The Evergreen Habitats Are Coming Up! I Hope. In The Philippines, Starting With The Banaue Rice Terraces

Above image: Isn’t that beautiful? It is! But it’s a dull beauty – it does not excite the senses. That is true with all nature-based tourist spots in the Philippines: They excite only the eyes.

Now is the time for all good minds to come to the aid of their countrymen – Now then, the Banaue Rice Terraces as a package is much an unfulfilled beauty because it embellishes the landscape but enhances not the human scape – the truth that which has been hidden from it since the first rice terraces were built by humans more than 2000 years ago (Britannica, britannica.com).
(“Rice terraces” from guidetothephilippines.ph)

Don’t forget: Climate Change is out there! Now then, the rice terraces need happy humans; our habitats need happy humans to cultivate them into happy relationships – Plants with Animals with Humans. I realized that only today; that is why I have come up with this new blog: Our Happy Habitat, with the new slogan, “Cultivate Happy Relationships.” To encourage people to encourage the landscapes to encourage people!

Such as: In the 1960s, the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) came up with “Miracle Rice” (the variety “IR8”) that which I know began the Green Revolution in Asia – it yielded high in grains for the harvests and high in gains for the farmers. The Father of the Green Revolution in India was MS Swaminathan, who had been IRRI Director General. But Mr Swaminathan was not content – he saw beyond the grains & gains of the Green Revolution and brainstormed what he called The Evergreen Revolution.

Learning from Mr Swaminathan, that is what the Banaue Rice Terraces and such other habitats are calling for from us: The Evergreen Revolution. Silently. Their beauty is superficial now because in fact where they are, the Once-Evergreen has faded and, therefrom, its Eden-like kingdom of natural wealth and services has deteriorated.

With this new blog, I have a new mission; I am now calling for “The Evergreen Habitats.” Yes, the Banaue rice terraces, among other habitats, must be Evergreen: for the sake of tourists, for the people of Banaue – for us all!

Now then, those rice terraces must practice what is called “Regenerative Agriculture.” A simple reminder for “regenerative” is “organic” – so that for instance, you apply compost on the soil and zero chemical fertilizers and pesticides. You various crops whose growth relationships naturally take care of pests and diseases.

Former Secretary of Agriculture William Dar has declared himself a disciple of Regenerative Agriculture; in fact, the 1^st MS Swaminathan Global Leadership Award was given to Mr Dar last year, 10 Nov 2022 in India – after which he vowed to be a disciple of RA (you may want to read his column, “Servant Leadership Is What We Need,” 10 Nov 2022, Manila Times, manilatimes.net).

Regenerative agriculture requires a variety of organic methods and of crops. William Cowper said long ago: “Variety is the spice of life.” What our variety of habitats are commonly missing in their relationships with us humans is spice!@517

Nestor Maniebo Pestelos’ Under- & Aboveground Experiences From UP Los Baños Through Martial Law To Abroad To Bohol Are Worth X Million Dollars – He Has An Unfinished Book!

Betty Hemsley, American poetess, has “Talking To The Wild” – her collection of poems she calls “The Bedtime Stories We Never Knew” (facebook.com). Ampy, my wife, saw this one, link shared on Facebook by my old friend Felix Eslava 26 Feb 2023. My wife says this reminds her of my old friend Nestor Pestelos, who shared about a year ago on Facebook that he has begun and I notice he has stopped writing what could be his last book of un-pleasant memories.

From Ms Betty’s book:

We all of us have chapters
That we wish we’d never written
Pages that we’ve torn or burned
Or locked away and hidden
We all have masks and costumes
That we wish we’d never worn
And lines that we have spoken
That we wish could be withdrawn
We all of us have characters
We’d strike clean from the page
And maybe big decisions
That we’re desperate to change
And we are very tempted
To pretend they don’t exist
To tell a perfect story
Where these things are all dismissed
But do not hide those chapters
They’re your story’s little scars
And they’re crucial to your tale
Though you might not think they are
See without them all your story
Isn’t quite the one you wrote
And we have to make mistakes
If we’re to learn what matters most
Yes, without them all your story
Will be hard to comprehend
Remember - some things only make sense
When we’re getting to the end

Nestor was a batchmate of mine at UPCA, now UP Los Baños, in the early 1960s. We met, he a Tagalog from Tiaong, Quezon, and I an Ilocano from Asingan, Pangasinan – because we joined the competition to find the Editor In Chief of the student paper Aggie Green & Gold (AGG). He won – but I also won because he made me the historical 1^st Tagalog Editor of the AGG who was an Ilocano! (I could be, because in high school, I was already an avid reader of the Tagalog magazines Liwaywayand Bulaklak.) That is how our friendship started – on paper!

Before or after (I don’t know) our President Ferdinand “FM” Edralin Marcos declared Martial Law on 21 Sept 1972, Nestor joined the underground. (Elsewhere, I was “invited” but I declined as it was not my cup of tea. My “inviter” has since died, of natural causes.) Nestor today is aboveground – first, for having been saved from physical harm by “Fr Acong” (Fr Ciriaco Sevilla); second, by First Lady Imelda Romualdez Marcos, yes, “embracing” him in her project “Habitat For Humanity” – and no, Nestor never forgets how important they are!

But Nestor forgets and/or hesitates and/or neglects to continue writing his book to share with the world! I quote Jerry Pratchett saying above (quotefancy.com): “You can’t die with an unfinished book.” Here I am saying, “You can, but why should you?!” Note that Ms Betty’s poem has no period at the end

Climate Change in PH Is Imported From The United States! How To Start Green Growth And Stop Grim Deaths?

