dar Urges Reinvention, Adaptation To ‘New Normal’,” Manila Bulletin, mb.com.ph):

Reinvention needs a lot of courage to… focus on four major areas: soils, water, farming systems, and policy advocacy..,

The DA chief also highlighted the development of new researches focusing on soil health and sustainable agriculture with regenerative agriculture.

Yes, I am calling for “reinvention” of government lending to farmers who are made aware and required to practice non-chemical agriculture.

“Sulong Saka” (“Advancing Agriculture,” my translation) is for increasing production of farm produce – but not healing the land from being environmentally sick, ill from greenhouse gases. “(Chemical) Agriculture (contributed) 10% of 2021 greenhouse gas emissions” (EPA, United States Environmental Protection Agency, epa.gov).

About the “Sulong Saka,” LandBank itself says (landbank.com):

The Sulong Saka Program aims to provide credit assistance to farmers cultivating high-value crops … and support their production, processing, marketing and other agribusiness projects.

I say LandBank needs to help PH Agriculture more than “Sulong Saka” and “HEAL” – it needs to fund the fight against Farmer Poverty and Climate Change!@517

27 April

Reboot Your Thesis Presentation & Defense! Examine Frank A Hilario’s Usual-Unusual “The 7 Deadly Scenes”

In his letter to his German friend Ferdinand Blumentritt, 02 October 1896, Philippine would-be National Hero Jose Rizal wrote: “Everything referring to my country interests me greatly.” Since 1959, my adopted country is Agriculture & Related Sciences, as I took the course BSA major in Ag Edu and graduated 1965; and since 1975, I have been travelling all over that adopted country; and since 1987, I have been much directly involved in digital editing and/or publishing technical materials from thesis to journals to books. Yes, “Everything referring to my adopted country interests me greatly!”

Today Wednesday, 26 April 2023, what interested me greatly was UPLB Dean of the College of Human Ecology Riki Sandalo’s Facebook sharing from the UPLB Learning Resource Center website (above image) of “10 Successful Thesis Defense Tips That Work” I was able to read only these 8:

(1)   Know the panel members.

(2)   Anticipate the possible questions.

(3)   Highlight important points in your study.

(4)   Talk at moderate speed.

(5)   Answer directly the questions and expound a little.

(6)   Be thoroughly familiar with the literature cited.

(7)   Apply the one-to-one correspondence.

(8)   Be grateful and open-minded.

Never mind. Below, I am presenting my own list.

Very different by coverage and counsel, based on my 48 years actual technology-rich experience as Editor: (1) typewriter-based editor at the Forest Research Institute (now ERDB) 1975-1986, and (2) digital-based editor 1987-today, including my being an unmatched one-man-band digital Editor in Chief of the Philippine Journal of Crop Science (PJCS), the publication that I brought singlehandedly from being late 3 years to up-to-date in 3 years I worked double time and in the next 2 years made it “ISI” (now “Web of Science”), a much-valued international list. WoW!

I call my list “The 7 Deadly Scenes” – Failure to come up with them may mean failed thesis defense or low passing grade.

“Deadly Scenes” These are make-or-break thesis parts presented in texts & images for everyone to examine intelligently following international rules for publishable papers in journals. Thus:
(“Thesis Presentation” from behance.net)

1.     Field of study. Make the title suggest a picture; thus: “Growing XL Rice Via Commercial Organic Fertilizer Compared With Farm Compost And Chemical N Fertilizer.” Text & images.

2.     Relevance of study. Compare current costs & returns between organic and chemical rice farming. Text & images.

3.     Methodology. Describe experimental setups: where, when & how many days, how wide the plots etc. Text & images.

4.     Results. What happened in those setups in terms of harvests? Text & images.

5.     Discussion. Explain Results not simply reword Results. Text & images.

6.     Conclusions & Implications. What new or revised pieces of knowledge showed up? What is their significance in research? Text & images.

