Healthy Farms for Healthy Foods

From The New Yorker comes this piece by American Andy Borowitz that begins thus: “Minneapolis ( The Borowitz Report ) – Scientists have discovered a powerful new strain of fact-resistant humans who are threatening the ability of Earth to sustain life, a sobering new study reports.” I say it’s a joke – and then again, it is not a joke! On Facebook, our Filipino friend, newly retired government official Ramon Yedra shares the above image that says: “Scientists: Earth Endangered By New Strain Of Fact-Resistant Humans. ” Ah. But I view it differently. “Fact-resistant humans”? This is in fact a challenge to all humans , whether fact-resistant or not! First of all, “fact-resistant humans” is a challenge to the world of journalism, my self-chosen metaverse, digital and not, for which I am self-taught – after all, I am a BS Agriculture Ag Edu major, UP Los Baños. How now should the likes of Nobel Peace Prize winner Filipina Maria Ressa with her Fact Journalism , otherwise called Truth ...

“Embrace a giant spirit” – I see it as an archipelagic lesson from Belfast, northern Ireland. Filipinos have to expand their imagination viewing their country with thousands of islands and a hundred-plus tribes & languages. The problem is that we modern Israelites see only the giant enemy and not the small stones that young David could throw to defeat the enemy. (“Embrace” from visitbelfast.com , “3D PH map” from maphill.com ) We are still parochial when it comes to looking at the problems of our country, still provincial. Thus, we gladly look at “Local Solutions Toward Food Security”! That is the title of Rudy P Parel Jr’s article in the 12 Sept 2022 issue of Inquirer ( business.inquirer.net/ ). “Local Solutions” – He is looking only at the food insecurity of Filipinos; he reports: “Agriculture, food and nutrition security will be among the defining issues of the Philippines this decade and therefore systemic changes are needed to enable effective food systems transformation...

I see the report (above) as a single common lesson for the Department of Science & Technology (DoST), Department of Agriculture (DA), and the University of the Philippines System (UP System); I say: “Extension is what & how you make it.” I say: “ Extension is making known new or revised scientific knowledge elsewhere it was not discovered or deciphered.” Here is rare news labeled “extension,” by Paul Jersey G Leon from the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCAARRD): “Bringing Hope To Conflict-Vulnerable Communities In Mindanao Through Agricultural Extension” (14 Jan 2022,   DOST-PCAARRD S&T Media Services , PCAARRD.dost.gov.ph ). It is based on the paper presented by Emma Ruth V Bayogan of UP Mindanao on 29 Nov 2021. Old, but quite relevant to scientific Research, Development & Extension , where Extension is an area of science I note has been much neglected : An alternative agricultural extension mo...

I am thinking of both President Ferdinand “BBM” Marcos Jr and the millions of Philippine farmers and am successfully combining the celebration of the 65 th year of birth of BBM and his being a hero to the millions of Filipino farmers. I assure you, BBM Sir – easy does it! As Secretary of Agriculture, in my view, BBM Sir, you can be at least a 65% hero by spending 65% of the budget for fertilizer subsidy of the Department of Agriculture (DA) on organic fertilizers and only 35% on chemical fertilizer imports. The DA budget for fertilizer subsidy is P 27 Billion – 65/35 would equal P 17.5 Billion for organic fertilizers and P 9.5 Billion for chemical fertilizers. Since the organic fertilizers would be made locally, the economic returns will be locally received. (If you spent 100% of that fertilizer subsidy budget on local organic fertilizers instead of importing chemical fertilizers, you would be our 100% hero!) Whatever, you would be a double hero: 1 Samson vs 2 Goliaths. Thus: Moder...

For all the bad things people have said of Leocadio “Leo” Sebastian , resigned Undersecretary for Operations of the Philippine Department of Agriculture (DA), I am not mad, just sad; those people are the ones guilty – of judging without evidence at hand. Very much interested in Leo’s leadership for further agricultural development of my country, and an alumnus of UP Los Baños myself, I would like to be counted as a supporter of Leo as an honorable man. Here’s my short list on Leo: Leocadio Sotor Sebastian BS Agriculture and MS Genetics, UP Los Baños PhD Plant Breeding & Genetics, Cornell University Executive Director, PhilRice Regional Director for Asia Pacific, Bioversity International Awards: Ten Outstanding Young Men (TOYM) PCAARRD Award for Research Management (Pantas) JICA Presidential Award, and “Medal for Contribution to the Cause of Agriculture and Rural Development” (Vietnam) awarded by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Vietnam on 26 Nov 2019, when ...

I have always lived in the Philippines – am I too far away from New York City to care about what happened to the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers on 11 Sept 2001? Asking for a friend! Today, Sunday, 11 Sept 2022, I opened my Lenovo ThinkPad laptop and typed “Sept 11” exactly like that, pressed Enter , Google Chrome announced onscreen: “About 23,300,000 results.” 23 million mentions – so how to digest all that?! First, I had to browse – fast. Along the way, I decided to look for what lesson(s) did we learn from the Sept 11 terrible Islamic terrorist attacks on the United States of America, the world’s symbol of democracy. Here are my picks: Wikipedia says: The September 11 attacks… were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by the Islamic extremist network al-Qaeda against the United States. Number of deaths: 2,996. Date: 11 Sept 2001, at 8:15 PM GMT+8. Attack types: Aircraft hijacking mid-flight & ramming against the World Trade Center [New York City] and Pen...

As an agriculturist and a communicator for village development, I love the “Young Farmers Challenge” (YFC) of the PH Department of Agriculture (DA), YFC being born in 2021. The deeper I look at the YFC, I see that the challenge is actually double-edged: “Learn to love farming” and “Learn to make it more rewarding.” Bella Cariaso says, “Young Farmers Program Kicks Off” (01 Sept 2022, Manila Times , manilatimes.net ). Last year, 2021, Rosette Adel says the DA “launched a program that seeks to provide financial grant assistance to youth interested in the agri-fishery sector” (11 June 2021,   “DA Seeks Competitive Youth For ‘Young Farmers Challenge’ Agribusiness Grant,” PhilStar Global , Philstar.com ) – but Ms Rosette herself does not provide the exact date of launching of the YFC; we leave it at that. More importantly, I note that Ms Bella says the YFC is attracting the youth to farming in any of the following areas: production, processing, packaging, fabrication of farm machinery...