Maverick organisms on the run

Dr Abe V Rotor

Golden Kuhol (Pomacea caniculata), introduced
originally as source of food

Giant African Snail (Achatina fulica), introduced by Japanese
soldiers during WWII, believed as agent of biological warfare.
Today it is a pest of a host of garden crops.

• The janitor fish, loved for its ability to clean the aquarium, for which it got its name, is now a pest in Laguna Bay, competing with the edible fish species, such as tilapia and carp.

• Golden kuhol or golden snail, imported in the seventies to support the government’s food production program, has turned into a maverick, now the number one pest of rice. More than half of our total riceland (3.5 million hectares) is attacked by this mollusk every planting season.

• The deadly African bees continue to invade and hybridize with domestic bees in the US as well as in other places, transmitting in their genes their aggressiveness and venom.

 Harlequin Bug

 Gambusia Fish

Kudzu, relative of makahiya (Mimosa) 

To be continued ...

Food Security is Green Revolution at the Grassroots: Self-Administered Test (True or False)

In celebration of World Food Day, 
October 16, 2018

Dr Abe V Rotor

Living with Nature Center
San Vicente Ilocos Sur
avrotor.blogspot.com 

Growing vegetables at home: source of additional income and hobby (San Juan, MM) 

1. Green Revolution is a term that refers to the development of agriculture, tracing it from the time man settled down to raise animals and plants up to the present in which genetically modified organisms (GMO) of plants and animals are being produced.

2. Green revolution does not encompass agro-processing such as the making of brewed coffee beans, patis and bagoong, wine and vinegar, milk, cheese and ham, and the like – because these are beyond the farmer’s capability - financially and technically.

3. Green revolution must fit well into the demands of the market, which means that the raising of crops and animal and all attendant activities must conform to such “market directed” principle.

4. We are still nomadic like our primitive ancestors were, in the sense that we still derive much of our food and other needs from the sea, hills and forest. Furthermore, we travel far and wide from our homes and families in search of our basic economic needs – food, clothing, shelter and energy. This neo-nomadic syndrome has been spurred by our modern way of living influenced by overpopulation, industrialization, science and technology.

5. Growing affluence and increasing level of living standard takes us farther and farther away from the basic concept of green revolution, whereby ideally a family lives under one roof guaranteed by the bounty of the land the members cultivate, and historically built within framework of culture and tradition.

6. Based on the previous question, growing affluence and standard of living is the reason why modern China cannot prevent its thousands – nay millions – of young inhabitants to move out of the confines of a once socialistic confine in search of the Good Life that they very much deserve.

7. The least sprayed vegetables – that is, vegetables that do not necessarily require the application of pesticides – are those that grow wild. Thus the ruling is, the more native a vegetable is, the more resistant it is to pest.

8. Green Revolution started as a movement in the Philippines way back in the fifties with the Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement during the time of President Ramon Magsaysay, with the youth at the helm, led by 4-H Clubs, Rural Improvement Clubs (RIC), Boys Scouts and Girls Scouts, public and elementary schoolchildren, and barrio folks.

9. The crowning glory of Philippine Green Revolution was the attainment of self-sufficiency in food and other agricultural products following a food crisis in the early seventies. Through M-99, Maisan 77, and many barangay food production programs, the country even surpassed sufficiency level and became a net exporter of rice and other food commodities.

10. When you introduce a new plant in your garden – a plant that has not been tried before – you are sure it is virtually free of pests, firstly because it did not bring with it the pests from its origin, and second, the local pests would take time to develop the taste for it.

11. The longest stage or phase of Green Revolution was the expansion of horizons during the colonial period whereby land was forcibly taken and consolidated into estates and haciendas by the colonists. One such case is our own haciendas, a number of them still are still existing and operating like President Cory’s family hacienda – Luisita – which was singularly exempted from land reform.

12. The corporate world swallowed up small businesses including small farms in the US, Europe and in fact all over the world, such that the capitalist robbed the entrepreneur of his resources, technology, market, and worst, his potentials and therefore his future. (Economies of scale –is this the nemesis of small business?)

13. Today’s fast emerging technologies continue to favor the capitalist thus making him grow even bigger (examples: McDonald's, San Miguel, Robina, Nestle’ and Jollibee conglomerate). This is what social scientists call Neo-colonialism, a kind of agriculture reminiscent of the colonial times. (Or is the trend today the opposite - the dinosaur syndrome is killing the beast.)

14. The most nutritious of all vegetables in terms of protein are those belonging to the legume family. In fact a number of legumes have higher protein content than meat.