7.     Recommendation/s. What now should be done by researchers and/or farmers? Text & images.

How well you succeed in your thesis defense depends on how much you know about your study in the first place: The Who, What, Where, When, Why and How. As simple as complicated, as that!@517  

26 April

Reboot Your Autobiography! You Need An Author’s Editor To Help You Write, Improve The Whole, And Get It Published...

Memoirs. First things first: I have just read 3 would-be chapters of someone’s autobiography –the author being a distinguished science-related top expert here in the Philippines and abroad. I, as an agriculturist (UP Los Baños 1965) and an Editor In Chief (mechanical self-taught, 1975-1985; digital self-taught, 1985 to now) asked the author to reboot the manuscript, no name-calling, no. This happened only on a Facebook chat, but the author did not welcome the editorial brusqueness – so, no deal! So, who lost?

(“Autobiography” from shutterstock.com, “PC” from istockphoto.com)

The author is an expert in a crop that should actively be cultivated by the Philippine government and not simply allowed to get by, by itself. And, like that manuscript, that crop should be cultivated with much expertise and not simply allowed to grow “naturally.” To coin terms, what I was offering the would-be author was “organic editing” and not simply “chemical editing” – 2 terms I invented right now.

In organic editing, you consider crop and field; you look at branches, leaves & fruits; you dig roots: Do they all connect to each other naturally – is the growth luxuriant?

In chemical editing, you simply spray the chemicals called “English Grammar” and watch from which leaves the bad ones will fall.

Elsewhere, Acquiring Editor” of a Canadian press Russell Smith says “There are three main types of memoir” (26 July 2022, “The Trouble With Memoirs.” Open Book, open-book.ca):

1.     Celebrity. Someone who is famous for something.

2.     Unusual subculture. Glamorous stories of (people) who did something wild.

3.     Trauma. “This is what most beginner writers are trying to write: a story of dealing with adverse circumstances.”

Now I can tell you that the 3 chapters I have read of that would-be published memoir deal with trauma as described in #3 – Double Trauma: Dealing with tragic personal life and dealing with tragic science.

“Now, many of these [trauma memoirs] do become best sellers. The successful ones tend to share one or two attributes. They are entertainingly written, for one. But they also usually go beyond the author’s personal story to offer some kind of lesson or moral or reflection on a societal problem.”

Some parts of those chapters I have read are poorly written. But the author would not listen to me, so, goodbye!

I am very interested in that memoir because the author has some solid experiences here and abroad about a societal problem – if I told you the nature of that, you will be able to guess the would-be author of that memoir.

In other words, there is crossover between the trauma memoir and self-help: they both aim to offer comfort, and I would argue their audiences are similar. So for your trauma memoir to resonate, it has to offer some kind of philosophizing that applies universally.

That’s what’s lacking in that candidate memoir I was talking about. But the author would not listen. S/He could not accept this truth: “While the Author is Always Write – the Editor is Always Right!”@517

25 April

Reboot Small Farmers & Grow Healthy & Wealthy Farming Villages Via The Regenerative Agriculture 5Es!

This time, I chose an article by a Rappler journalist as a takeoff point for looking at Filipino farmers, John Patrick P Habacon’s “Why Filipino Farmers Suffer” (13 March 2023, Rappler, rappler.com, source of top image) –written  in Rappler’s Truth Journalism. CEO of Rappler Maria Ressa won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021, whom Rebecca Root says is “widely considered the face of the free press in the Philippines’” (18 Jan 2023, “‘Truth Wins’: Maria Ressa, Philippine Nobel Prize Winner, Acquitted Of Tax Evasion Charges,” The Guardian, theguardian.com). Truth will set you free?

I don’t know where Rappler’s Mr Habacon is coming from, but he says:

When asked about the greatest problem they currently face, the farmers mentioned… what they were [most] troubled about was the volatility of palay prices in the market…

The declining prices of rice in the market can be attributed to the intensive neoliberalization of our country’s economy. There are hopes that neoliberalization can bring development and an improved quality of life, especially in developing countries such as the Philippines.

Mr Habacon says “the underlying reason” for farmer misery is the “intensive neoliberalization” (whatever it is) of the economy. I ask, “Is that the truth?”

