Lesson on TATAKalikasan Ateneo de Manila University
87.9 FM Radyo Katipunan, 11 to 12 a,m, Thursday (Aug 29, 2024)
INTEGRAL ECOLOGY
Integral ecology is a holistic approach to ecology, emphasizing human and social dimensions, and the interconnectedness of life on Earth. It studies the relationships between living organisms and the ecosystem in which they develop. The concept has been adopted by Pope Francis in his encyclical Laudato si' from 2015.
Dr Abe V Rotor
Living with Nature School on Blog avrotor.blogspot.com
Co-Host with Fr JM Manzano SJ
and Prof Emoy Rodolfo, AdMU
Part 1 - Bioethics and Environment
Part 2 - Food Security is Green Revolution
at the Grassroots
Part 3 - Agro-Ecology Models
Part 4 - Farming is a way of living, a mode of life
Part 5 - Let's Save Nature from Genetic Engineering
ANNEX A - A Prayer for Our Environment from Pope Francis' Laudato Si'
ANNEX B - Therapeutic Effects of VIOLIN AND NATURE
ANNEX C - The 7 Deadly sins, according to Mahatma Gandhi and the Vatican compared
Part 1 - Bioethics and Environment
International Congress on Bioethics - A Reaction
Dr Abe V Rotor
Macli-ing, a staunch protector of ancestral lands in Kalinga-Apayao; award on river conservation, a tribute.
It is a special privilege to be a member of the panel of reactors in this international congress on bioethics. I am specially honored to react on the paper presented by a distinguished expert, Dr. Michael (Cheng-tak) Tai, a topic which deals with the greatest revolution that has ever gripped the world - a revolution which has no boundaries – physical, political, religious, cultural and economic – Environmental Revolution.
Environmental revolution has actually started with the age of industrialization, and it will take a very long time and a very complex process to be able to settle it. Environmental revolution does not pit man against nature, as it had been since the dawn of mankind. It is not the conventional revolution of society where man is pitted against man, or nation against nation for political reasons. It is not religious war. It is not a war of ideologies.
For the first time we humans must work together to preserve nature for the very survival of our species, and for the sake of saving Mother Earth, our only home and spaceship which carries all of us in our journey into the perilous unknown universe. It is a war we cannot afford to lose because it also spells the survival of the whole living world.
Let me state the some environmental concerns related to the topic of Dr. Tai’s paper, and relate them with current situations, understanding and outlook.
There are conflicting views of change.
Scientific knowledge and government policies often disagree and run into conflict at each other. Economics and ecology, though they share a common root word and foundation, are strange bedfellows, so to speak.
Yet these entities support common goals geared toward change. Change has to be viewed more than the measures of GNP, ROI, currency exchange rate, balance of trade, and the like, and should not only be confined to Human Development Indices, such as literacy rate, mortality rate and population density.
While these are considered immediate parameters mainly to benefit man and his society, certain questions on sustainability and environmental preservation are left unanswered. How do we ensure future generations. We feel more and more wary about the term progress. We ask ourselves what is “progress without conscience?” And whose development? What is the relationship between progress with posterity?
I remember the late Dr. Dioscorro Umali, national scientist, who addressed the graduating class of UP Diliman in 1992 with this moving statement, “Be the heroes we never were.” The essence of his speech is that the previous - and especially the present generation - have left little for the next generations to inherit. “We have not only abused the bounties of Nature,” he said, “we have destroyed her as well. The hero concept of Dr. Umali revolutionizes traditional and conventional definition of a hero. He is more than a nationalist, an economist, or an ideologist as we know, but a hero for Mother Earth, borrowing the term of Time Magazine.
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Today, rather than defending himself against nature, man realized, he needed to defend nature against himself. - AV Rotor, Light from the Old Arch
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Who are heroes for Mother Earth?
Environmental movements have roots traced to ancient cultures as can be gleamed from our own centuries old Ifugao Rice Terraces. Throughout history as civilizations grew and spread the environment became a sacrificial lamb. Such euphoric phrases “all roads leading to Rome,” “the beauty that glory that was Greece, the grandeur that was Rome,” “the sun never sets on English soil,” and the eight wonders of the world may reflect man’s ultimate achievements, yet all these were ephemeral in the mist of time in man’s dreams. In the end, it was nature that took them from the hands of man. The loss of natural environments has lead to the decline of civilizations and their subsequent demise.
