PinoyEcoFarmer

There’s an enterprising balikbayan in Brgy. San Pedro, Sta. Rosa, Nueva Ecija who grows vegetables in sacks instead of in plots in the ground. She is Thelma Villaroman Zara who used to work for an aviation company in Anaheim, California.

Her duplex house has been attracting a lot of visitors not only from the neighborhood but also from nearby towns. That’s because of the very impressive display of vegetables that are planted in used sacks around the house. Thelma’s house stands on about 2,000 square meters of land. The big space around the house is mostly cemented and is used for drying palay during the dry season. When the area is not used for drying palay, it is not really productive so she decided to do something unusual. She planted different kinds of vegetables in used fertilizer sacks.

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There’s this interesting food place inside the Quezon Memorial Circle in Quezon City where one could imagine being in the midst of a coconut grove though there are no coconut tress around. It’s where people can find “the best coconut ice cream in the world” and very wide array of food all made from coconut. Coconut House is owned by Jun Castillo, an entrepreneur advocate for the Philippine coconut as food.

Castillo believes in the power of the coconut fruit as a health food for the Filipino people. Not for the processed, unnatural and foreign food fare found in fast-food joints and supermarkets, but in the vein of the natural, indigenous, whole foods promoted by the worldwide Slow Food Movement. The food in Coconut House is so amazing that the organizers of the people’s party last June 30 when President Aquino was installed chose it to be one of the official caterers for the guests and dignitaries celebrating the event in Quezon Circle. Kris Aquino was there, reportedly thrilled by the taste and feel of cool coconut water cum lemon grass served in a drinking glass made of fresh bamboo.

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In Barangay Talbak, Doña Remedios Trinidad (DRT), Bulacan, about 200 hectares are planted to coffee. Annual coffee green bean production there is around 40 tons, thanks to the Talbak Coffee Growers Association. They are the farmers’ group that has boosted coffee production in DRT. But they are not natives of Bulacan. Their 23 pioneer members came from Cavite. More than 30 years ago, they applied for acquisition of homesteads in DRT before the Department of Environment and Natural Resources as the town was a good production area and sure market for coffee.

The group managed to develop their own community now called Barangay Talbak. Coffee, of course, has been their primary cash crop. In the early years of their stay, some of the pioneer members even planted more than 10 hectares of Robusta and Arabica coffee. They also engaged in coffee trading. The group bought coffee green beans in DRT and nearby Norzagay town then marketed these in Cavite where coffee trading was more viable.

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In today’s urgency to go all natural and green, many industries are making an effort to evaluate their old ways and embrace new (or old yet effective) methods to turn out quality products without compromising the already fragile ecology. Hog-raising is one of those industries that is seeing an earnest revamp. This endeavor is locally being spearheaded by a newly-formed group dubbed the Natural Piggery Movement.

Led by its convenor Gil Carandang, the Natural Piggery Movement (NPM) is an organization of committed hog raisers advocating the cause of mitigating harmful environmental effects of pig production. The NPM aims to create balance between pork production, food safety and environment protection through the natural way of raising hogs.

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At first glance, Ruby Cruz seems like any other participant selling herbal remedies at the Megatrade Hall’s event emphasizing organic solutions for health-conscious Filipinos. Eager to have people try their latest product, a dietary supplement called Hydrolean, she chats with visitors sampling the vermillion-colored drink, explaining that the slight itch they feel at the back of their throat is from the ginger extract, while the color of the drink comes from Roselle extract—a natural anti-oxidant that gives the product its cranberry flavor and inhibits the conversion of carbohydrate into fat.

This writer was given five packs of Hydrolean to try out in five days, and while it must honestly be said that the results are inconclusive, the effects of the product cannot be shrugged off. Drinking it just before going on a stationary bicycle for 30 to 45 minutes, the product causes one to sweat more, and possibly makes you want to pedal a bit faster than usual, and represses the urge to snack in between meals. At P700 for 14 sachets, it may be what some people need before the start of their day.

