Food Crisis Series 1
Food Security is Green Revolution at the Grassroots
Bring back agriculture to the people!
Dr Abe V
Rotor
Answers to the Self-Administered Test in Green Revolution
True or False (Analyze answers, discuss in class or with a group )
Ordinary
people like us can secure for ourselves and family enough food and proper
nutrition. This is food security in action. It is food security that gives us
real peace of mind. The biological basis does not need farther explanation. It
is the key to unity and harmony with the living world.
A Green Revolution Beauty (Internet Photo)
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. T
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 technologically. F
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. F
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 forests. 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. T
Home gardening vs commercial gardening (Commercial farming is market-directed, requiring huge capital outlay and intensive labor force outside the family.)
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. T
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 citizens to move
out of the confines of a once socialistic system in search of the Good Life that
they very much deserve. F
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. T
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. T
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
under President Ferdinand Marcos. Through Masagana-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.
T
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. F
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 are still
existing and operating like the family hacienda – Luisita – which was
singularly exempted from land reform. F
Latest Green Revolution - Go
Natural, Organic Farming
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?) T
13. Today’s fast emerging
technologies continue to favor the capitalist thus making him grow even bigger
(examples: McDonalds, 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.) T
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. T
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. F
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. F
Practical hydroponics on the village level using local and recycled materials
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 traditional in the area. They say don’t break
away sa naka-ugalihan. If you agree with Mang Tonio answer true.
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. F
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. F
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, these were downplayed after the
Edsa Revolution. T
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. F
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. T
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. F
School gardening
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). F
26. The role of Green Revolution
generates in supplying food for a fast-growing population is foremost even at
the expense of clearing forest, leveling hillsides, reclaiming swamps – and
even farming the sea. F
27. Talinum is a
small tree that is why it is so easy to grow, and will last for a long time,
season after season and you have vegetables throughout the year. Alugbati is
tree like malunggay. In fact, they usually grow together in some forgotten
corner, along dikes and fences, around open well, and does not need care at all
practically speaking. Alugbati is best as salad, cooked with mungo, beef stew, sinigang,
bulanglang. F
28. Agro-ecology will always
clash – there is no compromise. Either you are an ecologist or you are an
economist. Take eco-tourism, eco-village, etc.) F
29. All these plants are
propagated by cutting. All you need to do is cut-and-plant a branch or stem
– malunggay, kakawate or madre de cacao, katuray,
ipil-ipil, cassava, sugarcane, talinum, alugbati, kamias. F
30. Homesite for the Golden Years
(HGY) has the features of a integrated garden, enterprise, agro-industry,
eco-sanctuary. The key is to supply this Patch of Eden (A Slice of Paradise)
with all the amenities of modern living for senior citizens. T
31. The area required for a
Homesite for the Golden Years is greatly variable and flexible; it can be as
small as 100 square meters to 10 hectares in area. This allows evolution of, as
many models as one could think of. F
32. The numerous hanging round
fruits (tubers) on the stem of ube (Dioscorea alata)
are the ones we plant, especially on large scale. F
33. Acclimatization means helping
introduced plants and animals get adapted to their new environment. There are
those that succeed but can’t reproduce; while others become better of that
their counterparts they left behind. T
34. Based on the previous
question, there are plants that have not been fully acclimatized even after
many years so that extreme attention is given to them like Crucifers –
cauliflower, cabbage, wonbok, celery, lettuce, broccoli. T
Urban home gardening. Open in this blog Urban Home ardening avrotor.blogspot.com
35. Bagging with ordinary paper
and/or plastic bags and sacks is necessary to protect from the dreaded fruit
fly the fruits of guava, mango, jackfruit, ampalaya, durian, orange, avocado,
mangosteen, guyabano and atis. F
36. Green thumb is a gift of
naturalism. Only those who have this genetic gift are chosen caretakers of
God’s Garden of Eden. Others have the equivalent gift in taking care of
aquariums, house pets, children’s nursery. F
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ASEAN commitment to regional food security, food aid from the UN or US may simply ease the impact of food shortage or inequity in its distribution, but these are but palliative measures.
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37. We have our local pansit:
sotanghon comes from rice while bihon comes mungo. We
import noodles, miki and lomi made from wheat, while macaroni and spaghetti are
made from semolina wheat or pasta. T
38. Value-added, a term in
manufacturing gave rise to a new taxation E-VAT. To cope up with the added
burden on the part of both entrepreneur and consumer, why not process your
product and get instead the benefit of the new law? Example. Don’t just sell your
palay harvest, have it milled sold as rice, make flour out of it, make puto and bihon,
and others. T
39. Based on the same question
above, to get the benefits of VAT, market your own produce; be an entrepreneur,
a middleman/trader and of course, a producer. T
40. Start by planting the seeds
of the following crops if you go wish into immediate commercial production –
because the seeds of these plants are plentiful, you have no problem of supply:
chico, guava, orange, mango, rambutan, lanzones, avocado, tiesa, atis,
guayabano – as well as others that produce plenty of seeds. That’s how
nature intended it to be. F
41. Seeds always turn out
genetically true to type. Big mango fruits come from seeds of big mango fruits,
big guava means big guava, sweet pomelo – sweet pomelo, seedless atis –
seedless atis, red pakwan – red pakwan. F
42. Just follow the direction of
the sun when you plant by rows and plots – north to south, so that there is
less overshadowing of plants. In this case you may increase your harvest by as
much as 10 percent. F
43. Extend the shelf life of
fruits such as mango, avocado, atis, guayabano, nangka, by rubbing
salt at the end of the stem, the base of the fruit. F
44. Momordica charantia is
the scientific name of ampalaya. Why spend for commercial food supplement in
bottle, syrup, tablets, pills or dry herbal preparations as advertised - Momordica
or Charantia, or Ampalaya Plus? (Write true for each recipe, if you agree)
45 to 49. These are simple
recipes. Write true for each recipe, if you agree.
- All you need is buy a bundle
of fresh ampalaya tops made into salad and dipped with bagoong and
vinegar. It’s good for the whole family.
- Add ampalaya leaves to mungo
and dried fish or sautéed pork.
- Pinakbet anyone? Native or wild
ampalaya is cut in half or quarter without severing the cut.
- Ampalaya at delatang
sardinas.
Bahay Kubo – concept and model of simple,
happy and self-sufficient living on the countryside.
50. Ordinary people like us can
secure for ourselves and family enough food and proper nutrition. This is food
security in action. It is food security that gives us real peace of mind. The
biological basis does not need farther explanation. It is the key to unity and
harmony in the living world. Queuing for rice defeats the image of a strong
economy. High prices of food do not give a good reflection either. How about
ASEAN, UN, WHO?
ASEAN commitment to regional food security, food aid from the UN
or US may simply ease the impact of food shortage or inequity in its
distribution, but they are but palliative measures. And having a dreamer Joseph
in public food depot is not reliable either. It is green revolution at the
grassroots that assures us of not only food but other necessities of life – and
self-employment. It is that piece of Paradise that has long been lost that
resurrect in some corner of your home. Paradise is not lost, if you create one.
Do you agree?
Acknowledgement: Internet Photos
Lesson on former Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid 738 DZRB Green Revolution Test
(Abe V Rotor and Melly Tenorio) August 27, 2007)
Capiz windowpane shell (top left), and other edible species. 