Are you worried about the Philippines’ foreign debt landscape growing from Billions of US$ to Trillions? You should be! But as an agriculturist, I am more interested in the Philippines’ agricultural landscape growing deadlier than ever even while farmers are growing poorer.

Conscious and Unconscious – we are all aware that we are all food consumers, but only a few realize that the production of our food, in millions of hectares of farms, including greenhouse farms, is the public source of Climate Change.

Yes Sir, yes Ma’am! All of us food consumers have a huge role to play to help change the climate of PH external debts – and surprise, climate change!

Actually, you can see that the Business Climate and the Farming Climate are interlinked with the citizens via the Consumption Climate –if you look deeper into Climate Change– but it is hidden in the business climate of Export-Import.

That is what I’m thinking reading the news report of Cai U Ordinario, “PHL Debt Needs A Decade To Cut; Time To Shift To Green Growth” (23 Mar 2022, BusinessMirror, businessmirror.com.ph). Ms Cai quotes retired professor Teodoro C Mendoza as saying, during a forum of the Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC):

“We have a comatose economy because we have a huge debt of PhP13 trillion which is equivalent to 68 percent of our GDP. We have a budget deficit of PhP1.7 trillion,” Mendoza said in the vernacular on Wednesday.

Ms Cai also reports:

In order to improve the country’s chances of attaining higher growth, FDC President Rene E Ofreneo cited a need to focus not just on the primary strength of the economy but also on attaining green growth.

We think we have today “Green Growth” but is actually “Grim Growth!” without us realizing it.

Thus, gladly we Filipinos import chemical fertilizers and chemical pesticides – sadly, we harvest not only the very visible farm crops (and farm animals) – but the deadliest crop of them all: Climate Change.
(“Food Vs Planet” from bing.com, “Climate Adaptation” from climateadaptationplatform.com)

Now then, if we want to Stop Climate Change, we have to Stop Chemical Agriculture and Start Regenerative Agriculture! When we get rid of all those bags of fertilizers and bottles of pesticides and produce our food by any of natural ways, we will start to see that the climate changes for the better!

To “generate” means to “bring into being; give rise to” (American Heritage Dictionary, thefreedictionary.com). To “regenerate” is to produce again; thus, organic methods “reproduce” the ways by which Mother Nature works – no GHGs that could destroy us all, rich and poor. With regenerative agriculture, still the climate changes, but no more supertyphoons and superhot days and super-landslides and super-floods!

With regenerative farming, we achieve 2 things: (1) solve Farmer Poverty and (2) resolve Climate Change. In agriculture, chemical methods are very expensive; organic methods are pocket-friendly – the farmer wins! And organic methods produce zero greenhouse gases, and therefore zero super-climate changes – the people win! 

How green is our valley!@517

Recyclable, Renewable, Or Regenerative? Commercial Citizens Of Competitive Countries Don’t Want You To Discern & Discriminate!

Are you surprised to read “sustainable agriculture vs regenerative agriculture”? You should be! SA versus RA, yes. Today, The Modern 3 Rs, as I see them, are Recyclable, Renewable and Regenerative – and no, they are not compatible or parallel at all. One addresses Climate Change, the others do not. 
(Images: top from researchgate.net, bottom from m.facebook.com)

To give you an idea, when I search
for “renewable energy” Google gives me 273,000,000 results;
for “renewable resources” Google gives me 16,400,000 results;
for “regenerative energy” Google gives me 176,000 results; and
for “regenerative resources” Google gives me 51,800 results.

Those differing numbers of search results give you the idea that those terms are as different as morning, noon, and evening!

Essentially, it is between renewable and regenerative processes – and there’s a whale of a difference!

Now you see why I have been interested in differentiating “renewable” from “regenerative” – in my search for countrywide (and countrywise) solution to Climate Change, I see only “Regenerative Agriculture” and not Renewable Agriculture or even Sustainable Agriculture.

Renewable Agriculture and Sustainable Agriculture people do nottalk about Climate Change – because Sustainable Agriculture does not prevent the generation of greenhouse gases (GHGs), which generate Climate Change. Same story with Renewable Agriculture – what is renewable is not necessarily harmless to the environment.

“Sustainable Or Regenerative?” is the question the ethical butcher asks (09 Nov 2021, ethicalbutcher.co.uk):

A very simple definition for sustainable is something that is able to be maintained at a certain rate or level.

The problem we have now is that every business and everybody want to be sustainable in our consumption; we all want to be carry on as we are, consuming what we enjoy but in a way that doesn't negatively impact the ability to continue in the future.

By definition, anything that relies on a finite resource is not sustainable; a good example of this is fossil fuels usage as once they are used they cannot be re-used, we can reformulate burnt petroleum back into more petroleum. However, it could be argued that aluminum is sustainable as it can be recycled indefinitely, as long as we can sustainably produce the energy to do so – it quickly gets complicated.

Since we're involved in food production, let's now look at how the term sustainable is applied to the things we eat.

Intensive factory farming could be called sustainable; the sheds could be powered by renewable electricity and the animals fed grains which we could, in theory produce indefinitely. This type of farming is sometimes called 'sustainable intensification' which really stretches the definition of the term to its limits.