Never mind! My journalism is entirely different from Rappler’s “Truth Journalism” – mine I call “THiNK Journalism” that goes like this: “True? + Helpful? + Inspiring? + Necessary? + Kind?” THiNK! If not all of the above, that’s not my journalism. (No, I’m not perfect, but I try to be, starting THiNKing for Farmers’ Progress 23 years ago.)

As a teacher (BSA major in Ag Edu, UP Los Baños, 1965), I will now present my new, original lesson, which I simply/not-so-simply call

Regenerative Agriculture 5Es.”
The 5Es are: Energy, Entrepreneurship, Environment, Esprit de Corps, and Extension. The 5Es applies to what I now refer to as
Thinking Farming
everyone thinking for/with the others.

Energy Mostly we get our energy from the healthy foods we eat, so farmers must grow healthy crops – and that calls for Organic Agriculture (OA). Down with Chemical Agriculture (CA)!

Entrepreneurship – Farmers should learn how to become winners in the farming business and not simply complain about prices in the markets.

Environment  Any program in agriculture must care about the environment and thereby care for the village where the crops are grown. To stop practicing CA is to stop poisoning village soils and foods.

Esprit de Corps I will now reinvent a saying and say: Man cannot live on man alone – he must have Companions, Comrades, Co-Workers.” Land tenure-ship essentially is anti-economies, magnifying a scale of one! My favorite dictionary defines esprit de corps as “A common spirit of comradeship, enthusiasm, and devotion to a cause among the members of a group” (The Free Dictionary, thefreedictionary.com). With esprit de corps, all villagers are winners!

Extension  The agricultural extension people owe it to the villagers to spread awareness and develop abilities of farmers so that they can enrich themselves and villagers via Regenerative Agriculture. Always remember, folks: The Regenerative Village is Us!@517

24 April

Reboot Healthy Pilipinas! How Can You Get A Better Diet Except Via Healthy Foods?

Is the PH Department of Health (DOH) fully aware when presenting to the public what it calls “7 Healthy Habits (for) a Healthy Heart”? The list: “(1) Move More, Eat Right. (2) Be Clean, Live Sustainably. (3) Get Vaccinated. (4) Don’t Smoke, Lessen Alcohol, Say No To Drugs. (5) Care For Yourself, Care For Others. (6) Practice Safe Sex. (7) Do No Harm, Put Safety First.” I see the DOH knows – but not enough!

But something is wrong with “Eat Right” – it does not explain that the foods we are eating right now, from babies to adults to seniors like me, are unhealthy foods – they are grown with chemical fertilizers and pesticides! Don’t our doctors know that?!

And there is something missing with “Live Sustainably.” According to the Cambridge Dictionary (dictionary.cambridge.org), “sustainable” means “able to continue over a period of time.” Therefore, “sustainable” means there is neither deterioration nor improvement in the status. I prefer “regenerative” – specifically Regenerative Agriculture, where the best features keep on reproducing themselves: naturally healthy soils & crops & animals & farmers – including healthy incomes and healthy villages!

I say that for its public campaign “Healthy Pilipinas” (“Healthy Philippines”), the DOH must be aware that much of our crops are being grown using chemical fertilizers and chemical pesticides – and therefore the foods that our farmers produce have chemical residues in them, which our bodies absorb and cannot get rid of healthfully.

How do we do regenerative agriculture? Among other things, inorganic fertilizers are taboo and only organic fertilizers are applied – those derived from natural substances (once-living matter).

Now therefore, “Eat Right” must be changed to “Eat Organic!”

On its Facebook page, “Healthy Pilipinas” says it is a government organization. It has a website: Healthy Pilipinas (healthypilipinas.ph), where it says:

Slogan: “Healthy Barangay, Healthy Pilipinas!”
Choose a healthy lifestyle and say no to harmful substances.
Let’s work together to promote a smoke[-]free, alcohol[-]free, and drug[-]free community.