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Revival of environmental awareness came at the heels of the Renaissance. In the 12th century St. Francis of Assisi brought a new concept of devotion. Brother Sun, Sister Moon, and all the creatures on Earth our friends, laid down the foundation of naturalism in the Christian church reviving much of the Aristotelian naturalism. It is fitting that St. Francis of Assisi is regarded as the father of ecology.
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Time Magazine came up with a list of heroes for Planet Earth, among them are naturalist philosophers or conservationist philosophers are Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, John Muir, Aldo Leopold, and Rachel Carson.
• Ralph Waldo Emerson claimed that “behind nature, throughout nature, spirit is present.”
• Henry David Thoreau spoke of the side of “truth in nature and wilderness over the deceits of civilization.”
• Muir believed that “wilderness mirrors divinity, nourishes humanity, and vivifies the spirit.”
• Leopold was behind the development of policies in wilderness and game management. “Wilderness is the raw material out of which man has hammered the artifact called civilization.”
• Rachel Carson published Silent Spring, which dramatized the potential dangers of pesticides to food,
wildlife, and humans causing wide spread damage to the ecosystem.
• Chico Mendes was a front liner in environmental conservation. He lost his life defending the concept of “extractive reserves” to conserve the Brazilian Rainforest that provided livelihood of the people against the conversion of the forest into ranches and plantations.
Other heroes of planet Earth cited by Time include
• Barbara Ward, author of Only One Earth which shaped the UN environmental conference.
• Ernest Schumacher who did not believe in endless growth, mega-companies and endless consumption, author of Small is Beautiful, a best seller since the sixties.
• Jacques-Yves Cousteau, oceanographer who espoused the need to arrest the declining health of the oceans.
. In the Philippines, Macli-ing, a staunch protector of ancestral lands in Kalinga-Apayao from the encroachment of the mammoth Upper Chico River dam, was gunned down allegedly to silence him. All aver the world there are the likes of Macli-ing, like Chico Mendes, and Ken Saro-Wiwa, a leader from the Ogoni tribe in Nigeria, and many more who, we may compare to the Unknown Soldier, but this time a soldier in defense of Mother Nature.
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We must be prudent in endorsing people for their contributions to the environment until parameters are clearly set, and that we should allow time to make the final judgment. A case in point is DDT, the miracle pesticide against malaria in the forties and fifties. For this the discoverer received the Nobel Award. But in the following years it was discovered that DDT is a poison that persists in the food chain, making it harmful to living organisms and deleterious to human health. AVR
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People have varying opinions when defining Environmental Philosophy.
There are those who believe that nature shall serve humanity. On the other hand there are those who believe that humanity shall serve nature. And there are those who say, it is “something in between”.
Nature, growth, and progress are concepts that we all use, but which we seldom define either in discussion or to ourselves. We speak about environmental ethics, environmental philosophy, eco-philosophy, and so on, but what do we put into these concepts? We seldom make them explicit or draw conclusions from them. “Trying to answer these philosophical questions does not, of course, in itself solve any environmental problems,” say ecologists Enger and Smith, “but on the other hand it is questionable whether we can solve these problems without discussing them on a philosophical level.”
It is then important to view environmental philosophy with ethics and morals. Ethics is a branch of philosophy that seeks to define fundamentally what is right and what is wrong, regardless of cultural differences. Morals differ somewhat from ethics because morals reflects the predominant feelings of a culture about ethical issues.
How do we illustrate this? A student of mine asked me this question, “Is it a sin to cut a tree?” This question touches ethics and morals, above social and economic considerations. It also pertains to legislation, such as whether we should advocate total log ban or selective logging. It even boils down to analyzing a syndrome known as “tragedy of the commons.” Let us analyze it this way.
a. The naturalistic concept that trees are the source of life is losing its essence as communities grow, and as people tend to move and live in urban places. It is a concept that is being taken for granted even as people become learned. Yet since evolutionary time plants have been providing the basic needs of man – food, clothing, shelter, medicine and energy. The harvesting of plants and their products has been part of human sustenance, as such they must be used properly. This ethnic view was also the basis of early agriculture. It is the key to a sustainable relationship between man and nature that lasted for eons of time.