15. If we rank from highest to lowest in protein content these vegetables should be listed as follows:  soybean, segidillas or calamismis (pallang), mungo, tomato, malunggay.

16. It is better to specialize on certain crops in your garden for practical management. If leafy vegetables, plant pechay, lettuce, mustard, alugbati, talinum, and you need the same kind of soil, topography, amount of water, tools, planting schedule and season, and market.

17. Mang Tonio is a simple farmer. He plants rice in his small paddy once a year because this is what other farms are doing, and it is tradition in the area. They say don’t break away sa naka-ugalihan. If you agree with Mang Tonio answer true, if not false.

Community-wide home gardening, San Juan MM

18. It is possible that a one-hectare farm can produce as much as a four-hectare farm does, even without additional amounts of inputs like fertilizer, pesticide and water.

19. The idea of cottage agro-industry is to make use of inferior quality products that bring more profit or value-added advantage. Examples: immature and broken peanut into butter, overripe banana and tomato for catsup, fruit fly infested guava and mango for puree; typhoon damaged sugarcane into vinegar, bansot piglet into lechon, unsold fish and shrimps into bagoong and patis, and the like.

20. Samaka is a movement, acronym of Samahan ng Masaganang Kakanin – the united effort of a group to have more plentiful food for their families. It is the precursor of successful food production programs later led by PACD (Presidential Arm in Community Development), RCPCC (Rice and Corn Production Coordinating Program) later to become National Food and Agriculture Council (NFAC) which implemented Masagana 99, Maisan 77, Manukan Barangay, Bakahang Barangay, Wheat Production, Soybean Production, and other production programs then under President Marcos. Unfortunately all these were virtually erased after the Edsa Revolution.

21. Botanically speaking, the parts of these plants we eat are classified as follows: cassava tuber is a root, so with kamote, peanut is a fruit, potato tuber is a stem, onion bulb is a leaf. T

22. When buying papaya, the more yellow the fruit appears, the more mature it had been picked from the tree. Avoid buying papaya that appears dominantly green and yellow or orange only at the ridges.

23. There are five kinds of vegetables according to the parts of the plant (botanical classification). The following are classified under at least two kinds: squash or kalabasa, ampalaya, malunggay, sinkamas, short sitao or paayap.

24. The production capacity of genetically modified crops of corn, potato, and soybean – the most common GMO food we are taking every day - has increased even without increasing the supply of nutrients in the soil. GMOs are the world’s ultimate recourse to feed an ever increasing population now approaching the 6.5 billion mark.

25. Our soil and climate are favorable to many crops. Let us plant our rice fields and corn fields after harvest season with the following crops so that we will not import them and spend precious dollars, and that, it is the Filipino farmer and not the foreign farmer whom we patronize and subsidize. Potato (potato fries), Soybean (soybean oil, TVP, tokwa, toyo, taho), White beans (pork and beans), wheat (pandesal, cake, noodles).

Farmers' market showing vegetables for sale near the Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet

Answers

False: 2,3,6,10,11,15,16,17,19,22,24,25

Rating

23-25 Very Good

20 -22 Good

16 -19 Fair

12 -15 Passed

Assignment

• 1. Let’s make a Lazy Man’s Garden at Home. What are plants considered literally tanim ng tamad, a syndrome many Filipinos fall into, a little bit of every thing (tingi-tingi), ningas kogon, makakalimutin, kulang sa tiyaga, and mapabaya’: papaya, malunggay, siling labuyo, katuray, ube, patola, kondol, upon, alugbati, talinum, patani, batao, segidillas, kumpitis.

• 2. Ano-ano ang mga halaman na nakakain na hindi itinatanim. (What edible plants simply grow spontaneously) ~

 Top producers of Vegetables in the World

In 2010, China was the largest vegetable producing nation, with over half the world's production. India, the United States, Turkey, Iran and Egypt were the next largest producers. China had the highest area of land devoted to vegetable production, while the highest average yields were obtained in Spain and the Republic of Korea.

Country	Area cultivated thousand hectares (2,500 acres) 40% ha	Yield thousand kg/ha (89 lbs/acre)	Production thousand tonnes (1,100 short tons) (  2,000 pounds (907.19 kg).
China	23,458	230	539,993
India	7,256	138	100,045
United States	1,120	318	35,609
Turkey	1,090	238	25,901
Iran	767	261	19,995
Egypt	755	251	19,487
Italy	537	265	14,201
Russia	759	175	13,283
Spain	348	364	12,679
Mexico	681	184	12,515
Nigeria	1844	64	11,830
Brazil	500	225	11,233
Japan	407	264	10,746
Indonesia	1082	90	9,780
South Korea	268	364	9,757
Vietnam	818	110	8,976
Ukraine	551	162	8,911
Uzbekistan	220	342	7,529
Philippines (#19)	718	88	6,299
France	245	227	5,572
Total world	55,598	188	1,044,380

20 Philosophies of Ageing Gracefully ..

20 Philosophies of Ageing Gracefully 

In Celebration of the Elderly Filipino Week - Oct 1 to 7, 2018. Theme “Igalang ang Nakatatanda at ang Kanilang mga Karapatan.” (Respect the Elderly and their Rights.)