Most agriculture is not sustainable…

… sustainable practices seek to maintain systems without degrading them. Regenerative practices recognize how natural systems are currently impacted and apply techniques to restore systems…

Regenerative means able to or tending to regenerate – to regrow or be renewed or restored, especially after being damaged or lost. The act or process of regenerating… this is what our planet desperately needs.

Need this agriculturist say more?!@517

Reminiscing The 1986 Philippine People Power Revolution – And Missing The Point Of It All!

Saturday, 25 Feb 2023 – we are celebrating the 37^th anniversary of the “EDSA People Power Revolution.” Except that we are putting “power” in the wrong perspective. In the prevailing thinking of Filipinos, “People Power” is the power to say “No!” and not the power to say “Yes!” For the sake of us people of the Philippine Islands, let us trace history and reminisce much. We owe it to ourselves – the people abusive of power are gone, but so what?!

(Lower image from manilatimes.net)

Rigoberto D Tiglao(25 Feb 2018, “Facts About EDSA we didn’t know at the time, hidden from us for decades,” Manila Times, manilatimes.net):

In 1986, Fidel Ramos was the chief of the Philippine Constabulary. A trusted aide of then-President Ferdinand Marcos [FM], he shocked the nation when he turned against his commander-in-chief and marched with the people in EDSA – hailed a hero by many.

I am now reading the book Silver Linings (25 Years of the 1986 EDSA People Power Revolution), authored by Melandrew T Velasco, co-authored by Rafael M Alunan III and Gen Reynaldo V Velasco(ret), 472 pages (including Index) – the copy sent to me by my friend JAQ last year. My wife Ampy had urged me to write today, “kind of paying tribute to FVR, especially his role not only during EDSA PPR but also after it [remember the numerous FAILED coup d’etats (putches) during Cory Aquino’s presidency....” And who am I to say “No” to my wife? Not to mention that Fidel Valdez Ramos (FVR) is a townmate, both of us natives of Asingan, Pangasinan.

The idiomatic phrase “silver lining” refers to “the potential for something positive or beneficial to result from a negative situation” (The Free Dictionary, idioms.thefreedictionary.com). “Silver linings” indicates many potentials – now I ask: “What are those? Have we tapped any of them?”

Published on May 2012 by The Ramos Peace And Development Foundation Inc (RPDEV), total 485 pages. As the very last words of the book, FVR asks: “KAYA BA NATIN ITO??” My translation: “Can we do this?” My response: “Yes Sir! We can!”

The question is: “Which is that which we can?” After FVR, I will now volunteer a concept that covers Filipinos of all creeds and communities: Regenerative Philippines (RP).

And I am happy to tell you, if you don’t already know, that I have been proselytizing about Regenerative Agriculture since at least 1 year ago – see my essay, “Transforming Ifugao Rice Terraces Into Food & Wood Wonders – I Wonder How?” (16 Jan 2022, Regenerative AgriForestry, reagriforestry.blogspot.com).

And so, fondly remembering FVR (who died last year), I ask: “Kaya ba natin ito??” Sir! Here are several demands and my exact same singular response:

“Down with corruption!” Up with Regenerative Philippines!
“Down with red-tagging!” Up with Regenerative Philippines!
 “Down with science for private gains!” Up with Regenerative Philippines!
“Down with lack of leadership!” Up with Regenerative Philippines!
 “Down with lack of landownership!” Up with Regenerative Philippines!
“Down with Farmer Poverty!” Up with Regenerative Philippines!
“Down with Climate Change!” Up with Regenerative Philippines!@517

After Heading IRRI Pushing “Green Revolution” For Asians, MS Swaminathan Intellectualized “Evergreen Revolution” For All!

In 1987, Indian scientist and leader MS Swaminathan, former IRRI Director General, 1972-1980, became the very first World Food Prize winner “for developing and spearheading the introduction of high-yielding wheat and rice varieties into India during the 1960s when that country faced the prospect of widespread famine” (World Food Prize Foundation, worldfoodprize.org).

After that, Swaminathan outperformed himself and brainchilded the “Evergreen Revolution” that ANN says “involves the integration of ecological principles in technology development and dissemination” (Author Not Named, 16 April 2017, “Father Of Green Revolution Gives Call For ‘Evergreen Revolution’,” Times of India, timesofindia.indiatimes.com). My translation of the technical: “Go Organic!”

Santiago Rigonan Obien(SRO) is the founding Executive Director(ED) of the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) – he was ED from 1987 to 2000 (when age forced him to retire from government service). 13 years – thus, it was SRO who brought up PhilRice from initial idea to international importance, yes!

Surprise! I saw SRO’s Facebookpost Thursday, 23 Feb 2023 (middle image, partly shown above), and this was my comment:

After the Green Revolution (chemical agriculture), Indian Swaminathan is now into the "Brown Revolution" (organic agriculture) – why is Filipino PhilRice still in the Green Revolution stage? asking as a friend!😎

“Brown Revolution” is my term for people today turning away from the Green Revolution and going organic.  

Today, I am urging PhilRice, whoever is the Executive Director, to bring this institution from being a national climate-change Goliath into a national climate-change David – “Go Organic Rice!”

That goes with the Rockefeller-Ford funded International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) – this local agriculturist alumnus of UP Los Baños is advising that international agency to “Go Organic Rice!”

Unsolicited, my additional advice to both PhilRice and IRRI – Remember to test and grow your favorite rice variety/ies in all the ways you want, in all the places you can go – but please don’t forget to “Go Organic”!