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When Leticia Basubas of Barangay Maligaya, Science City of Munoz, Nueva Ecija decided that producing coffee from rice was her likeliest road to success, not a few raised their eyebrows and scoffed at her business sense: “Who will buy your coffee?” “Where will you sell it?” “It will not succeed as it is just an ordinary product.” “Anybody can produce it in the kitchen.” These were some of the reactions that reached Basubas in 1998 when the Green Ladies of Maligaya, a women’s club of which she was president, displayed its wares at a rice exhibit sponsored by the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice).

PhilRice was then introducing rice by-products as potential side enterprises for neighborhood farmers, and the institute had vouched highly for rice coffee, much as it did rice wine and rice-based chiffon cake, butsi and puto pao, rice brownies, rice waffles, rice nougat, rice-enriched pasta and rice noodles. Basubas, an agriculture graduate, was determined to pursue her “kapeng bigas” business. At that time she was working as a PhilRice administrative assistant. She eventually resigned from her job to plunge into rice-coffee making.

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The country’s organic farming movement will get the needed boost as the Department of Agriculture is alloting an initial P900 million next year to implement various initiatives under the “Organic Agriculture Act of 2010” or Republic Act No. 10068.

Agriculture Secretary Proceso J. Alcala said the amount will bankroll four major imperatives, in a speech during the 7th National Organic Agriculture Congress, held November 16, in Lucena City, attended by about 750 organic farming advocates, farmers, private entrepreneurs, NGOs, and DA and local agriculture officials.

The four major concerns include policy formulation on organic agriculture products regulation and registration, accreditation, certification and labelling; research, development and extension of appropriate sustainable environment and gender-friendly organic agriculture; promotion of the establishment of facilities that produce organic fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides and other farm inputs, certification process; and implementation of organic agricultural programs, projects and activities, and provision and delivery of support services to farmers and other stakeholders.

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Two non-government organizations (NGOs), with help from the Bureau of Agricultural Research (BAR), are promoting the production of adlai both as a food and medicinal herb. The two NGOs –Earthkeepers and MASIPAG – together with the BAR held recently in Bukidnon a five-day training-planning workshop on adlai production.

In some parts of Asia, adlai is considered a cereal in much the same way that rice is. Its grain is often used in soups and broth. In Southern Vietnam, sam bo luong, a sweet and cold soup, has adlai as its main ingredient. Beers and wines may be made from fermented adlai grains. Aged vinegar is also made out of it in Japan.Yulmu cha, or Job’s tears tea, is a thick drink in Korea made from powdered adlai. The Koreans also produce a liquor that is made from adlai together with rice and it is called okroju. Known widely in Asian countries for its medicinal qualities, adlai a folk remedy for a wide range of ailments.

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Larry Milloroso, a 43-year old farmer from Barangay Dongon East in Numancia, Aklan is glad he has shifted to natural rice farming. Among the reasons he practices natural farming in his farm include getting a good harvest, additional profit, healthier environment, and chemical-free rice on the table.

Larry cultivates a 5,500-square meter irrigated ricefield that he planted to NSIC Rc 120 this season. In Aklan where farmers’ landholdings are commonly small and contiguous, this area can already be considered good enough to produce rice for family consumption and have some extra harvest for sale. He also grows latundan banana on 1,000 square meters, and mungbean and squash in the adjacent 1,000 square meters.

Larry learned about natural farming from PINA Foundation Inc., a non-government organization funded by the Swiss Catholic Lenten Fund which aims to help farmers increase production and income through sustainable agriculture. In 2003, PINA Foundation office in Kalibo, Aklan conducted a six-month season-long farm school in Numancia where Larry was one of the 15 enrollees.

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Serving up organic fare may be enough of a come-on to boost business, but one firm has raised the health ante, gaining a steady stream of loyal customers in the process.

Hecky’s Lechon offers Cebu-style roast pig, promising it to be a “healthier” alternative to other lechon sold in the market. “Our lechon is oven-baked, which means it has less fat,” says Richard M. Dijiamco, managing partner of Food Enterprise Corp. The recipe, and even the oven where the lechon is baked, happens to be the brainchild of Dijiamco’s father-in-law, Hecky Tabuena. Sometime in the 1990s, Tabuena went to Hawaii and was inspired by a barbecue oven he saw during his trip. The oven uses gas and convection to cook the lechon. These gas-powered ovens melt away the fat.

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