b. Like Gold Rush, new lands became the target of economic exploitation, as the frontiers were pushed to the limit. New lands were placed under agriculture, which included our own Mindanao. Accessibility to forests and the wildlife became more and more feasible. Original forests were replaced with ranches, and plantations. Economics was the name of the game. In spurred the second green revolution, and agriculture dominated the trade and industry of the world. It eroded the ethnic relationship between man and nature. Beliefs about the tree spirit, forest deities (Maria Makiling), and nature worships have become mere superstitions and legends relegated to books and comics.
c. The final blow followed – industrialization. It is not only food that preoccupied man. Want over need incessantly drives man to convert lands into golf courses, human settlements, industrial sites, and all kinds of infrastructures. Imagine how easy, and how short a time it takes to destroy a whole forest which nature built for hundreds if not thousands of years, with giant machines of today. It is said that by the time we finish reading a paragraph of average length, three hectares of forest shall have been destroyed.
d. Post-modernism – a paradox of living tomorrow as we grope at the forefront of progressive innovation which usually means “violating traditional norms or ideas in all fields if human concern,” quoting Dr. Florentino Hornedo. “The human being who has abandoned his essence, nature and origin has also given up purpose and aim of existence. Life then becomes a “free play” of what forces may come which construct existence. Neither is there personhood or self to be ethically responsible for one’s action.”
I use this statement to raise questions of accountability of our actions, individually or by group. A businessman who is armed with a franchise to cut down a forest is understood to have accepted the attendant responsibility stipulated in the contract, which may include provisions in selective logging and replanting. But these are far from sufficient in providing the vital safety net of protecting the community and the environment.
I go back to the question, “Is it a sin to cut a tree?” This time the concept of the action has far reaching consequences based on the above-mentioned premises. I would return the question with reference to actual incidents.
• Who is responsible for the Ormoc City (Southern Leyte) tragedy caused by mudslide from a logged watershed? In this incident hundreds of residents were killed and millions of pesos were lost.
• The tragedy was repeated ten years after but on a lesser scale. As the perpetrators in the first tragedy have remained scot-free, so with those in the second tragedy.
• Five years have passed since the Real, Quezon, landslide that was similarly caused by massive illegal logging. What actions have government and society done?
• The Marinduque case of poisoning rivers and coastlines with mine tailings, which as a result, continue to destroy the ecosystem and deprive thousands of fisher folks from their livelihood. To date after twenty years the issue remains unsolved.
• Deserts continue to expand as a result of human activities. So with siltation of rivers and lake, shortening their usefulness and life span.
• Our Pantabangan dam, Ambuklao dam, and Binga dam, are heavily silted as a result of cutting down trees on their watershed. It is indeed a waste.
• All over the world we find similar cases: the shrinking of the Aral Sea in Russia, desertification, and marginalization of farmlands.
• The worst result in the endangerment of natural habitats and species, leading to irreversible loss of ecosystems and biodiversity.
All these lead us to re-examine our values. It challenges to look deeper into a paradigm of salvation through the regard we have on our environment.
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There are few frontiers of production left today. We have virtually pushed back the sea and leveled off the mountain. Prime lands have all been taken, swamps have been drained, and even deserts are being reclaimed. But as we continue to explore the marginal edges of these frontiers the more we are confronted with high cost of production that is levied on the consumer, and more importantly, the danger of destroying the fragile environment. AVR
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Ecological Paradigm (Why is Mother Earth complaining?)
The prolificacy of the human species sans war and pestilence, plus growing affluence of our society led to a population explosion which doubled in less than fifty years. We are now over six billion. This paradigm, master and subject have joined hands to exploit the earth’s finite resources. Our best economists may not be good housekeepers of Nature. While the aim is directed at the Good Life, they have unwittingly reduced the very foundation of that good life – the productivity and beauty of Mother Earth.
Ecological paradigm endorses an ecocentric approach where all forms of life and non-life are important to human life. Spirituality points out to a unitive force: the sacredness of everything. God’s divinity flows in everything. There is inte1gration in the universe. And we are part of that integration, exceedingly small as we are, notwithstanding.
Under ecological paradigm of salvation, the man responsible in the destruction of the environment leading to loss of lives and properties should be held accountable for it. Salvation does not come easy in this particular case, because he is not only responsible for the actual loss, but in healing nature back to health, so to speak. He cannot just get away with his ill-gotten wealth, he has to use it – among other resources - to amend his wrong doings.
Business versus Environment.
The environment and the economy need not be viewed as opposites. It is possible to have a healthy environment and a healthy economy at the same time. More and more businesses have begun adopting this concept as a business philosophy. People behind business organizations are becoming more aware of the ethical decisions they face, and their responsibility for their consequences.