My question: “Why can’t IRRI and PhilRice go Organic Rice when private company Renucci Rice can? No, I am neither family nor writer-from-home (WFH) for the Renuccis. From the Renucci website, we have this (renuccirice.ph):

The Rice Revolution

Transforming the Rice Industry – Renucci Rice is the game-changer. The first of its kind in the Philippine market. While most rice brands are mixed with imported grains, stale and laced with artificial fragrance and pesticides, Renucci Rice is 100% produced in Leyte, 100% traceable, and 100% safe. Now Filipinos know exactly where their rice comes from. Only Renucci Rice is from the source. Renucci Rice is pure, unmixed, clean and delicious.

As a communicator for community development (ComDev) and as a fighter against Farmer Poverty and Climate Change, I endorse Renucci Rice because I believe that it is “Healthier White Rice” and that it is “Safe and Clean” – yes, Ma’am, there’s “Goodness in every grain” (renuccirice.ph).

In my 43 years of communicating for community development, starting with print media in 1975 and, starting 1991, scouring the digital media as I blogged, the uncommon story of Renucci Rice farmers uplifts my heart!@517

ClimateChange & Tourism – Can David & Goliath Ever Be Friends & Cultivate Each Other?

We can learn from Red China about restoring Green Landscapes for the sake of attracting more Tourists and at the same time advancing the interests of our own Tribes in the matter of resources both natural and financial! I mean, we should learn how to deal with Climate Change in order to be able to deal with Primate Change – we have to teach our own people how to conserve the natural resources for their own sake.

Here is a friendly individual and/or amiable agency we can learn from and be assured of assistance. ANN says, “Science And Tradition Drive China-Wide Effort To Restore Landscapes” (16 Feb 2023, Author Not Named, UNEP, unep.org):

Ahead of Global Tourism Resilience Day on 17 February, which promotes sustainable tourism for poverty eradication and environmental protection, we take a look at a large-scale, award-winning initiative in China to restore ecosystems from mountains to coastal estuaries across the country.

In those 41 words above, I find my 2 favorite dreamwishes: “poverty eradication” and “environmental protection.” More precisely, I have been writing about how to solve Farmer Poverty and resolve Climate Change.

Now, that country has the “Great Walls of China” as one of the 7^th Wonders of the World – while my country claims the “Banaue Rice Terraces” as the “8^th Wonder of the World” (tripadvisor.com.ph). Sylva says, “I have to say it truly is a magical place, so amazing, and utterly beautiful.”

But because of Climate Change, I do not wonder that all those 8 wonders of the world, and more, are disappearing before our eyes! We now need Christian Science and an uncommon Creative Sense to restore our natural resources – and excite our own wonder!

ANN says the Chinese are busy restoring their village’s beauty and goodness:

Armed with billhooks, hammers and their bare hands, villagers in China's eastern Yunhe County are methodically clearing a series of abandoned hillside rice fields, many perched dramatically over a yawning valley. These terraced paddies had long ago fell into disuse, a product of a strained rural economy. But villagers are aiming to make the land productive again by weeding out invasive plants and building walls to prevent soil erosion.

China’s “abandoned hillside rice fields” and the Philippines’ “abandoned hillside rice terraces” – are suffering the same fate using the same artificial means of maintaining and/or returning the fertility of the soil: “Chemical Agriculture” (CA). Whether you are a farmer in Chongqing or Cavite, your CA is destructive of the natural wealth of the soil, as well as the natural balance of plant and animal lives – all of which disturbs the climate adversely:

What we do comes back to us!

“[The Chinese] villagers are aiming to make the land productive again by weeding out invasive plants and building walls to prevent soil erosion.”

Not enough! This Filipino agriculturist – UP Los Baños alumnus, Ag Edu 1965 – can teach Chinese farmers what I learned from American gentleman farmer Edward H Faulkner – the basics of organic agriculture (OA). OA defeats farmer poverty and Climate Change simultaneously!@517

Brown Rice As Health (& Earth) Food – 22 Years After Asia Rice Foundation Launched That Campaign

Today, my wife Ampy (Tagala) and I (Ilocano) prefer brown rice to white rice. It was not like this before. Some 14 years ago, when Asia Rice Foundation launched its brown rice campaign, I wasn’t enamored. I was thinking of the taste of the rice, not the health of the consumer!

(“Brown rice” from amp.rappler.com), “Regenerative” from flaticon.com)

The last time I talked about the Asia Rice Foundation (Asia Rice) and its campaign for brown rice was 14 years ago when I blogged “Blue Ocean, Brown Rice. If You Can’t Beat Them, Junk Them!” (24 Apr 2009, Frank A Hilario, frankahilario.blogspot.com):

On 11 August 2000, headed by its Chair Emil Q Javier, Asia Rice launched a campaign to promote brown rice as a health food at the University of the Philippines Los Baños, targeting the LBSC, Los Baños Science Community in the town of Los Baños in Laguna, some 60 km south of Manila. I didn’t know about that until today, surfing. I don’t know if they have been successful. I only know they have not been successful in convincing me to advocate brown rice. Of course, I’m rather difficult to please.

Times change. People change. Even the climate changes!

Today, with Climate Change staring everyone in the face, rich or poor, I am looking at Asia Rice and its brown rice advocacy of almost 23 years – well, it has succeeded on me! Today, since Asia Rice is based at the Los Baños Science Community (LBSC), I am challenging the whole of LBSC to rise as one to “sell” brown rice and simultaneously “sell” the basic need for healthy agriculture via:

Regenerative Agriculture (RA), yes. You can simply look at RA as organic farming, with your organic fertilizer. You contradict yourself if you grow brown rice not with black matter or organic fertilizer but with white matter or chemical fertilizer!

