Given Such Harvest, Given Much Income – Can Organic Farming Help Solve Farmer Poverty?

Don’t just proclaim it – prove it!

According to corporate Business Diary Philippines[1], organic farming is #1 among the "Top 100 Most Profitable Business Ideas" in the Philippines. Wow! (images: organic from LOAMC PH[2], produce from Business Diary Philippines[3])

Organic people, you have to show me, not just tell me!

Yes, I think different – I’m an original; being Ilocano, I am an original aboriginal. So, in business, I agriculturist, teacher and science writer would insist that all these are important for organic farming:

(1) Lower & sustainable costs of production: loans, seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, irrigation, weeding, mechanization of production.

(2) Viable markets & sustainable demands for any farm produce.

(3) Higher & sustainable yields: mechanical harvesting, threshing, drying, milling.

(4) Higher & sustainable incomes: farmer-friendly marketing & distribution.

(5) Sustainable farming: environmentally sound and socially acceptable.

This time, I will tackle only #5. In the news “Organic Agri Town Says Food Sufficiency Addresses Conflict[4]” (05 December 2019. PNA), Gail Momblan says:

The League of Organic Agriculture Municipalities, Cities, and Provinces of the Philippines… said organic agriculture can provide food sufficiency in the country which can eventually address poverty and the insurgency problem.

That is a triple-loaded statement: Heavy!

Unfortunately, Ms Gail’s news of 530 words more or less does not explain how organic farming can “provide food sufficiency,” can “address poverty” and can solve “the insurgency problem.” That is all speculation of the Organic League.

Even Leonie Agri Corp, LAC, “the country’s first and biggest certified organic farm” according to the long, almost 3,000-word report of 3 journalists – Jasper Emmanuel Y Arcalas & VG Cabuag & Dominique Nathanielle M Muli, “Organic Farming In The PHL: Leafing Behind A Chemical Future[5].” They report:

Data from the (National Organic Agriculture Program), an agency attached to the Department of Agriculture (DA), reveals that from 2011 to 2017, total organic agriculture area has hit 349,041.28 hectares, about 4.86 percent of the total agricultural area of 7,165,815.61 hectares.

LAC is one of only 39 farms that have received the Organic Good Agricultural Practices, GAP, Certification. LAC President Antonio L Causing said:

It is wrong to say that organic farming entails higher costs compared to the conventional. Organic farming is cheaper. It is not true that it has a high cost because the materials needed in organic farming are already present in the farm itself. It just takes time before a farmer gets used to it and makes a good harvest.

Question:
If organic farming has lower cost and organically grown food is healthier, why are there only 63 certified organic farms and establishments, according to the August 2019 BusinessMirror report?

Answer:
The authors of that report say that the Bureau of Agriculture and Fisheries Standards says “the biggest challenge faced by independent organic growers is the expensive certification.” Organic certification costs range from P100,000 to P160,000.

So: Organic farming cannot solve the poverty of farmers because it is too expensive for them to become organic farmers in the first place!@517

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[1]https://businessdiary.com.ph/13978/top-100-most-profitable-agribusiness-ideas/

[2]http://loamc-ph.org/2019/07/22/organic-farming-types-principles-methods-and-importance/

[3]https://businessdiary.com.ph/13978/top-100-most-profitable-agribusiness-ideas/

[4] https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1087906

[5] https://businessmirror.com.ph/2019/08/22/organic-farming-in-the-phl-leafing-behind-a-chemical-future/

Vitamin C As The Center Of Gravity

With the coronavirus chaos, what about our health that the media all over the world have been ignoring? Safeguarding your health by building up your immune system. (Ultimately, Agriculture is your direct source of health, or absence of it.)

Says Harvard Health Publishing on “How To Boost Your Immune System[1]:”

On the whole, your immune system does a remarkable job of defending you against disease-causing microorganisms. But sometimes it fails: A germ invades successfully and makes you sick. Is it possible to intervene in this process and boost your immune system? What if you improve your diet? Take certain vitamins or herbal preparations?