“Healthy Pilipinas” does not realize but I do that the foods we eat, from Philippine farms or imports, have been produced via Chemical Agriculture that use, let me repeat: chemical fertilizers and chemical pesticides. Those chemical fertilizers and pesticides are harmful substances; they are drugs and therefore, our agriculture and the foods that it produces are not drug-free!

Now therefore, the Fiesta of Health should begin not with the Department of Health but with the Department of Agriculture (DA). Currently, most of the foods that we eat are grown via Chemical Agriculture: chemical fertilizers and chemical pesticides. So, what kind of food do we get from our farms? Assuredly, laden with chemicals!

On its Facebook page, “Healthy Pilipinas” says:

Muli, lagi natin tandaan, para katawan ay laging win, 7 healthy habits ang sundin!
Para sa isang Healthy Pilipinas!

(“Again, let us always remember, for our body to always win, 7 healthy habits must be in mind” my free translation.)

My parting words to my country’s Department of Health: “Do no harm, put food safety first!” Better: “Always, Fiesta of Health begins with Healthy Foods!”@517

23 April

Reboot Your Climate Time From Earth Hour To Earth Day Everyday, BBM Sir!

Based on his pronouncements at least since last year, President Ferdinand “BBM” Marcos Jr knows much about Climate Change. And indeed, Malacañang Palace switched off the lights on 25 March 2023 from 8:30 to 9:30 PM in celebration of “Earth Hour” as did the rest of presidential offices the world over (I surmise). Good, but not good enough. That was only reducing the energy demands from Malacañang Palace for 60 minutes. Yesterday. 22 April 2023, was celebrated “Earth Day” – good for 24 hours. What did Malacañang do?

(“60 Minutes” from cordcuttersnews.com, “Earth Day” from leadership-sustainability.com)

Let me guess. Last year, BBM spoke at the 77th UN General Assembly (UNGA) 21 Sept 2022 (Rappler, rappler.com). Among other things, BBM said most importantly:

We call on industrialized countries to immediately fulfill their obligations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement to cut their greenhouse gas emissions, provide climate financing and technology transfer for adaptation for the most vulnerable and developing countries…

BBM’s UNGA call puts non-industrialized countries like the Philippines as climate waiters, not workers.

BBM is the Interim Secretary of Agriculture of his country – he should show the world that he means what he says, practices what he preaches in agriculture. (Read below.)

Early 2023, Helen Flores says, as Chair of the PH Climate Change Commission (CCC), “Marcos Jr Ups Budget For Climate Change Programs By 48%” (23 Jan 2023, PhilStar, philstar.com). Ms Helen does not state how many billions of pesos is 48% increase, but she says CCC Vice Chair & Executive Director Robert Borje says:

We have to ensure that various government agencies and various government institutions not just plan, but actually implement these climate change programs. (my emphasis)

Me, as an organic advocate for the last 56 years, vocally and virtually, in brief encounters and in blogs, I have been longing to see Organic Agriculture (OA) as a national PH program and not simply undertaken by knowledgeable organic groups.

Actually, there is a law. Department of Agriculture (DA) Regional Field Office 3 (rfo3.da.gov.ph) says:

Organic Agriculture (OA) as defined in Philippine Organic Agriculture Act of 2010 or RA 10068 includes all agricultural systems that promote the ecologically sound, socially acceptable, economically viable and technically feasible production of food and fibers. It dramatically reduces external inputs by refraining from the use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides and pharmaceuticals.

Above, Mr Borje says that of the CCC budget for 2022, 83% was for Adaptation and 17% for Mitigation. Me, I’m asking: “How much budget is for Organic Agriculture?” OA is not simply for adaptation or mitigation, whatever they mean – OA is for zeroing (making zero) the greenhouse gases generated by chemical agriculture that Filipino farmers insist on practicing despite warnings that CA generates Greenhouse Gases that generate Climate Change that makes impossible the solution of Farmer Poverty and resolution of Climate Change. CA Farmers are making their/our problems worse!