A multi-national corporation, responding to the provisions of GRI (Global Reporting Initiative), CERES (Coalition of Environmental Responsible Economies), UNEP (United Nations Environmental Program), came up with the following thrusts:
• Restore and preserve the environment
• Reduce waste and pollution
• Education of the public on environmental conservation
• Work with government for sound and responsible environmental program
• Assess impact of business on the environment and communities.
More and more businesses are looking at this model with favor.
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Industrialization and urbanization are akin to each other. Industrial growth spurred the building of cities all over the world. Today there are as many people living in cities as those living the rural places. A mega-city like Tokyo has a population of 15 million people. We are 10 million in Metro Manila. Cities are fragile environments. Cities are more prone to epidemics such as the bubonic plague that killed one-third of the population of Europe. Now we are confronted with HIV-AID, SARs, meningo cochcimia – and the dreaded Avian flu which hovers as the next human pandemic disease. AVR
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Antarctica, World Park.
One of the few places on earth unexploited by humans is Antarctica. Not now, not until recently. With the Antarctic Treaty of 1991 declares that “Antarctica shall be open to all nations to conduct scientific or other peaceful activities there,” seven countries have already laid overlapping claims on the continent, which comprises one-tenth of the world’s total land area. Thousands of tourists are now visiting Antarctica every year. Scientific research is economically motivated, such as oil exploration, with geopolitical or military objectives in mind. Earlier – in the 1970s New Zealand proposed designating an Antarctica World Park, making it an international wilderness area. On the ecological point of view, Antarctica is fragile with simple and short food chains that support few organisms such as the penguin, whales, shrimp-like krill. Any slight disturbance is likely to upset the delicate balance. We have already caused the growing hole of the ozone layer above Antarctica through unabated release of CFCs , and fossil-fuel combustion worldwide.
Would humanity be better served by developing the natural resources of Antarctica than turning it into a world park and preserve its ecological balance? We also ask the same question to areas similar to Antarctica, such as the pristine wildlife of Canada, Greenland, the Yukon Territories, the unexplored islands of the Pacific, and main Amazon Basin.
Kyoto Protocol on Greenhouse Gases.
On December 10, 1997, 160 nations reached agreement in Kyoto, Japan, to limit emission of CO2 and other gases in order to arrest Greenhouse Effect threatening the whole world. But not all countries, signed the treaty, among them the US and Australia. Actually the Kyoto Protocol is not new. In 1992, some 170 countries ratified a similar treaty reducing emission of gases to the level of 1990 by 2000, but this did not yield the desired result.
Ecology and Stock Exchange.
In 2000, Earth Sanctuaries was listed on the Australian Stock Exchange, making it the world’s first conservation company to go public. We know that conservation efforts have been conventionally under foundations and government projects. But this time this intriguing approach to conserving the environment has raised as lot of questions. Does the market place really have a role in habitat preservation? Is this approach really conserving natural ecosystem or just creating large zoos? Would we rather save and give our children good education that helps rescue an endangered animal? Indeed the conflict between maximizing profits and conservation raises ethical issues.
Ecology advertising.
In the supermarket we find tags, organically grown, environment-friendly, eco-safe, environmentally safe, children-safe, ozone-friend, and so on. But are these claims true? Consider the following:
• Look for the three-phase symbol of recycling – three interacting arrows to form a triangle.
• When buying a refrigerator or air-conditioner get the one that is Freon-free, ozone friendly. Be sure the purchase is covered by company guarantee.
• Producers of food claimed to be safe, such as organically grown, must be able to show a reliable track record. It is good to trace the source of food that we eat, from beginning with production to processing, and ultimately to the dining table.
• Even materials claimed to be biodegradable, photo-degradable, and the like, may not be readily converted into safe materials. As a general rule, save money from “over-packaged” commodities, and you save the environment as well. Don’t be misled by package advertising, how attractive it may appear.