All that sounds good to me!

Now, from the United States comes this up-to-date healthy advice by Brittany Anas – “Stock Up On These 9 Healthy Foods To Boost Your Immune System During Coronavirus, Says Doctor And Dietitian[2]” (03 April 2020, CNBC.com). The 9 are: red bell pepper, broccoli, chickpea, strawberry, garlic, mushroom, spinach, yogurt, and sunflower seeds. Miss Brittany says, “Previous studies have found that eating certain foods can improve your health and strengthen your body’s ability to fight other invasive viruses.” (above images: “healthy aging” from Athulya[3], fruits & vegetables from Creative Market[4])

Right now, I’m more interested in vitamin C as a health booster. SeVanna Shoemaker asks rhetorically, “Can Vitamin C Protect You From Covid-19[5]?” (02 April 2020, Healthline.com). Ms SeVanna says, “Vitamin C affects your immune health (system) in several ways.” Among these are: (1) Keeps skin healthy, thereby “helping the skin serve as a functional barrier to keep harmful compounds from entering your body.” (2) Boosts activity of phagocytes, “immune cells that can ‘swallow’ harmful bacteria and other particles.” (3) Promotes growth of lymphocytes, thereby increasing your antibodies, “proteins that can attack foreign or harmful substances in your blood.” (4) “High dose or IV vitamin C can reduce lung inflammation in severe respiratory illnesses.” Ms SeVanna also says the Shanghai Medical Association has “endorsed the use of high-dose vitamin C as a treatment for hospitalized people with Covid-19.”

In its Fact Sheet for Professionals[6], Eco Supplements says in “Fruits And Vegetables Vitamin C,” major contributors are citrus fruits, tomato, and potato. Other good sources are red & green peppers, kiwifruit, broccoli, strawberry, Brussels sprouts, green peas, spinach, and cantaloupe.

Finally, I am 79, so I ask what is “the role played by vitamin C in healthy aging?” Athulya says (14 January 2020, athulyaliving.com)[7]:

A healthy diet for seniors must be packed with fresh fruits and vegetables to offer them the vitamins they need. It is important to include vitamin C foods… as vitamin C is the prime ingredient that helps seniors to stay away from illnesses. Even at assisted living facilities, Vitamin C is made a part of the senior living dining experience to ensure vitality and vigor for seniors.

Note: “Vitamin C is is the prime ingredient that helps seniors to stay away from illnesses.” Nonetheless, I think it’s true for everyone. ”Healthy Aging” should read “Healthy Living.”@517

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[1] https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/how-to-boost-your-immune-system

[2] https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/03/stock-up-on-9-healthy-foods-to-boost-immune-system-during-coronavirus-doctor-dietitian.html

[3] https://www.athulyaliving.com/blogs/role-played-by-vitamin-c-in-healthy-aging.php

[4] https://creativemarket.com/aiselin/2772608-Vitamin-C-fruits-and-vegetables

[5] https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/vitamin-c-coronavirus

[6] https://eco-supplements.com/scientific/vitamin-c-fact-sheet-for-health-professionals/

[7] https://www.athulyaliving.com/blogs/role-played-by-vitamin-c-in-healthy-aging.php

Marlen V Ronquillo In The Making Of A Mad Hatter

When you argue, be sure that you know the logical fallacies!

Have you seen Paul Graham’s Hierarchy of Disagreement[1]? (Wikipedia, see above image; “All the best…” from PicsArt[2]). I just saw some. That is exactly why I wrote this essay as an editorial response to Marlen V Ronquillo’s Manila Times’ column, “DA’s Incompetence And Irrelevance Exposed By Covid-19[3].” Oops!

Paradigm shift. Reading the title alone instantaneously brought out the liberal creative writer and strict Editor In Chief in me!