In those years, I was visiting Asia Rice at its “borrowed” office space at the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA), which is based at the campus of UP Los Baños in Laguna. I am planning to visit Asia Rice and talk to one of its heads, Santiago Obien (SRO). We are both Ilocanos, so there should be no problem in communication! Wen ngarud a.

The science part is the headache. For instance, I still have to convince SRO that Organic SRI (System of Rice Intensification) is best for rice, including any hybrid variety – and best for the environment!

Here is Revelation to me – almost 8 years ago, I find Rappler already campaigning for brown rice AND climate change! I am now reading Renee Juliene Karunungan and her article, “Why Shifting To Brown Rice Matters” (27 May 2015, (amp.rappler.com):

In a country vulnerable to climate change and its impact, brown rice will help us face the threat of food insecurity.

Isn’t it great!? We are listening to a lady whose family name “Karunungan” translates to “Wisdom”! In here, I say the lady is a triumph!@517

Can A Catholic Journalist In The Philippines Learn From Nigeria’s Newest Cardinal Peter Ebere Okpaleke About Spreading Science As A Shared Desire For God?

Fundamental Question: “Can Science and Religion mix?” I believe so! A Roman Catholic, I believe that today I have seen how “my religion” can teach me to spread “my science” – now then, I am thinking how my being a Catholic in a community can help spread “The Gospel Of Regenerative Agriculture!”

Contrarian. On the Internet, where at 82+ I am much of the time, I am now reading Victor J Stenger, Emeritus Professor of Physics, University of Hawaii, who says (Nov 2014, “Debate: Can Religion And Science Co-Exist?” INEOS, ineos.com):

Religion and science are like oil and water. They might co-exist, but they can never mix to produce a homogeneous medium.

Nyet! Prof Stenger has probably never met a science journalist like me whose thinking is creative enough to see that, for instance, the objective is not to produce a homogeneous medium by mixing oil and water – but to allow the two not only to coexist but to cooperate with each other! Which is the major point of my essay today.

Now then, I am reading Courtney Mares’ article, “Nigeria’s Newest Cardinal Shares Secret Behind The Highest Mass Attendance In The World” (14 Feb 2023, CNA, catholicnewsagency.com) – and thinking:

Which of the 3 Nigerian Roman Catholic “secrets” can I borrow from to spread the scientific Gospel of Regenerative Agriculture – via spreading the Good News about Organic Agriculture!?

Ms Courtney says Cardinal Okpaleke believes that these 3 “secrets” have kept Nigerians “close to the sacraments generation after generation” – “Nigeria’s traditional worldview, the role of the family, and a sense of community within parishes.” And you know what? As a Filipino, I know that if we Filipino Catholics propagate those “virtues,” we will not only be able to cultivate more and deeper Catholics within Philippine communities but also sell more science to the people!

But how do you teach science to Catholic priests? You don’t! You talk to people – you simply ask permission from the priests to spread your “Gospel of Regeneration” – I just thought of this “gospel” now – to Catholic farmers inside and/or outside the walls of the church, anywhere in the community.

The “Gospel of Regeneration” – only the name is new, but I find that the “Gospel of Regenerative Agriculture” has been preached since 2019 – read “Activists Working To Expand Regenerative Agriculture In Great Lakes, Around The World” (03 Jan 2019, Transform, thetransformseries.net); Kevin Doyle Jones, co-founder of GatherLab, is being interviewed:

“What is the problem you [are trying to] solve and how do you solve it?”

Funding the missing gap to convert to regenerative agriculture within a community.

Pooling and sharing of risk to enable farmers to cover the three-year cost of migrating from conventional farming to organic and regenerative, which is beyond organic, to significant carbon sequestration through improved and deeper topsoil.

“Three-year cost of migrating from conventional farming to organic and regenerative” – why cannot Catholic scientists and journalists spread science as a shared desire for God?! Asking as a friend!@517

Michèle Boccoz, For The French’s Valentine’s “Gift” Of PhP9 Billion, This Filipino Says, “Je Vous Aime!” I Love You!

French Leave? No. French Love, Yes! Via Ms Michèle Boccoz, Ambassador of France, thru Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno, we Filipinos have a French offering of PhP9 Billion this Valentine’s month. Counting back 2 years, the Philippines signed a PhP14 Billion loan with France “to support local governments’ disaster response.” If you want to measure love of country, let it be in billions! 
(Diokno and Boccoz from manilatimes.net), “Regenerative” from iybssd2022.org)

On Facebook, I read today, Sunday, 19 Feb 2023, the good news from France to help us Filipinos to tackle the bad news: “Cash Countering Climate Change.” France is not sending us her Three Musketeers – friends, she is sending us funds to finance our own army of battlers of Climate Change!

Ronnel W Domingosays, “France Offers P8.87B To Help PH Battle Climate Change” (17 January 2023, Inquirer. business.inquirer.net):

The Philippines’ efforts to mitigate the impact of climate change gets an added boost as the government of France made available 150 million euros (around P8.87 billion) in further financing through a loan that supports the Climate Change Action Program (CCAP).

History & Lit – Now I'm reading Wikipedia’s encyclopedic entry on The Three Musketeers (en.wikipedia.org), and it says Alexander Dumas wrote the novel at “a time when the debate in France between republicans and monarchists was still fierce.” The story was first serialized from March to July 1844, 4 years before the French Revolution of 1848. This time, a reader lover of adventure, I am thinking of a Philippine Revolution in Climate Change!