*Environmental Ethics: Human Life and the Environment, December 5-7, 2005**Lesson on former Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid with Ms Melly C Tenorio
738 DZRB AM Band, 8 to 9 evening class, Monday to Friday
References
Rotor AV (2004) The Living with Nature Handbook, UST 207 pp
Rotor AV (2001) Light from the Old Arch, UST, 215 pp
Enger ED and BF Smith (1992) Environmental Science: A Study on Interrelationship, McGraw NY 486 pp
Scherff JS et al (1991) The Mother Earth Handbook: What you need to know and do – at home, in your community, and through your church – to help heal our planet now, Continuum 320 pp
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Protecting Mother Earth Conference on August 1-4, 2024,
The Banking on Climate Chaos report remains the most comprehensive analysis of the top 60 banks by asset size financing of fossil fuel companies. Lending & underwriting totals for the top 60 banks globally. Covers 4228 companies with fossil fuel business.
Fossil fuel financing from the world’s 60 largest banks has reached nearly $6.9 trillion in the eight years since the adoption of the Paris Agreement, with $705 billion in 2023 alone.
- Honoring human rights mitigates climate risk. Banks must integrate these two risk monitoring structures.
- We’re at a critical moment for our climate. Every dollar spent on fossil fuels is a dollar too much.
- Big banks have committed over $6.9 TRILLION to fossil fuels in the past 8 years, including $3.3 trillion to the companies behind coal, oil, and gas expansion around the world.
- These banks are equally responsible for climate chaos as the companies they support.
- Any fossil fuel expansion is not compliant to keep planetary warming below 1.5 degrees.
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Part 3 - Heroes for Mother Earth
Today, rather than defending himself against nature,
man has realized that he needed to defend nature against himself.
Dr Abe V Rotor
Man throughout evolution struggled to survive the harsh environment. This reminds us of the gargantuan task of building of the Panama and Suez canals where man was pitted against wilderness. Remember the days of the pioneers, the travails of Albert Schweitzer in penetrating the heart of Africa. Three thousand years ago, Alexander the Great died of malaria on the banks of Tigris-Euphrates rivers.
Endangered Earth in acrylic by the author
Then in the past century man began to dominate nature and soon attempted to overrun the planet. It was a 360 degrees turn. Today, rather than defending himself against nature, he has realized that he needed to defend nature against himself.
This is the beginning of a new environmental movement. Leaders of this movement are acclaimed protectors of our home – our only home, Planet Earth. They are regarded as the new breed of heroes. Now, who are these heroes? As we go through these names and analyze their contributions we hope to be able to understand this new concept of heroism.
Theodore Roosevelt, often referred to as Teddy or TR, was an American statesman, author, explorer, soldier, naturalist, and reformer who served as the 26th President of the United States, from 1901 to 1909.
- Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) was the first president to make conservation as a national policy.
- Ernest Schumacher (1911-1977) did not believe in endless growth, mega-companies and endless consumption, His book Small is Beautiful became a best seller.
Ernst Friedrich "Fritz" Schumacher was an internationally influential economic thinker, statistician and economist in Britain, serving as Chief Economic Advisor to the UK National Coal Board for two decades.
- Barbara Ward (1914-1981) is the author of Only One Earth which shaped the UN environmental conference.
- E.O. Wilson (1929- ) PHOTO below, founded sociobiology in the 70s, saying that such human behavior as sexuality, aggression and altruism had a genetic basis. Recently he articulated the importance of bio-diversity in keeping the Earth healthy.
Edward Osborne "E. O." Wilson FMLS is an American biologist, researcher, theorist, naturalist and author. His biological specialty is myrmecology, the study of ants, on which he is considered to be the world's leading expert.
- Paul Crutzen (1933- ), F. Sherwood Rowland (1927- ) and Mario Molina (1943- ) showed that man-made chemicals, the major culprit chloro-fluoro-carbons or CFC, destroys the ozone layer. The 1987 Montreal Protocol phased out CFC. Nobel prizes were given to the three scientists.
- Jacques-Yves Cousteau (1910-1995? ) Oceanographer and showman, espoused the need to arrest the declining health of the oceans.
- Rachel Carson (1009-1964) Mother of modern environmentalism, wrote Silent Spring documenting the deadly carnage of wrought by pesticides.
Rachel Louise Carson was an American marine biologist and conservationist whose book Silent Spring and other writings are credited with advancing the global environmental movement.
- Aldo Leopold (1887-1948) advocated the total protection of certain wilderness areas, established the land ethic which is summed up, “anything that harms an ecosystem is ethically and aesthetically wrong.”
- Barry Commoner (1917- ) Paul Revere in ecology, one of the first scientist to worry about the deteriorating environment, organized the eco-based Citizens’ Party ticket which paved a new political movement.