If farmers don’t know what they should be doing, what is the Secretary of Agriculture doing? Asking as a friend!@517

22 April

To Combat Climate Change, The United Nations Says Love Is What We Need. I Say, In The Philippines What We Need Is A Secretary Of Agriculture Who Understands Climate Change!

Today, Saturday, 22 April 2023, is “Earth Day.” If we Earthmen do not love the Earth, we do not really love ourselves – the Earth is Us! It should be renamed “Earthmen’s Day”!  

The United Nations says (United Nations, un.org; both images above are from this website):

“Climate Change” refers to long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns… Since the 1800s, human activities have been the main driver of climate change, primarily due to the burning of fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas.

Burning fossil fuels generates greenhouse gas emissions that act like a blanket wrapped around the Earth, trapping the sun’s heat and raising temperatures.

The main greenhouse gases that are causing climate change include carbon dioxide and methane. These come from using gasoline for driving a car or coal for heating a building, for example… Agriculture, oil and gas operations are major sources of methane emissions.

Why do you think that that UN’s list of enemies of Climate Change begins with “Agriculture”? Asking like a friend!

Jummy Pinyapat says (Verifik8, verifik8.com): “Chemical Fertilizer In Agriculture: A Big Source Of Greenhouse Gas Emission.” An agriculturist, what else can I say?

Now then, farmers are guilty of being “Earth Fiends” instead of being “Earth Friends!”

Yet, I am an Eternal Optimist. I have been alarmed with the Climate Crisis since US ex-Vice President Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) co-won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 for their works on the global headache on climate. And that was when I came to understand that Climate Change (CC) is man-caused. And one of the major causes I have been interested in is Chemical Agriculture (CA) – I learned that CA contributes much to CC and, therefore, our farmers who apply so much chemical fertilizers and chemical pesticides are so much guilty of empowering their own enemy called “Climate Change”!

Our farmers do not know that? “Ignorance of the law excuses no one,” the books say. “Not that all men know the law, but ‘tis an excuse every man will plead, and no man can tell how to refute him.”

Again, from the United Nations:

Many people think climate change mainly means warmer temperatures. But temperature rise is only the beginning of the story. Because the Earth is a system, where everything is connected, changes in one area can influence changes in all others.

When William Dar was Director General of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), the institute had this slogan: “Science with a human face.” With that Vision, Mr Dar led ICRISAT from the bottom to the top of the CGIAR ladder of international science research agencies that include IRRI. I say we need today a Secretary of Agriculture who believes in the farmer. Let us now borrow from ICRISAT and have this slogan for PH Agriculture: “Agriculture with a human face.” And that will help us defeat Climate Change!@517

21 April

Reboot “Go Negosyo”! Add New Program, “Go Good News Organic” & Help PH Agriculture Solve Farmer Poverty And Resolve Climate Change!

I am looking at my photographs in that day we officers and leaders of the Nagkaisa Multi-Purpose Cooperative of my agricultural hometown Asingan, Pangasinan, attended a one-day “Business Financing Forum,” with DBP’s awesome presence (bottom image), 22 March 2017 at the Museum in Dagupan City when Belen T Fernandez was Mayor. It made us aware of available financing schemes by different public & private banks and investment groups.

Minds alert and ready to learn, with the leadership of Rogelio C Daranciang (Chair) and Jose Sales (Vice Chair), we from Nagkaisa were awakened as to the funding possibilities for our members, who were mostly farmers, but we failed to pursue the prospects. The business-loan promise did not register with our non-business minds! That was 6 years ago.

Today, I have been away for years from Nagkaisa and Asingan, but not from agriculture. Today also, I note the promise of Go Negosyo with its slogan “Enabling competitive Filipino entrepreneurs” (Go Negosyo, gonegosyo.ph, source of top image). “Go Negosyo seeks to be the institution that brings together all key stakeholders and enablers to generate competitive Filipino entrepreneurs and help MSMEs scale up.”

I am an agriculturist, not in business (UP Los Baños, BSA major in Ag Edu, 1965), but I have in mind the business of farming because of Farmer Poverty and Climate Change.