Before I proceed with my Author’s Editor’s self-assignment on Mr Ronquillo’s tirade (tirada) of 791 words, let me establish my credentials in argumentation. I studied “Western Philosophy” at UP Los Baños under a Mr Bituin in the 1960s and got a perfect grade of 1.0(one.point.zero). In Grade School yet, people called me pilosopo, a silly amateur philosopher. 

Now then, Mr Ronquillo, your very title, “DA’s Incompetence And Irrelevance Exposed By Covid-19” is at the bottom of Graham’s Hierarchy of Disagreement:

“Name-calling.
“Sounds something like, ‘You are an idiot.’”

Next, your very first paragraph, Mr Ronquillo, is another failure in argument:

On shortage of rice supply, the Duterte government’s entirely predictable reaction was to import 300,000 metric tons (MT) of rice. The announcement to import another jumbo rice shipment was without consideration of one thing. Whatever happened to the 3 million MT of rice imported in less than 10 months in 2019? Where did the massive rice stockpile go? It is only April 2020. Por Diyos, por Santo; that basic question should have been asked.

That is called:

“Ad Hominem.
Attacks the characteristics or authority of the (person) without addressing the substance of the argument.”

Your paragraph attacks the very person of President Rodrigo Roa Duterte. If I may summarize those 74 words above into a single word, you are saying that Du30 and his entire cabinet are:

Tuliro – dumbfounded, confused, overwhelmed, stupefied, bewildered.

Here are your 2^nd and 3^rd paragraphs, Mr Ronquillo:

After all, those 3 million MT depressed palay (unmilled rice) prices and practically sentenced 3 million small rice farmers to death. ¶ Import. Import. Import. And screw the suffering small rice farmers some more.

They are no less an abomination in argument: Hyperbole, exaggeration. Differently, Mr Graham calls it:

Contradiction.
States the opposing case with little or no supporting evidence.

I agree!

And then, Mr Ronquillo, you say in your very last paragraph:

Why can’t we just petition Mr Duterte to name a young mayor like Pasig City Mayor Vico Sotto as DA secretary, instead of tormenting the young mayor, who has more compassion, managerial skills and common sense than the entire Duterte Cabinet?

That’s 2 insults. You are petitioning Mr Du30 to replace William Dar as Secretary of Agriculture and in the same breath insult Mr Du30 saying Vico “has more… common sense than the entire Duterte Cabinet!”

“All the best people are crazy,” Lewis Carroll says. You are tops, Mr Ronquillo. This Editor In Chief is advising you:

You are insane when you write when you are mad!@517

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[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Name_calling

[2] https://picsart.com/i/image-321150691313201

[3] https://www.manilatimes.net/2020/04/05/opinion/columnists/topanalysis/das-incompetence-and-irrelevance-exposed-by-covid-19/709930/?fbclid=IwAR14FY0SOkby3RVAKfnLualmk7QuPkIb-o49w4uR7XwDVseSV-g12yrpA3k

Rich Gardens For The Rich At Tables & Rich In View

Ah, the science and sense of it all!

Yes, I fell in love at first sight – not with the ladies but what they are both working on: Gardens of Delight. I have never seen gardens like those in the Philippines on sight or online. I can count 6 crops on 6 garden plots. Greens & yellows & violets. Some biodiversity.

Santiago Obien shared the above image on Facebook, and the return and my comments were these:

Frank A Hilario: dayta ti kunak, multiple/intercropping, saan laeng nga simple garden! (That’s what I’d like to say, multiple/intercropping, not simply a simple garden!)

Santiago R Obien, SRO: agalistoca! (You’re behind, it’s time to plant! Literally:Hurry up!)

Frank A Hilario: awan met dagami apo, uray no 1 square foot koma. (Sir, we don’t have any piece of land, not even 1 square foot.)