- Barry Commoner was an American biologist, college professor, and politician. He was a leading ecologist and among the founders of the modern environmental movement.
- Wangari Maathai (1940- ) activist, organized the Green Belt Movement against reckless development in Kenya, stopped construction of a 69-storey office tower in a vital public space.
- Wangari Muta Maathai was a Kenyan environmental and political activist. She was educated in the United States at Mount St. Scholastica and the University of Pittsburgh, as well as the University of Nairobi in Kenya.
- Robert Hunter (1941- ) and Paul Watson (1950- ) pioneers of Greenpeace, then founder a more radical eco-organization, Sea Shepherd Conservation, and latest, Greenspeak and Frankenfood which are against genetically modified foods.
- Medha Patkar (1954- ) activist, forced WB to withdraw support Sardar Sarovar Dam along India’s Narmada River, saving half a million villagers from being displaced.
- Chico Mendes (1944-1988) Brazil environmental conscience, formed human barriers whenever chain saws and bulldozers threatened the rainforest, cut down by ranchers’ bullets.
There are many other Heroes for the Planet Earth, unknown and unsung. On the part of the church, St. Francis of Assisi is regarded as the patron saint of ecology. In ancient times, Aristotle was the first naturalist of global significance, and whose works are still relevant today.Among the philosophers, Henry David Thoreau is known for his discourse on human liberty and survival in “Walden Pond” which still stirs imagination on how one man can live alone in the wilderness yet retains his rationality.
When Mac-liing was gunned down by unknown assailants for openly protesting the government’s Upper Chico River dam project his image was that of a rebel rather than one who was fighting for the preservation of the ancestral lands of the Kalingas. Thousands of hectares were to disappear under water when the dam is completed, a case similar to Pantabangan dam which forever submerged a whole town, vast farmlands and forests. Philippine national hero Jose Rizal as a student
We have our own national hero Dr. Jose Rizal as an environmentalist in exile at Dapitan, and a naturalist even when he was a boy.
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4 Ramon Magsaysay Awardees for the Environment
The Ramon Magsaysay Award is in recognition of greatness of spirit shown in service to the peoples of Asia. Since 1958 the Award has been given to more than 270 individuals and organizations in 22 Asian countries and territories.
Yu Xiaogang - Chinese. For fusing social science knowledge with a deep sense of social justice, in assisting dam-affected communities in China to shape the development projects that impact their natural environment and their lives.
Antonio Oposa Jr. PHOTO, right - Filipino. For his pathbreaking and passionate crusade to engage Filipinos in acts of enlightened citizenship that maximize the power of law to protect and nurture the environment for themselves, their children, and generations still to come.
Ma Jun - Chinese. For harnessing the technology and power of information to address China's water crisis, and mobilizing pragmatic, multisectoral, and collaborative efforts to ensure sustainable benefits for China's environment and society.
Ka Hsaw Wa - Burmese. For dauntlessly pursuing nonviolent yet effective channels of redress, exposure, and education for the defense of human rights, the environment, and democracy in Burma.
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Part 4 - Three Philosophies on Today's Environmental Revolution
Rudolf Bahro, author of The Alternative, claims East Europe’s non-capitalist road to industrialization has been shaped by the same growth ideals and methods as has Western capitalism, and that the working classes of both West and East have the exploitation of nature and the Third World as common. Defending their own societies’ privileged positions on the world market, both camps add to global inequity. For which Bahro calls for a new social movement – the environmental movement, a grand coalition of people’s forces, a rebuilding of society from the bottom upwards.
Ivan Illich on the other hand, criticizes modern society and its failure to cater to human needs. He believes that the privileged today are not those who consume most but those who can escape the negative by-products of industrialization – people who can commute outside the rush hours, be born and die at home, cure themselves when ill, breathe fresh air, and build their own dwellings. People must arm themselves with the self-confidence and the means to run their own lives as far as possible, especially as big institutions like schooling, medical care and transport today are creating more problems than they solve. Politics is no longer a simple Left-Right choice; man must have a choice of energy, technology, education, etc., he calls vernacular values.
According to Andre Gorz the ecology struggle not as an end in itself but as essential part of the large struggle against capitalism and techno fascism. He champions a civil society shifting power from the State and political parties to local community and the web of social relations that individuals establish amongst themselves. The State’s role is to encourage self-management among the citizens. He envisions a Utopian future where “the citizens can do more for less,” and the development of a rich, all-round personality.
