Journalism For National Growth – Development Versus Devilment. 13 Pieces Of Advice For Happy Writing By Happy Thinking

As may be seen in the praxis of Maria Ressa, Filipino winner of the Nobel Peace Prize 2021, the preference is journalism in unearthing a politician’s personal bad, instead of the social good. This is Journalism That Does Not THINK – it stops at the Truth and does not proceed further: True to Helpful to Inspiring to Necessary to Kind. THiNK about that!

If singlehandedly, what I’m trying to do is elevate the art & heart of journalism in my beloved country, the Philippines. And, in effect, the whole world!

I strive so that my writing may be described by any combination of the following practices, which become my 13 pieces of journalistic advice to you.

1.      From adversary to advisory –
When I disagree with something, I have learned to tailor my writing so that I am not a contrarian but an adviser, without using the word “advise” – I present my idea, take it or leave it.

2.      From circular to crucial –
You may have many things to say, but you have to avoid over-writing. Get to the point, to the heart of the matter, without of course being adversarial (#1).

3.      From critical to creative –
Instead of criticizing, think of something creative to offer instead of what you are reading – in offering a different choice, you are in fact criticizing, but gently.

4.      From derisive to assistive –
Instead of being negative, be positive – offer your suggestion or a different idea without calling the other party any obnoxious name.

5.      From excretory to executory –
Even if the other party is talking trash, offer an alternative that you think may solve the problem or controversy at hand.

6.      From external to internal –
If the external looks bad, try looking at the internal – there may be something to fix there. For instance, if the solution offered is expensive, look for an inexpensive solution that will amount to the same result, or even better.

7.      From livid to vivid –
Instead of getting angry, calm yourself and tone down your statement/s.

8.      From morbid to worried –
Instead of anticipating dire things, simply state your worries.

9.      From narrow to borrow –
Instead of sticking to your views that may be narrow-minded, do some research and borrow ideas from others, without forgetting to acknowledge your source/s. With Google, there’s a wide, wide world of insights.

10.   From normal angle to wide angle –
Instead of the usual automatic reaction, use the wide angle lens of your intellectual camera so you can see more, given foreground, background, left and right. That will usually change your mind about what you first thought you saw.

11.   From proven to probing –
Instead of concluding immediately that you know exactly what is the matter, try thinking about it differently.

12.   From sequential to consequential –
Instead of simply looking at events, try looking at what may happen afterwards.

13.   From nettled to settled –
Instead of being upset at once, try and be calm and collect your thoughts first! Then proceed from #1.

Happy writing!@517-25102021

I Say, Let Sister Imee Marcos Debate For Bongbong! And Let The Other Presidential Candidates Be Spoken For By Ladies – I’m Sure It Will Be Educational In More Ways Than One!

Why cannot Bongbong refuse to attend the debate being called for by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) this Saturday, 19 March 2022?

Intelligently, I say he can, if he wants to. Better, let us learn from the US where, on 04 Nov 1956 happened “The First Televised Presidential Debate” (United States Senate, senate.gov): Eleanor Roosevelt debating for the Democrats, and Margaret Chase Smithfor the Republicans! So, why not PH Presidentiables represented by their chosen women?
(5 ladies image from southerntierincubator.com)

More. The news by ANN is, “Marcos Jr Won’t Attend Comelec Presidential Debate” (Author Not Named, 14 Mar 2022, ABS-CBN News, news.abs-cbn.com). I say Bongbong has the absolute right to refuse to attend any debate. Being a good President of a country is not to be measured by one’s prowess in debating with others.

Ladies & gentlemen, let’s show more intelligence – if you emphasize debates, you are looking for leadership that is more critical in thinking and less creative!

Why is creativity a necessary presidential trait? Being a creative thinker, s/he will be able to think of opportunities behind obstacles, potentials beyond problems.

And right now, the #1 problem in the world is Climate Change. And so I want my Presidentiable to appreciate the role of Organic Agriculture in defeating or minimizing much the awesome dangers from climate change.