I am now reading ANN’s news item, “DA, Go Negosyo, LBP Tie Up For Inclusive Growth Of Phl Agri” (Author Not Named, 20 Sept 2021, da.gov.ph) that says:

To sustain and scale-up local agribusinesses and open more economies… Agriculture Secretary William Dar inked a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with Go Negosyo and the LandBank of the Philippines (LBP) for the promotion of inclusive growth through financial inclusivity and accessibility of [agrientrepreneurs], farmers, and fishers, mentored under the Kapatid Agri Mentor Me Program (KAMMP).

KAMMP … aims to nurture and sustain agribusiness in the country through coaching and mentoring…

Through a virtual ceremonial signing, the three institutions committed to continue to support and provide innovations for micro, small, and medium enterprises…

Kampi ako sa KAMMP. With an intelligently selected and full-time Secretary of Agriculture, I am strongly urging KAMMP to help produce entrepreneurs from among our farmers.

I would like to add to the challenge Go Negosyo imposed on itself with a modified slogan: “Enabling competitive Filipino farmers as entrepreneurs with their organic farming.” I’ll call this new call “Go Negosyo, Go Organic!”

Since 2007 when Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change won the Nobel Peace Prize, I have been looking at organic farming to solve Farmer Poverty and resolve Climate Change.

That is because chemical agriculture (CA), which is the practice of farmers today, is so expensive, and organic agriculture (OA) is so inexpensive: Lower total costs, higher net returns. CA generates greenhouse gases that generate Climate Change! – while OA generates healthy soils, healthy crops, healthy harvests, healthy foods, healthy bodies, healthy incomes, healthy villages! OA: We couldn’t ask for anything more!@517

20 April

Reboot Part-Time Secretary Of Agriculture With A Full-Time Secretary From A Poor Family In Santa Maria, Ilocos Sur, With An Unmatched International Leadership Record!

No Sir, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, as currently Interim Secretary of Agriculture – you cannot have your cake and eat it too! Today, Wednesday, 10 April 2023, I am reading with interest a 2-mo-old+ Inquirer column by Meliton B Juanico, “What Now, Department Of Agriculture?” (06 Feb 2023, Inquirer, opinion.inquirer.net) that is extremely relevant and says immediately and pointedly:

One of the country’s most pressing needs now is the appointment of a full-time [Secretary [of Agriculture,] [with President Marcos Jr still] the head [of the Department of Agriculture] but does not initiate crucial solutions to our woefully dysfunctional agricultural economic system.
(“Vacant seat” from aamc.org)

The President cannot take his own sweet time in mulling over who to appoint as agriculture secretary, while [for instance] onion farmers are killing themselves due to government apathy and the poor suffer from hunger amid abnormally high food prices. The neoclassical economists of his administration are singing praises over the country’s high GDP growth rate of 7.6 percent and its consequent PhP22.02-trillion worth of the economy; however, they should ask themselves if this growth rate has tangibly trickled down to the masses and solved the country’s age-old problems of poverty, inequality, and unemployment.

I echo Mr Juanico:

(1)          “The most pressing [need] now is the appointment of a full-time Secretary of Agriculture.

(2)          The Interim Secretary of Agriculture “does not initiate crucial solutions to our woefully dysfunctional agricultural economic system.”

(3)          “The country’s high GDP growth rate… has [not] trickled down to the masses and solved the country’s age-old problems of poverty, inequality, and unemployment.”

I look at Farmer Poverty and Climate Change as 2 of the most pressing problems of the Filipinos. Chemical Agriculture (CA), the practice of Filipino farmers today, is the unacknowledged generator of agricultural misery, along with Climate Change! CA is expensive, which keeps our farmers poor – high costs, low returns. Simultaneously, chemical fertilizers generate greenhouse gases (GHGs); the GHGs in turn generate Climate Change. Unknowingly, following William Shakespeare, this is true for our farmers:

“The evils that men do live after them;
The good are oft interred with their bones.”