Provided through the French Development Agency, the additional funding for the CCAP’s Subprogram 1 is intended to help the Philippines scale up its efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change.

The intention includes PH efforts “to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through the deployment of renewable energies, improving energy efficiency and deploying sustainable transport.”

I did not see but I am interested to find out how our Citizen Climate Change Muskeeters will combat and defeat the common enemies called “Farmer Poverty” and “Climate Change” that after all arise from the same cause: Chemical Agriculture!

You can’t take that away from me – after all, I am an Agriculturist, an alumnus of UP Los Baños, BSA major in Ag Edu, 1965 – and the son of an Ilocano farmer from Asingan, Pangasinan. I taught myself creative writing; I also taught myself digital creative writing, editing, and desktop publishing – up to and including producing journals and books.

A wide reader since high school, and a writer-from-home for the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) from 2000 to 2014, I began my intellectual journey into Climate Change when Al Gore and the IPCC co-won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 on their works on global warming.

I never left. Now then, I have been into Climate Change for the last 15 years. I have concrete ideas on how to be a Muskeeter fighting Farmer Poverty and Climate Change – via Regenerative Agriculture. I hope Mr Diokno is paying attention!@517

Queen Raquel Welch Is Dead. Long Live The Queen!

She died Wednesday, 15 Feb 2023; American actress, model & star Raquel Welch was 82. Filipino writer, I am 82, thank God! For her acting, she received a “Golden Globe” award in 1974 (at age 34); for my writing, I received the one-and-only historical “Outstanding Alumnus For Creative Writing” award from the UP Los Baños Alumni Association in 2011 (at age 71) – no other UP System alumnus recipient before or after. Raquel was dedicated to her art cultivating audiences in movies and on stage; Frank is dedicated to his art of cultivating soils in minds and on grounds – and now The Twain Shall Meet!

She was a Virgo, born Thursday, Sept 5; I am a Virgo, born Tuesday, Sept 17 – we were born in the same year: 1940. I am writing about Raquel Welch because of her love for her art: acting. I am writing about farmers because of my love for my art: journalism, and my field: Agriculture. Both arts are self-proclaimed.

She did not capitalize on her sex appeal with pictures; me, I would rather capitalize on my text appeal with pictures!

Above, lower image, about the anime is written: “Farming Life In Another World Teaser Visual Has Tia, Ru And Hiraku Enjoying The Abundant Farm” (26 Aug 2022, Leo Sigh, leosigh.com), and Michelle Topham writes:

The new “Farming Life In Another World” teaser visual features the beautiful angel Tia holding a bowl of freshly grown tomatoes in the foreground, while the cute blood-sucking vampire Ru Rurushi rushes down the orchard pathway towards protagonist, and master farmer, Hiraku Machio.

Hiraku’s beautifully abundant farmland stretches out around them.

In our real world, the blood-sucking vampire is called “Climate Change” and we need more master farmers like Hiraku Machio. What can we learn from Machio? Much! I can’t find the name of the writer, but s/he says:

After Hiraku dies of a serious illness, God brings him back to life, gives his health and youth back, and sends him to a fantasy world of his choice. In order to enjoy his second shot [at life], God bestows upon him the almighty farming tool!

All he can rely on is the knowledge he gained in his previous life and the power of the "universal farming tools" given to him by God. Even so, through trial and error, he is able to carve out his own land. Vampires, elves, angels, and even dragons gather around him, and his place of residence eventually develops into a village.

The “almighty farming tool” is not explained, but since it is given by God, I can only interpret it to be Organic Agriculture! Look at the lower image again, at the freshly grown tomatoes from a “beautifully abundant farmland.”

Above image: The 1966 British adventure fantasy “One Million Years B.C.” (Don Chaffey, Director) was “set in a fictional age of cavemen and dinosaurs coexisting together” (Wikipedia). In our world today, we cannot coexist with modern dinosaurs given birth to by Climate Change – we must conquer them with the almighty farming tool called Organic Agriculture!@517

 

Yes, Journalism Is Killing Itself Slowly, Even If Thinking Of The Nobel Peace Prize! Any Day, I Say, “Press Freedom Is Thinking Of My Own Nobel!”

Yes, I'm thinking of Filipina journalist & Rappler CEO Maria Ressa’s Nobel Peace Prize she co-won in 2021 with Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov. Thinking withoutenvy. Rather, I am thinking of my own Nobel with my “THiNK! Journalism” – the term & concept of which I first came out with on 24 Oct 2017. I have always been an original!

(“#Myth” from careerninja.in), “World Press” from republicworld.com)

In the meantime, the practitioners of Truth Journalism, including Rappler’s own journalists, had kept complaining about being prevented from “Seeing and Saying the Truth.” The problem with their Truth is that it cannot even pass the “Rotary 4-Way Test!” –

1. Is it the TRUTH? 2. Is it FAIR to all concerned? 3. Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS? 4. Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?

Today, I go back to my THiNK! Journalism that I had forgotten in the last 6 years.

My friend JAQ had inspired me today, Friday, 17 Feb 2023, to practice 100% my own THiNK! Journalism, to go after the Nobel Peace Prize on my own terms, my Communication for Development(ComDev) ethos – and not follow the tried-and-tested approach such as proven by Miss Ressa.