I promise to campaign for that Presidentiable who will adopt as part of his/her campaign platform the pursuit of Philippine Organic Agriculture like it has never been before.

And why am I after 100% organic farming? For 3 major reasons:

Happy Homes –   Organic agriculture is as inexpensive as you want it. You can buy ready-made formulations, which are much cheaper than chemical fertilizers. Or you can concoct your own. If your fertilizer is cheap or inexpensive, you will make your family happy because you will earn even 10 times more from your farming – consider that the organic fertilizer can cost you almost nothing. (If you follow my procedure, which I refer to as “WEALth,” it will cost you nothing, zero, nada – See my essay, “For A Happier & Healthier Habitat Philippines! Triple A For Agriculture,” 16 Feb 2022, Farming Advancing Home, Health & Habitat, Blogspot.com. In any case, I will be happy to demonstrate the procedure anywhere, or explain in details in writing if you email me.)

Healthy Bodies – This is guaranteed for all because organic farming grows healthy crops, with no chemicals of any kind used. The nutrients in those fruits and vegetables all come from the natural richness of the soil, not from commercial interest.

Harmless Weather – Once organic farming is practiced all over the Philippines, the weather will become less and less harmful as before because there are no more or there are less greenhouse gases that promote global warming and hence destructive weather.

100% I will support the Presidentiable who will support agriculture that supports the Filipino people’s Home, Health, and Habitat!@517

Nestlé Philippines Sees “Tackling Climate Change Can’t Wait” – An Agriculturist, I Can’t Wait For 2050 For A Net Zero Tomorrow!

The ingeniousness of the youth is what is being sought for by NestléPH from students of Agribusiness Management & Entrepreneurship of UP Los Baños in inventing solutions to eliminate greenhouse gases (GHGs) to resolve climate change. Net Zero GHGs is everybody’s business.

I saw it today, Monday, 14 Mar 2022, on Facebook, the short video presentation that says, right at the start:

Tackling Climate Change Can’t Wait.
And neither can we.
Our global ambition is to reach Net Zero by 2050.
We are a force FOR GOOD in the Philippines.
(climate eye image from frontiersin.org)

Finally, my alma mater UPLB is paying attention to climate change!

Our global ambition is to reach Net Zero by 2050.
Accelerating our efforts
to mitigate climate change.
Plant MILLIONS OF TREES every year.
We are innovating and developing technologies
TO MAKE OUR PACKAGING recyclable and reusable by 2025.

We are educating consumers and promoting the right behavior towards
SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT.
For our children & our future generations.

Together, let us build
NET ZERO TOMORROW
TODAY.

The University of the Philippines Los Baños is involved. ABME 10 students are involved. Start-up concepts geared towards achieving net zero carbon emission are involved.

Teams with the best ideas will be selected.
Mentorship program with industry experts.
One team will be named The Nestlé Net Zero IdeaNation Winner!

I say:
Very necessary.
Very complicated!

Net Zero IdeaNation: UPLB and Nestlé PH partnering to elicit sustainable solutions from the youth.

From Snaps and Ganaps(snapsandganaps.com):

The Net Zero IdeaNation MOA signing was held recently with UPLB Chancellor Jose V Camacho, Associate Dean of College of Economics & Management Arlene Gutierrez, and Chair of Department of Agribusiness Management and Entrepreneurship Mar Cruz, together with Nestlé Philippines Senior Vice President & Head of Public Affairs, Communications & Sustainability Arlene Tan-Bantoto, and Assistant Vice President for Sustainability & Public Affairs Christine Garcia.

Stronger typhoons and rising threats to biodiversity and food security are just some of the impacts of climate change that have become more evident in the Philippines over the years. Therefore, tackling climate change cannot wait and urgent action is needed across all sectors of society.

As a Kasambuhay ng Kalikasan, Nestlé Philippines is taking a leading role in tackling climate change in the country. Guided by Nestlé’s global ambition and roadmap of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, it is committed to source responsibly, transform its operations, and help shape a (zero) waste-future.