Only good wine becomes mellow with age. Old age is the time you harvest what you planted in youth. The man is the child of yesterday - but the child in you must always live on.

Dr Abe V Rotor

avrotor.blogspot.com 

Living with Nature Center

San Vicente, Ilocos Sur 

Now in their seventies, author and high school classmates, enjoy the fruits of a well deserved life in their respective professions, families, leadership and service to humanity in the fields of law, business, agriculture, education, media, engineering, civil and military service. This group represents other alumni of the Divine Word College of Vigan, formerly Colegio de la Imaculada Concepcion. This article is dedicated to the memory of their mentors, principally Fr. Panfilo Guianan (HS Director), Rev Frs Salzman, Leisring, and Creder, Mr Ricardo Avila (principal), and Mr Demetrio Rotor (adviser). And also to the memory of their classmates who have gone ahead. This article is an expression of gratitude to their Alma Mater.

1. Ageing is like good wine; it becomes mellow with age. But only good wine becomes mellow with age. And the longer ageing is, the better is the quality of the wine. We can compare it also with wood. “A seasoned timber never gives (up).” A seasoned teacher is wise.

2. Ageing distills knowledge into wisdom. It’s the ripening of fruits on the tree. Knowledge is not all useful; it leaves a lot of wastes. Which I call infollution (information pollution). Like the so many flowers and developing fruits of a huge mango tree, those that fall are useless knowledge; those that do not ripen are knowledge that can’t stand by themselves. Only those that remain full and ripe at the end are like wisdom. Wisdom is tested by timelessness and universality.

3. Old age is harvesting what you planted in youth. The man is the child of yesterday. Start early in life to plant the seed of success, more so, the seed of service. Monuments are not built for no reason at all. And even without a monument a good deed is monumental in the hearts and minds of those you serve and those who believe in you – especially those you have changed their lives.

4. Ageing physically and physiologically - this is inevitable. But don’t let the mind and the heart age prematurely and uselessly. Like faculty, practice makes them alive and full. Reason, thoughts, imagination, love, compassion should not go to waste by chronological age.

5. The child in you must always live. That Little Prince that rules over the grownup in you that says “a matter of consequence is not only those that are urgent and important,” is also preserving the ideal. Idealism must live together with realism.

6. There are those who are late bloomers; they bloom with age. Catalyze the blossoming of the beautiful things – how late they may come in life. It is better to bloom in old age than to blossom early – and the blossom just fades away. You’ll even regret it because it could mean to you as failure.

7. In old age don’t lose your trophies and medals - because of one false move, worst, if deliberate. Or because of a persistent habit you thought you can get away with even in old age. There is nothing more regretful if you fall into disgrace in old age – you don’t have a second life to amend for it.

8. Hold your horses. Stop, look, listen. Getting older adopts “slow but sure” attitude towards situations and decisions. “Quick to think, but slow to act,” may be appropriate in old age. That is why in traditional societies, decision makers are old people, village elders.

9. Make your assets grow for others, as you prepare to leave the world. Have the philanthropic heart. You can’t take your riches to your tomb. The Egyptians never did. The young pharaoh Tutankhamen left his belongs for the afterlife in his tomb, now in the Egyptian Museum. . Economics does not work well with each one of us holding a treasure chest and locking it up. Imagine if the world is dominated by Madoff, by AIG, by Lehman Brothers - even with their generosity.

10. Older societies are more peaceful than younger societies. Make peace as you grow older. Old men don’t go to war. It is the brave who dies young. “Where have all the flowers gone?” speaks the youth cut down in their prime. All wars – ancient, religious, political – the young is the sacrificial lamb. People as they grow older can’t simply be made easy tools for power and greed. .

11. Expanded family ties; three generations not in a row, but in a chain. For the first time in the history of man that four three generations live under one roof. And soon four generations - as longevity increases. While in the city the family is getting small, agrarian families is expanding because of longer life span.

12. Scientific and technological thrusts are toward ageing, longevity: rejuvenation, on-site cloning of tissues and organs, ergonomics (designing tools and materials that fits well to the comfort of the user) - geriatrics, gerontology (all about the science and caring of the aged.)