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André Gorz was the Theorist Who Predicted the Revolt Against Meaningless Work. The COVID-19 pandemic led millions of people to question their meaningless jobs. French socialist thinker André Gorz anticipated this shift, sketching out a vision of a new civilization that would free us from the constraints of work. (Willy Gianinazzi)
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Definitely, while we need a revolution to save our environment, any means that is contrary to peace and unity, is definitely unacceptable. And we would not adhere to the rule of force or violence just to be able to succeed.
It is said, that revolution starts in a small corner. It could start in each of us.
Part 2 - Food Security is Green Revolution at the Grassroots. Bring back agriculture to the people!
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. TUrban 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.
------------------------------------------------------------------------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)
Part 3 - Agro-Ecology Models with Emphasis in the Ilocos Region
Dr Abe V Rotor
1. Coastal Greening
Coconut and orchard trees, with cover crops
Mainly coconut planting on multiple rows, quincunx, mixed with halophytic
(salt-loving and salt-resistant) trees
· Mangroves (3 genera) along intertidal zone and estuary
· Serves as windbreak, buffer against tidal wave; filters salty breeze and sand
and dust storm
· Source of food, feed, fuel, local industry
· Stabilizes shifting sand dunes, establishes foothold for other plants
2. Roadside and Highway Greening with Acacia, Gmelina, mahogany, other forest trees
· Provides aesthetics and shade
· Ripraps road shoulders
· Serves as windbreak and natural sun visor
· Extends life of infrastructure
· Source of wood, fuel, food, feeds
3. Backyard Green Revolution
Vegetables (leafy, root, fruit and seed vegetables)
Direct source of fresh food
· Integrates cleanliness, sanitation, recycling, savings, exercise, family unity,
and the like
· Bahay Kubo model (all vegetables)
· Herbal-ornamental-vegetable combination
· Orchard Model
· Homelot (semi commercial, combination of crops, animals and/or fish)
4. Riverbank Greening
Kamachile, aroma, mimosa, ipil-ipil (Trees with deep and spreading roots)
Provides natural riprap, shade and natural fertilizer
· Prevents cutbank erosion, traps sand, silt and clay, thus extends life of river
· Improves biological life of river, increase catch, enhances biodiversity
· Source of firewood, food and feeds
5. Fence Greening
Mainly orchard trees
Serves as “borrowed landscape”, adds aesthetics to home and surroundings
· Provides shade, creates favorable mini-climate for the home and community
· Source of food, medicine, feeds, other materials
· Serves as windbreak, noise buffer, improves air quality
· Serves as local wildlife sanctuary
6. Mudflat Reclamation
Mangrove species (Rhizophora Ceriops, Brugiera, Avecinia) Mangrove arrests shifting mudflat, helps delta formation
· Mangrove forest stabilizes intertidal zone, serves as buffer against tidal wave
and tsunami
· Improves water navigation
· Creates marine sanctuary
· Source of timber, firewood and other materials
· Supplies valuable detritus (organic fertilizer), natural food of marine life
7. Watershed Rehabilitation
Mainly forest trees with orchard trees,
simulated tropical rainforest (multi-storey)
· Reforestation restores green cover that enhances the integrity
of watershed
· Minimizes erosion and siltation, restores natural soil fertility
· Protects waterfalls, springs, rivers and lakes,
· Increases stored water supply (ground water and aquifers)
· Source of timber, firewood, other materials
· Creates/restores wildlife sanctuary, increases biodiversity
· Prevents forest and brush fire
8. Woodland Hedgerow
Two models of woodland hedgerows
Mixed orchard and forest trees with shrubs (2- or 3-storey)
· Serves as wildlife sanctuary
· Sanctuary of biological agents that control pest
· Conserves water, prevents erosion and siltation
· Increases organic matter supply, reduces oxidation of organic matter
· Source of firewood, timber, other materials
· Serves as recreation area, adds aesthetics
· Creates mini-climate, serves as buffer zone
Fruits with Economic Potential in the Ilocos Region
Of the 200 kinds of fruits in the Philippines, 40 to 50 species are grown to some extent for their edible fruits and other uses.The rest are still found in the wild, or if already domesticated are not given significant attention.
Convergence 8 encourages in the propagation/production of indigenous fruit trees. Evaluation of these species is based on these characteristics.