My 100% scholarly congratulations, Nestlé!

Now, if you were looking for another super idea, here is this senior’s suggestion for a junior’s study under IdeaNation:
Adopt several villages and turn all farms & gardens organic 100%.
Collect data & information for 12 months.

Automatically, the emission of GHGs is zero! No chemical fertilizers, no chemical pesticides – no GHGs. Would not those villages make modern little Gardens of Eden? All fruits & vegetables 100%  healthy for eating; all the air 100% healthy for breathing.

Yes, That would be Net Zero Tomorrow!@517

Theirs Is The Breed That Lays Golden Eggs. SAAD Helps 15 Catanduanes Chicken Raisers Sell Initial P21K In 2 Months! – The Women Of Suchan Deserve The Income, The DA Deserves The Thanks

Now is the time for some good women to come to the aid of their families and engage in a business that lays short of golden eggs. I am talking of 15 women members of the Suchan Chicken Raisers’ Association (SCRA) who last year raised P21,150 in 2 months!

Jennifer Valcobero says, “Php 21K Initial Income Of 15 Poultry Raisers In Catanduanes Reported” (28 Feb 2022, Special Area for Agricultural Development, saad.da.gov.ph). The SCRA women are from barangay Suchan in Bagamanoc, Catanduanes. In July 2021, they had received from the Special Area for Agricultural Development (SAAD) Program of the Department of Agriculture (DA) P656,000 worth of poultry inputs that included 400 chickens (Kabir), 80 bags of grower feeds, 120 bags of layer feeds, feeders, drinkers/waterers, and a freezer. (The Kabir chicken is a breed by Kabir International, sold by Cobb-Vantress – putakputak.com.)

The SCRA poultry area was/is 400 sqm. 2-3 members were on duty for maintenance, stock feeding, and collecting of eggs (when the laying began). 4 months after start, the group were already gathering 80-100 eggs per day, selling each at P5, to neighbors and walk-ins.

The earnings were not distributed as income but went into the expansion of the chicken housing, bamboo and nipa, for the incubator they received from SAAD in 2020. From the eggs hatched, they plan to increase their flock to increase their income. (A business note: Once the chickens reach their highest and sustained production stage, only then will the 15 SCRA members receive their share of the earnings.)

There is something I don’t understand – why did the Suchan ladies choose Kabir, an imported breed? We have several native breeds, one of them in fact is a Bicolana, named Camarines.

How do I know when I am not a poultry expert? Well, in March 2016 I did much of the literature search and was volume editor of the 200-page book that came out: Philippine Native Animals:Source Of Pride & Wealth Worth Conserving & Utilizing, published by the National Swine & Poultry Research & Development Centerbased in Tiaong, Quezon, and authored by Rene C Santiago, Angel L Lambio & Karen C Dimaranan (see my 03 Oct 2016 essay, “Philippine Natives: Wealth & Treasures Transforming Lives,” Common Cause, Blogspot.com).

So I personally know that are 5 native breeds of Philippine chickens: Banaba from Batangas, Bolinao from Pangasinan, Camarines from the Bicol Region, Joloano from Basilan, and Paraoakan from Palawan (pp 40-43). The Philippine native chickens are known by foreigners and locals for their unique tastes who gladly patronize them when available. So, not explained in the news, I don’t understand the choice of Kabir, a foreign breed of chicken. Could it be the eggs? Anyway, I hope SCRA will raise the local birds next time around!

In the meantime, I learn that they have started producing salted and pickled eggs. Ah, what will the 15 Suchan ladies think of next?@517

PH Secretary William Dar Calls For Greater FAO Country Cooperation On Production, Nutrition, And Environment – Where We Are Inefficient, Exclusive, Unscientific!

We humans always have a choice – today, to use either the power of weapon or the power of reason to solve problems or resolve conflicts. We have a choice of conquering other peoples by force or combatting our country’s predicaments by science and sense of the socially upright.