By the way, I am using my 9-year old Lenovo“ThinkPad” laptop with its Intel Corei7processor, even as I am editing a new book major-authored by UPLB Prof (Ret) Teodoro C Mendoza – the book is Big and on a big topic: Organic Agriculture(OA). My son-in-law Karl Cerni and his wife, my daughter Maria Lorenagifted me for my 82^nd birthday last year, Sept 17, with a new HP 15.6” laptop with an “AMD Ryzen” processor and 16 GB RAM –

Suddenly, my 82-year old overall digital speed became that of a 28-year old! Thank God!

Meanwhile, I have my old Lenovo and my old self beginning today 100% dedicated to OA, which is part of Regenerative Agriculture(RA). And so, Nobel Peace Prize, here I come!

Many people, including in my country the Philippines, claim that journalism is dying. No, I don’t believe so – they are just allowing others, or themselves, to see without seeing!

My 2017 essay was “Think! Journalism: Calling For Nobler Kinds Of People In Media” (24 Oct 2017, Creative Thinkering, creativethinkering.blogspot.com; I had invented Think! Journalism 22 Oct 2017.) Some 6 years later, I spell it thus: “THiNK!” but it still runs thus: Is it True? Is it Helpful? Is it Inspiring? Is it Necessary? Is it Kind? I said in that essay:

THINK! T? H? I? N? K? You must choose to answer all questions. Not choose which question to ask and answer. Think! journalism is journalism for the public; you as a journalist are answerable to your public conscience.

I even gave a slogan there: “Yak unto others what you want others yak unto you!”

Now then, as long as your yakking is in the name of ComDev, not necessarily in the form of THiNK! Journalism, proceed!@517

The Green Revolution Vs The Brown Revolution

In 1959, when I came in as Freshman at the UPCA, now UP Los Baños, IRRI was starting to become. In 1965, I graduated with a BSA major in Ag Edu; in 1966, IRRI “graduated” from low-yielding rice varieties to “IR8,” which produced almost 10 tons/ha – vs 01 ton in traditional varieties – with 120 kg of nitrogen (N) per hectare (“Miracle Rice,” Farming In The 1950s & 60s, livinghistoryfarm.org).

What happened? The whole rice world rejoiced – Rice, Rice, Rise! What happened? More than 60 years later, our farmers are deeper in debt and the Philippines is drowning in the Climate Crisis!

What has Miracle Rice wrought?!

“Naghangad ng kagitna, isang salop ang nawala.” Translation by Ling (Ling, ling-app.com): “He who takes a lot of risks loses more than he can gain.” My translation: “You lust more, you lose more.”

With IRRI’s Miracle Rice (IR8), we have been enjoying the high yields for more than 60 years – and suffering from Climate Change, which is brought about by greenhouses gases (GHGs) such as methane and nitrous oxide, unwanted byproducts using chemical N fertilizers. We get higher yields of rice; we also get higher yields of GHGs – we pay dearly for what we dearly desire!

According to Bill Ganzel (2007, “Miracle Rice,” Farming In The 50s & 60s, livinghistoryfarm.org):

The story of the Green Revolution in rice actually begins in India, moves to the Philippines and then throughout Southeast Asia. … The search for semi-dwarf rice varieties that could produce high yields under fertilization began at Cuttack.

In India, local scientists crossed a short japonica, Japanese or temperate, rice with taller indica, a tropical local [variety]. They were able to produce two good strains known as ADT-27 and Mahsuri that yielded well and were adapted to the Indian environment. ADT-27, in particular, created the first phase of the Green Revolution in rice.

So, actually, the world owes India the Green Revolution – and then again, we do not! Because the Green Revolution had brought along with it the necessary condition of chemical fertilizers, especially N and, along with N, Climate Change.

I go back to my UP Los Baños days – after I graduated. Sometime in 1966, an inveterate reader since high school, American & British literature, ransacking the open shelves of the UPLB library, I chanced upon the book Plowman’s Folly by American gentleman farmer Edward H Faulkner. From personal experience, among other things Mr Faulkner wrote, “The fact is that no one has ever advanced a scientific reason for plowing.”

And now I say, “The fact is that no one has ever advanced a scientific reason for fertilizing except to increase yield.” And as an agriculturist, I know that we can increase the yield of any crop naturally by applying organic matter on the soil in the form of compost or organic mulch.

Today, we need the Brown Revolution! And so I hereby challenge IRRI and/or PhilRice to grow, cultivate and produce rich harvests of knowledge about organic rice! Time to get off Climate Change!@517
(“Green Revolution” from stock.adobe.com, “Brown Revolution” from nature.com)

BBM From Japan Bringing Back 7 Deals – We Have To Think Forward With Innovations & iKnowledge!

Follow-up of my yesterday’s blogpost volunteering without being asked about what to do with the news on President Ferdinand“BBM” Marcos Jr’s fruitful visit to Japan, bringing back to Manila 7 deals, including Agriculture and the Digital Economy – 2 of my favorite topics! I earned my BSA from UP Los Baños, 1965; I learned my digital skills on my own, from writing to editing to desktop publishing. So, what else is new?! 
(“Think Forward 2023” from wearesocial.com), a Japanese website.

Yesterday, I blogged: “PH Agriculture – Good News And Bad News, Coming From Japan!” where I said: “BBM Sir, Let’s Go Digital In Organic Agriculture With Japan’s Expertise!” (15 Feb 2023, THiNK Journalism, ithinkjournalism.blogspot.com).