Actually, SRO and I am both familiar with farms and gardens. We are both graduates of the University of the Philippines’ College of Agriculture, now UP Los Baños, 1958 and 1965. He, BSA major in Weed Science and I, BSA major in Ag Education. In our classes, multiple cropping may have been mentioned in a lecture in Agronomy (field crops), but I’m sure it was discussed in a lecture & lab work in Horticulture (garden crops). But not gardening like the girls are happily doing. Like the greens rich & richer!

The garden plot hidden partially by the body of the lady in front has the most number of crops: 5 that I can count. 5 different consumers, or 5 different leaves, stems & fruits to blend in so many dishes. Rich dishes, rich bodies.

I must say the ladies know, because their mentor does, if they have, what they ought to be doing in the matter of good gardening. There is a very good mix of crops, on one hand, to satisfy the demands of several types of human consumers, and on the other hand, to satisfy the food needs of insects & small animal predators that result in a balance of nature – the would-be pests become their breakfast, lunch or dinner!

This is a visual lesson in the growing of crops. The ladies show us that there is so much Agriculture and/or Horticulture that you can put in a single garden.

In the few Flower & Garden Shows at UP Los Baños that I have attended in the past, I do not remember a garden setup showing multiple cropping or intercropping in a demo plot or in a photograph. Multiple cropping gives you a balanced population of predators and pests – you don’t have attacks of harmful insects or disease organisms. The harmful organisms become food for the beneficial organisms. Additionally, flowers, which you can see in the above image, attract bees and therefore insure that your vegetable stands or fruit trees get pollinated.

SRO or the sharer of the scene does not say where this photograph was taken, and when. It must be the dry season, given so many pails of water.

Welcome Summer!@517

We Are Defeating Ourselves, Not The Coronavirus!

Because a lockdown has been declared, and that has locked out thinking outside the box!

That is true all over the world –
The whole world is using only half-a-brain: Logical!
Not the other half: Creative.

(Images: coronavirus from IFRC[1], defeat from Fandom[2])

The stories have concentrated on the Dreaded Number Stories:

(1)   Number of deaths by country.

(2)   Number of frontliners dying.

(3)   Number of persons under investigation.

(4)   Number of persons under monitoring.

(5)   Number of sets of personal protective equipment, PPE, lacking.

And so on and so forth.

No, this is not a coronavirus pandemic. This is a pandemic of limited thinking by men (embracing women) not using their unlimited minds!

If the PPEs work, why should there be any single death among the health frontliners who are dressed to the kill? They are dressed to be killed – because they are overlooking something. Like precautions and maintenances not included in the list of PPEs. Like drinking hot water. How can they ignore drinking hot water when it is so cheap it doesn’t need to be manufactured in Russia or in Afghanistan? (Read now my “04.WritingLessons – Coronavirus & Agriculture In Hot Water. I’ll Drink To That! Coffee[3].”03 April 2020, PAJacks.)

Rattled by the continuous barrage of media on those Dreaded Number Stories, we have only shuddered and locked out ourselves from the world of living and now are only thinking if we have enough food to eat until the lockdown is no more.

On Facebook, people are exchanging jokes, sharing the blame on people – accompanied with words that damn, telling sadly of a loved one as the latest victim of the virus, the shenanigans of politicians from top to bottom, etcetera.

We are not trying to solve the problem; we are only trying to imprison people in their residences “to prevent the spread of the disease.” That is insane! Even granting that I am the one insane, preventing the spread is not the same as preventing the occurrence – that is to say, to stop the disease right on Ground Zero, to never start.

How do you stop the virus from starting to wreak havoc on the human body? Make the human body more or less indestructible to the virus:

Built the autoimmune system to the max!

That is not what the medical experts are prescribing. Because then we would not need their services, would we?

“The best defense is a good offense.” I memorized that long ago; I googled but couldn’t find who said that. And what would comprise as good offense of the body as its best defense against the coronavirus? An A-One, healthy, tiptop shape body – one whose autoimmune system is working 100%! Or at least 90%.