With a war on in unfortunate Ukraine, FAO countries held the “36th FAO Regional Conference for Asia and the Pacific” in Dhaka, Bangladesh 8-11 March 2022. "War is Hell," American Civil War General William Sherman said in 1879 – certainly if you wage war only by private demands, not public dictates.

On 10 March 2022, PH Secretary of Agriculture William Dar spoke during the Ministerial Session, emphasizing: “Our immediate objective is to modernize our agriculture and fisheries systems, making them more efficient, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable.”

Mr Dar noted FAO’s Strategic Framework 2022-2031 with the themes of Better Production, Better Nutrition, Better Environment. He said:

For Better Production, let’s prioritize “Green Innovation.” We need to continue creating sustainable crops, livestock, fisheries and forestry production systems – supported by green technologies and better policies.

“Green Innovation” I understand to mean non-destructive of natural resources like soil, water and forests. “Sustainable” means you can proceed producing more even as you allow the environment to replenish itself.

For Better Nutrition, we have to ensure safe food for everyone. We need to continue improving our food safety regulations, integrating sanitary and phytosanitary control measures and policies throughout the food value chain.

Mr Dar is talking about food safety, and he should be. I want more. A warrior writer, I am more interested in food naturalness, foods produced by systems without using farm chemicals. Concentrating on Organic agriculture now, I have this new blog – Farms Advancing Home, Health & Habitat (Blogspot.com).
(“In/Organic Farming” image from iconfinder.com)

For a Better Environment, we need to continue embarking on a massive program to protect our environment, ADAPT to the current and future effects of climate change and mitigate its impacts…

I sincerely believe that if we practice organic agriculture, we would be creating a “Better Environment” not only in our villages but also in our cities, because there would be no more greenhouse gases emitted from the fields to exacerbate climate change!

For a Better Life and (to) reduce poverty, it is imperative to increase public and private investments in our food systems. We also need support in our farm consolidation and clustering strategy to increase efficiency and viability.

There, Mr Dar mentions “farm consolidation and clustering strategy” – as far as I know, Mr Dar is the only Secretary of Agriculture who recognizes the primary role of cooperation in farmers’ and fishers’ efforts to produce better and improve their lives more.

We are helping entrepreneurs create jobs… driven by education, digital technology, sustainable energy, innovation, and infrastructure.

We need more: entrepreneurs, education, science, innovation, public support for private initiatives.

Yes, we always have a choice. In agriculture, mychoice to produce more is not 50% but 100% organic!@517

Here’s Looking At The New Agriculture In The New Garden Of Eden!

I am inspired today, Friday, 11 March 2022, to imagine a New Garden of Eden in which our new ancestors, the New Adam and Eve, begin to gift us what God Almighty has gifted them: Glorious Eden, which is Heaven on Earth!

“Garden of Eden” image from artmajeur.com)

[An Ilocano, I have always been an original aboriginal; thus, I concocted Communication for Development(ComDev) in 1980, a counterpoint to Development Communication (DevCom) of UP Los Baños.]

Yes, I begin to preach today, for us descendants of Adam & Eve to regenerate on Earth the glories of the Garden of Eden by waking up life in the soil in our hands!

How? We hold & mold the soil to give literally more life to the millions of lives inside and outside of it: bacteria, fungi, bugs, worms, snails etcetera. The grand result? Soil giving health to crops, animals and human bodies!

I am not new to this. I was the first Filipino to write about what American gentleman farmer Edward H Faulkner had discovered: Trash mulching.

Nicanor “Nicky” Perlas, who won the Right Livelihood Awardfor his biodynamic agriculture practice, has copies of my Horticulture syllabuses with my Faulknerian application – he started with the organic agriculture I taught at Xavier University College of Agriculturein Cagayan De Oro City.

Once again I innovate: We need A New Agriculture.

Indeed, a very simple thing to do, and that is why it seems foolish: Run the rotavator over the field just deep enough to cut and mix together in one rotary motion the weeds plus crop refuse plus soil.