And I look at Regenerative Agriculture (RA) as the common solution to these twin problems. A major practice of RA is organic agriculture (OA). Let us now take the case of the use of organic fertilizers in lieu of inorganic or chemical fertilizers. OA will reduce by leaps and bounds the cost of fertilizers and pesticides, and generate extraordinary incomes for farmers: low costs result in high returns. If you look at Laguna Province, you will note at least 3 organic farms: Laguna Organic, Herbana Farms, and Costales Nature Farm. Meanwhile, in unhappy contrast, UP Los Baños, which is nearby, is espousing unknowingly the cause of Farmer Poverty along with Climate Change: Chemical Agriculture!

And I know only one Secretary of Agriculture who believes in Regenerative Agriculture – William Dar. And he has private-sector support, AgriNegosyo. Let us regenerate PH Agriculture!@517  
(“AgriNegosyo” from facebook.com)

19 April

Reboot Healthy Pilipinas! How Can You Get A Better Diet Except Via Healthy Foods!?

Is the PH Department of Health (DOH) fully aware when presenting to the public what it calls “7 Healthy Habits (for) a Healthy Heart”? The list: “(1) Move More, Eat Right. (2) Be Clean, Live Sustainably. (3) Get Vaccinated. (4) Don’t Smoke, Lessen Alcohol, Say No To Drugs. (5) Care For Yourself, Care For Others. (6) Practice Safe Sex. (7) Do No Harm, Put Safety First.” I see the DOH knows – but not enough!

There is something amiss with “Eat Right” – it does not explain that the foods we are eating right now, from babies to adults to seniors like me, are unhealthy foods – they are grown with chemical fertilizers and pesticides! Don’t our doctors know that?

And there is something missing with “Live Sustainably.” According to the Cambridge Dictionary (dictionary.cambridge.org), “sustainable” means “able to continue over a period of time.” Therefore, “sustainable” means there is neither deterioration nor improvement in the status. I prefer “regenerative” – as in “regenerative agriculture,” where the best features keep on reproducing themselves: naturally healthy soils & crops & animals & farmers – including healthy incomes and healthy villages!

I say that for its public campaign “Healthy Pilipinas” (“Healthy Philippines”), the DOH must be aware that much of our crops are being grown using chemical fertilizers and chemical pesticides – and therefore the foods that our farmers produce have chemical residues in them, which our bodies absorb and cannot get rid of healthfully.

In regenerative agriculture, among other things, inorganic fertilizers are taboo and only organic fertilizers are applied – and these are derived from natural substances (once-living matter).

Now therefore, “Eat Right” must be changed to “Eat Organic!”

On its Facebook page, “Healthy Pilipinas” says it is a government organization. It has a website: Healthy Pilipinas (healthypilipinas.ph), where it says:

Slogan: “Healthy Barangay, Healthy Pilipinas!”
Choose a healthy lifestyle and say no to harmful substances.
Let’s work together to promote a smoke[-]free, alcohol[-]free, and drug[-]free community.

“Healthy Pilipinas” does not realize but I do that the foods we eat, whether from Philippine farms or imports, have been produced via Chemical Agriculture (CA) that use, let me repeat: chemical fertilizers and chemical pesticides. Those fertilizers and pesticides are harmful substances; they are drugs and therefore, our agriculture and the foods that it produces are not drug-free!

Now therefore, the Fiesta of Health begins not with the Department of Health but with the Department of Agriculture (DA). Currently, most of the foods that we eat are grown via Chemical Agriculture (CA): chemical fertilizers and chemical pesticides. So, what kind of food do we get from our farms? Assuredly, laden with chemicals!

On its Facebook page, “Healthy Pilipinas” says:

Muli, lagi natin tandaan, para katawan ay laging win, 7 healthy habits ang sundin!
Para sa isang Healthy Pilipinas!

(“Again, let us always remember, for our body to always win, 7 healthy habits must be practiced” my free translation.)

My parting words to my country’s Department of Health: “Do no harm, put food safety first!” Better: “Always, Fiesta of Health begins with Healthy Foods!”@517