13. Extension of retirement, active retirement – this is the trend today for old people. Soldiers become security guards; teachers become professor emeritus, executives as consultants, professions doing odd jobs. Age of retirement is not after all boring. So when does one really retire?

14. Foster, adopt, and have the needy, the homeless, the orphaned, the abandoned as your own children especially if you are childless. Even then, by the time you are very old, your children shall then be on their own. Be like Brad Pit and Angelina Jolie who have adopted children of different color. Sponsor scholarships for the deserving but are unable to pursue their studies.

15. Resurrection and immortality are myths. Humans will always remain mortals. More than a hundred corpses of rich Americans are in cryonic tanks waiting for the time to resurrect the. DNA extracted from cadavers and human fossils will never make a living replica of the departed or deceased.


Famous Filipino writers (left to right): Sedfrey Ordoñez, Ophelia A Dimalanta, Hortencia Santos Sankore, Larry Francisco, and Jose Garcia Villa


16. Life cycle is universal given to everything, living or non-living. But with man’s rationality we can plot our life cycle, on so many socio-economic matters. The late Justice Secretary Ordoñez wrote a book, Life Cycle. He said the inevitable is biological, but the way we live our lives, is within much under our control and will. “Men choose to live long which they have no control of, yet refuse to live nobly within their will.” So said the great Roman Philosopher Cicero.

17. Nature is selfish within your lifetime – you care so much for those close to your genes, to the point of dying for them. But nature, after you are gone is altruistic after you are gone; it distributes your genes to where they will most fit in the name of evolution through which a species should be best equipped in order to survive. We can hardly trace our family tree beyond the third generation. Where are the offspring of the pharaohs, of the King of Siam?

Severino Reyes a.k.a. Lola Basyang, wrote his first story for children at the age of 75. He wrote hundreds of children's stories for the stage, comic books and cinema.   Top TV hosts and artists Ms Lisa Macuja and Luz Fernandez (Lola Basyang) perform on screen and stage Severino Reyes' Obra Maestra -  Mga Kuwento ni Lola Basyang. 

18. Kindness is key to fulfillment; it is also the Golden Rule. “Treat an old man as you wish men to treat you when you are old.” Say Chaucer in Pardoner’s Tale. But be kind yourself as an old man or woman. And that kindness must be unconditional. ARK in Evan the Almighty means – Act of Random Kindness. That’s the way to change the world, so said God in that film.

 Fr James Reuter SJ, playwright, author, spiritual adviser and Ramon Magsaysay Awardee, remained active way past ninety.

19. Don’t just pass people along the way. Stop, help them, feed the hungry, give water to the thirsty, visit the imprisoned, clothe the naked, comfort the lonely, and heal the sick. In Matthew 25, Christ said, “What you have done to the least of my brother, you have done it to me.” Indeed this is the most meaning act of a human to humanity. You deserve a place in heaven.

20. Facing death is a beautiful thing to one who has reached old age. It’s like a candle in its final brightness. Angelus to the old who is dying unifies the family, gathers the broken fragments of relationships. Bonding is strengthened. It’s time for the living to say the kindest things about the departed. Let the occasion be a memorable and lasting one. Dying is leaving to the living a new hope, renewed love, and a new beginning. ~

Alternative Energy Sources - Solution to Spiraling Cost of Fossil Fuel

Alternative Energy Sources 

 Solution to Spiraling Cost of Fossil Fuel 

These are alternative sources of energy to augment our dwindling fossil fuel.  The prices of gasoline and other petroleum products continue to push inflation worldwide to the brink of economic recession, if not 
depression. 

LIVING with NATURE CENTER
San Vicente, Ilocos Sur
Dr Abe V Rotor


Modern wind turbines (windmills), Bangui, Ilocos Norte. They provide clean and safe source of energy along coastline and mountain ranges.  

Some developments of the wind turbine as the world's fastest growing "green energy":

• USA: Oklahoma is home of the largest wind farm in the US. In Oregon one windfarm generates 845 megawatt (MW).  Wind power in California makes up about 6.5% of the state’s electricity, as of 2014.

• China: The Gansu Wind Farm in China is the largest wind farm in the world, with a target capacity of 20,000 MW by 2020.

• India has the world’s largest offshore wind-focused and the most powerful wind turbine in the world. Its 80-meter long blades a swept area of 21,124 square meters.  A single turbine alone can power 8,300 average households

• Disadvantage: Wind turbines kill an estimated 140,000 to 328,000 birds each year in North America, making it the most threatening form of green energy.