Nobody is talking about defeating the coronavirus right from the start, only about defeating the virus once inside the body. That is foolhardy, to say the least. Fools rush in, where wise men never go!

Meanwhile, the clock is ticking, and I wouldn’t want to be there when the coronavirus time bomb goes off!@517

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[1] https://media.ifrc.org/ifrc/press-release/red-cross-scales-preparedness-global-response-novel-coronavirus-declared-international-health-emergency/

[2] https://babaiswiki.fandom.com/wiki/DEFEAT

[3] https://pajacks.blogspot.com/2020/04/04writinglessons-coronavirus.html

Mother Or Writer, There’s A Genius In You!

Writer, take advantage of the child in you!

Mother, take advantage of the child with you!

Kulin Fernandez, once-upon-a-time our next-door neighbor, has a talkative child and she has to learn as a parent who is a part-time genius (image from iHeart[1]). This one’s for her.

I’m reading ANN’s “13 Ways To Nurture A Child’s Innate Genius[2]” (Author Not Named, Power Of Positivity) – second list of 13 below.

Now, in my own innate genius, I see that the 13 in her list is a good quick guide for creative writers. Thus:

For Genius Writers:

1.  Read! Even if you were a pastor or priest dedicated to the Bible, you have to read other books and other reading materials. If you don’t read? Your preaching is the poorer!

2.  You make mistakes – so what?! Sometimes I rewrite my essay of 517 words 10 or more times, and sometimes after uploading in my blog, I still find 1 or 2 mistakes. It happens to the best! 

3.  It’s okay to play. A creative writer should play whatever. If you cannot entertain yourself, you cannot entertain others with your thoughts.

4.  Take advantage of learnable moments. If there’s a chance to learn more, go for it! Who knows, as comedian Bill Cosby found out: “If you’re not careful, you might learn something.”

5.  Ask questions! Ask anything! Sometimes while you’re still trying to form a question, an answer comes up – or another idea comes in. That’s creativity.

6.  Be curious! Children are naturally curious – don’t lose the child in you!

7.  Don’t call people names. Avoid this unchristian attitude by all means!

8.  Think! Don’t tell yourself how to think – just think whatever. Just loosen your mind; it’s good for you.

9.  Praise yourself! Once in a while, congratulate yourself. Find a good reason to affirm yourself – you need it.

10.Diversify your experience. Try something new. You might like it. If you don’t? Try something else next time!

11.Read about great people. You have auto/biographies. They teach you about people and ideas you may not know about. And it’s not heavy reading.

12.Allow people to lead you (sometimes). Try to follow others’ thinking too.

13.Encourage others to develop their own genius! You don’t have a monopoly of genius!

For Genius Parents:

The above 13 is for creative adults.

Now, I think that after all, as a parent, you should allow children to act like adults sometimes! A parent must help the child develop genius and grow happily with it:

1.  Encourage reading.

2.  Don’t get hung up on mess or mistakes.

3.  Don’t be so strict with playtimes.

4.  Take advantage of teachable moments.

5.  Ask them questions.

6.  Encourage curiosity.

7.  Don’t label your child.

8.  Encourage reflection.

9.  Praise your child.

10. Diversify their experience.

11. Tell them stories about great people.

12. Allow your child to lead (sometimes).

13. Give them the chance to develop their inner genius.

This is from one genius parent to another, one genius writer to another!@517

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[1] https://www.iheart.com/podcast/105-part-time-genius-28198159/episode/9-genius-approved-ways-to-avoid-writers-29873760/#mkcpgn=rssnws1

[2] https://www.powerofpositivity.com/how-nurture-childs-innate-genius/?fbclid=IwAR3qBVOzfyK6uiBW_3wa4aB1k0o0wzyQ5OEhBAXG0ve8PG9odJglRNVe6OI