Yes Sir, BBM, I'm ready for my country enriching herself with Regenerative Agriculture (RA). Where “regeneration” means “rebirth.” That is, thinking forward, to indicate the target of an innovative PH Agriculture that is dedicated to solving Farmer Povertyand simultaneously resolving Climate Change.

I have been ready since 2017 with my “infusion of innovations/iKnowledge sharing” – see my essay of 30 July 2017, “William Dar's Farmer-Centric & Frank Hilario's Knowledge-Centric Agriculture” in my other blog, Frank A Hilario (frankahilario.blogspot.com), where I wrote, among other things:

As a background, the [lower] image [you see above is] a full-face relationship view of the basics of my Theory of the Infusion of Innovations… Ideally, it is Science that moves the Knowledge to the Journal in the form of a Paper which then publishes it, which then moves to or attracts the Media to produce News & Views, which then moves Knowledge to the People in terms of Data, or Info, or Fun, or Games. The theory is Infusion of Innovations; the process that carries out the Infusion is Knowledge Sharing. Fundamentally, deliberate knowledge sharing is what is lacking in Everett Rogers Theory of the Diffusion of Innovations…

In short, in Agriculture, we must transfer Knowledge from Here to There, from Us to Them – and the Internet is where it’s at! (No, Sir BBM, they don’t do much about this even in my alma mater University of the Philippines Los Baños, as UPLB does not even have its own Knowledge Bank! Teachers not teaching enough!

So, today, I am offering my BBM Sir! My concept of digital knowledge sharing in Organic Agriculture, which is part of Regenerative Agriculture (RA) starting with what we can learn from Japan with her digital expertises, plural. (I'm also editing a book on organic farming on rice and sugarcane.)

We should all “think forward” despite our “fragmented futures”
(“Think Forward 2023” from creativebrief.com)

Right now, I have to “think backward” – the last time I mentioned it was 2 years ago when I wrote “William Dar – PH Man Cultivating Our Cultivators. More, Cultivating Our Minds!” (08 June 2020, THiNK Journalism, blogger.com). Mr Dar had submitted his proposal for a Knowledge Bank he called “Open Academy for Philippine Agriculture (OpAPA) – which is what we needed yesterday yet! For our farmers for our sake, we have yet to explore the Internet!@517

 

PH Agriculture – Good News And Bad News, Coming From Japan!

From where I sit, on an executive chair that has stood the test of time (and my sitting sometimes all day), I can see that my President Ferdinand “BBM” Marcos Jr has brought from his first Japan’s official visit this February good news – and bad news!

Good News: “Marcos Visit: PH, Japan Ink 7 Deals On Infrastructure, Defense, Agriculture” (Sofia Tomacruz, 09 Feb 2023, Rappler, rappler.com). Ms Sofia says:

Through an MOC on agriculture, Marcos and Kishida agreed to establish a joint committee on agriculture to tackle opportunities for technology exchanges and the broadening of Philippine access to Japanese markets for agricultural projects.

Good News And Bad News: Ms Sofia also says:

(1st UPDATE) A memorandum of cooperation on information and communications technology aims to bring Japan's expertise to Philippine efforts to transition to a digital economy.

That implies that we Filipinos are not yet digital in economy, and as a digital denizen since 1991, I know that very well! So, is BBM going to be the Filipino Digital President? Why not!

Meanwhile, an MOC on ICT was signed to facilitate cooperation on the Philippines’ transition to a digital economy, including the development of more broadband networks and presence of more diverse 5G suppliers.

Thank you for the 5G – for my blogging, I rely on PLDT 5G within 24 hours a day!

The agreements also [seek] to bring in Japanese expertise in beyond 5G technologies and artificial intelligence.

How about bringing organic agriculture (OA) into the Philippines from Japan? I just learned that OA in Japan started sometime in the 1930s (Yoshitaka Miyake & Ryo Kohsaka, 03 June 2020, “History, Ethnicity, And Policy Analysis Of Organic Farming In Japan: When ‘Nature’ Was Detached From Organic,” journalofethnicfoods.biomedcentral.com).
(Lower image from pngwing.com)

I'm an agriculturist, an alumnus of UP Los Baños, BSA major in Ag Edu, 1965 – I began taking interest in organic agriculture (OA) outside UPLB classes; now, browsing in the UPLB Library’s open shelves sometime 1965-66, I discovered American gentleman farmer Edward H Faulkner’s book Plowman’s Folly (published 1943), on the pages of which I learned that, yes, plowing was bad – first of all, it destroyed the structure of the soil.

Of it, RK Schofield says (Nature, vol 153, pa 391, 1944):

WHERE is the folly? Mr Faulkner declares it to be with [plowmen] who bury green manures, weeds and stubbles many inches below the surface. … He advocates the use of the disk-harrow as a means of incorporating such materials into the soil surface.

That’s my organic farming!

This UPLB agriculturist is saying there is much to learn also from Japan about organic farming. Yoshitaka Miyake & Ryo Kohsaka say (03 June 2020, “History, Ethnicity, And Policy Analysis Of Organic Farming In Japan: When ‘Nature’ Was Detached From Organic,” Journal of Ethnic Foods, journalofethnicfoods.biomedcentral.com):

Japan’s organic agricultural history extends over 80 years, with well-known concepts such as the Fukuoka method or the more recent Teikei from the early twentieth century and the 1970s, respectively.

So, BBM Sir! Let’s go digital with organic agriculture – ready when you are!@517