Small Water Impounding Project (SWIP) produces hydroelectric needs of a community. It also serves as water reservoir for the home and farm.  Other advantages:

• boosts tourism (ecotourism)
• creates favorable mini-climate (cools the surroundings, increases Oxygen level, absorbs CO2)
• serves as buffer against strong wind, filters dust and Carbon particulates
• provides construction wood,  firewood, other raw materials for local industries. 
• demonstrates the features of agro-forestry and dendro-forestry (tree farming).  
• favors the conditions that provide high biodiversity (species composition), and balanced environment (ecosystem).
• offers various opportunities of research and extension, links the academe with the community. 

Garbage recycling produces energy from garbage dump by incineration and composting, Payatas, QC

One way to generate electricity is to burn solid waste, like the material found in landfills. Instead of a traditional landfill, a community might have a waste-to-energy facility that incinerates garbage, transforming chemical energy to thermal energy. That thermal energy is transformed into electrical energy, usually by turning a turbine. Another energy resource that comes from our garbage is the methane gas that is produced as the waste decays. This gas can be used as fuel.
(From: How Is Waste Converted into Energy? By QUEST, Internet  )


Here is a short list of renewable energy sources in response to queries on how to cope up with the crisis of dwindling supply and soaring price of fossil fuel.

1. Wind power farm, re-inventing the Dutch windmill (Remember the novel, Don Quijote, Man from La Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes?), farm type wind mills to generate electricity and pump ground water. Wind turbine generators (WTGs)- In Bangui, Ilocos Norte, there are 20 modern WTGs.

2. Ethanol from sugarcane, sugar beets and root crops (cassava) – There is a debate on the wisdom of converting food into fuel, focusing on the scarcity of human food in developing countries. There is also displacement of the other uses of these crops in industry.

3. Biogas: home type (China and India models), farm model (Madamba Maya Farms), community (energy from garbage), commercial types, mainly methane.

4. Composting – production of organic fertilizer, soil conditioners.

5. Solar energy: reflected light (mirror concentrator), desalination, direct drying, solar panels, solar battery/cell, Ex. Telephones tap power of sun, solar car (Sunraycer GM crossed Australia on a desert route at ave 24 miles per hour

6. Fire in the Earth: geothermal energy; hot rocks. Water is pump to a depth up to two miles (Britain), circulates in crack, becomes hot up to 200 centigrade and comes through a borehole which then turns a turbine. Anglo-French link Old Red Sandstone 76 centigrade hot enough to heat buildings. Trapping volcanic heat. Hot water in island, Los Baños.

7. New sails for sea vessels (Back to the time of sailing ships.

8. Surging energy of the sea: waves, tides, heat content, salty water itself, ocean currents (gully wave generator, wave power, OTEC Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion, CLAM – British wave pressure system, Japanese osmosis system at estuaries. .

9. Biodegradable plastics for biogas and compost production

10. Firewood as product of farming firewood crops such as kakawate, aroma (kandaroma Ilk), ipil-ipil.

These are alternative sources of energy to augment our dwindling fossil fuel.  The prices of gasoline and other petroleum products continue to push inflation worldwide to the brink of economic recession, if not depression. ~

Posing before a Wall Mural of Nature. How real are the scenes?

Posing before a Wall Mural of Nature.  

How real are the scenes? 

Welcome to LIVING with NATURE CENTER

Photo session before Floor-to-Wall Murals

San Vicente, Ilocos Sur

                                                           Dr Abe V Rotor

.

You can be a Gulliver in Jonathan Swift's fiction novel;

Everything's so small, but only illusion of the mind;

Imagery is more powerful than reason, so with fantasy,

loftier than reality, where happiness is rare to find.

.

You can lift the huge universe, or explore its depth:

the ocean, the sky, yonder beyond the horizon;

Art, thy magic supreme, you make us laugh or weep,

to us each a masterpiece in its own

even to those who are yet to be born.

Waterfall on the wall, who are these fair ladies,

 but happy children many years ago;

they bring back sweet memories and stories -   

and sad songs of your demise, too.

Treetops, the boundary of land and sky,

wonder what it  feels to be here;

where the birds roost and fly,

and living things barely stir.

Pictorial Essay: Children of the Dumpsite

"Where have all the lovable, adorable angels on earth gone?

Gone to other side of heaven - who have seen them, anyone?"

Dr Abe V Rotor
LIVING with NATURE  CENTER

San Vicente, Ilocos Sur 

Write a Pictorial Essay about these photos. Acknowledgement: Internet photos.  You may use your work in school and community as research   were sourced from the Internet.

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