WEALth.
Weeds-Enriched Automatic Layer of Trash to Trigger Terrestrial Health.

You rotavate the soil shallowly, down to earth about 2-3 inches only, creating that layer of riches!

That WEALth will provide all the nutrients that your crop/crops need. It will at the same time enrich the soil so that it returns to itself its lost fertility. It will grow healthy crops and you will harvest healthy foods because you do not use chemicals. Your organic farmer will earn more because organic foods are more desired – not to mention that your farmer uses very little inputs to grow them. And the Earth will grow healthy instead of weary because farmers have stopped chemical agriculture and thereby are no longer producing greenhouse gases!

New? In fact, I wrote my definitive essay on the rotavator as the modern savior of the farmer whoever he is wherever almost exactly 4 years ago, 26 Mar 2018: “Organic Farming & The Lesson Of The Rotavator: How To Feed The World” (Organic Country, Blogspot.com).

So, rotavating like I describe above, to produce WEALth, is in essence Organic Farming as defined by the US Department of Agriculture as quoted by sare.org:

A production system that is managed to respond to site-specific conditions by integrating cultural, biological, and mechanical practices that foster cycling of resources, promote ecological balance, and conserve biodiversity.

Forget the constant world today – “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds”! – Ralph Waldo Emerson.@517

PH DA Region 3 Central Luzon Aiming To Be “The Organic Agriculture Capital of the Philippines”

Today, Thursday, 10 March 2022, I am writing about organic farming as preached on Facebook by the Department of Agriculture (DA) Region Field Office 3 (RFO 3); RFO 3 covers the provinces of Bataan, Bulacan, Nueva Ecija and Tarlac. RFO 3 says Region 3 has the vision as the “Organic Agriculture Capital of the Philippines.”

That to me is an excellent self-challenge by RFO 3. I say that personally, as a believer in organic farming in the past 57 years starting in 1965 or thereabouts when I discovered “trash farming” in the books by American farmer Edward H Faulkner, published by the University of Oklahoma Press: Plowman’s Folly (1943) and Soil Development (1952).

The RFO 3 website says (rfo3.da.gov.ph):

Region 03 (had) already organic agriculture advocates long before the enactment of the law. The MASIPAG (Magsasaka at Siyentipiko Para sa Pag-unlad ng Agrikultura) NGO in Nueva Ecija has been working towards the sustainable use and management of biodiversity through farmers’ control of genetic and biological resources since 1985. Various organic farmers groups (have been) organized and actively support the implementation of NOAP.
(lower image from organicwibthoutboundaries.bio)

Both images above are those of MASIPAG. I remember coming to know in 2000 that this group was already into organic agriculture.

The website 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. Organic refers to the particular farming and processing system, described in the standards and not in the classical chemical sense. The term “organic” is synonymous in other languages (with) “biological” or “ecological.” It is also a labeling term that denotes products considered organic based on the Philippine National Standards for Organic Agriculture.

That OA “includes all agricultural systems that promote the ecologically sound, socially acceptable, economically viable and technically feasible production of food and fibers” is something new to me. And I have a problem with that – if your organic method is new, it may not be socially acceptable at once, but it is still organic!

Those 21 words I quoted (italicized) make a good description but a poor prescription for OA when you are trying something different. I will now apply it in my case. A basic idea I came up with some 57 years ago, and now I have packaged and call it

WEALth –
Weeds-Enriched Automatic Layer Triggering Terrestrial Health.
(I presented this technique last month,16 Feb 2022, in a slightly different name, in “For A Happier & Healthier Habitat Philippines! Triple A For Agriculture,” Farming Advancing Home, Health & Habitat, Blogspot.com.) I am ready to demonstrate WEALth anytime anywhere.

Meanwhile, I am looking for funding for a minimum 2-year WEALth study perhaps with CLSU as host agency. Afterwards, with farmers’ WEALthy farms, DA Region 3 can finally become “The Organic Agriculture Capital of the Philippines!”@517