· Nutritional value
· Domestic and export potential
· Diversity of Uses
· Potentials for primary and secondary processing
· High yield and good income
· Potential for creating new employment
· Ecological significance
· Medicinal and industrial uses as well
Here is a list of potential fruits in the Ilocos Region in local names.
Coconut Balimbing Kamias Mango Cashew Chico Duhat Cacao Guava Atis Guyabano Suha Nangka Rimas Kamansi Caramay Santol Siniguelas Tamarind Camuyao Tiessa Mabolo Makopa Caimito Kamachile Bignay Sapote Anonang Battocanag Tampoy Manzanitas Avocado Coffee Achuete Tea Betel nut Pomegranate
Firewood Farming (Green Energy)·For more than a third of the world’s population, the real energy crisis is a daily scramble to find wood to cook meals. In the Third World 90 percent of the people depend on firewood.
· Firewood scarcity is most acute in arid and semi arid regions, but is now felt in logged over areas and growing urban centers. Price of firewood has increased as much as the price of fossil fuels.
· In the sixties and seventies the Philippines introduced giant ipil-ipil, but monocropping resulted in fatal insect infestation. There is a need of systematic management in the culture of wood crops.
· Here is a list of firewood crops known to be adapted in the Ilocos region. Many of these are also valuable for timber and construction materials.
Acacia (Samanea saman and Acacia auriculiformis)
Agoho (Casuarina equisitifolia)
Madre de cacao or kakawate (Gliricidia sepium)
Talisay (Terminalia catappa)
Katuray (Sesbania grandiflora)
Mangroves (Rhizophora, Brugiera, Avicennia)
Bamboo (Bambusa spp.)
Gmelina (G. arborea)
Alagao (Trema odorata)
Eucalyptus (E. globulus, E. grandis)
Bitaog (Callophyllum innophylum)
Kamachile (Pithecolobium dulce)
Golden shower (Cassia fistula)
Ipil-ipil (Leucaena leucacephala or L. glauca)
Aratiles (Muntingia calabura)
Duhat (Syzygium cumini)
Albizia or kariskis (A. lebbekoides)
Aroma or candaroma (Acacia farnesiana)
Firetree (Delonix regia)There are many others that include kapok, mulberry, alokong, ilang-ilang, and lanute. Firewood also comes from shrubs like pandakaki or busbusilac, pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan) and other plant residues (e.g. dried coconut palm, tobacco stalk). All over the world, there are 1,200 firewood species listed, with 700 given top ranking.
Greening with Malunggay and Kakawate through Stem Cuttings
Malunggay is the most nutritious local vegetable (leaves and fruits)
Kakawate is the most versatile wood crop (renewable firewood, construction material for dwelling and fence)
· Easy to propagate through stem cuttings
· Same soil (well-drained) and climatic requirements (onset of the rainy season)
· Procedure is basically the same.
ReferencesHillyland Farming Systems in the Philippines
Farm systems and Soil Resources Institute, UPLB 1986
KABASAKA: A program to increase income of rainfed rice farmers, PCARRD, 1979
The Philippines Recommends: Corn, Mango, Pineapple, Grapes, Coffee, Cacao, Ginger, Mungo, Water Impounding, Agroforestry, Bamboo, Production of Fast Growing Hardwoods, Irrigation Management, PCARRD (1970-80)
Success Stories of Farmer-Managed Coconut-Based Farming Systems
(Vols. 1 & 2) PCARRD, 1991; Measuring the Economic Viability of Agricultural Technologies, PCARRD 1991; Technology Transfer for Sustainable Development; DOST-PCARRD-PCAMRD 1989
Firewood Crops – Shrub and Tree Species for Energy Production
National Academy of Sciences, Washington DC 1980
Promising Fruits of the Philippines – R.E. Carbonel (UPLB)
Technology! (Copra Dryer, Banana Rejects for Cattle, Multi-purpose Farm Pond, Ipil-ipil Meal, Coco Timber, Corn and Ipil-ipil Farming, Backyard Fattening of Cattle, Rice-fish Culture), PCARRD (1970-1990)
Extension Bulletin of Food and Fertilizer Technology Center ASPAC (100 volumes of varied topics) 1960 to 2000
Plants of the Philippines (1971) – UP Diliman; Useful Plants of the Philippines (3 volumes, original 1938)) by William H. Brown
Saemaul Undong (New Community Movement in South Korea) FFTC 1970
Note: Convergence 8 Program was presented in a briefing with Congressman Salacnib Baterina, Ist District of Ilocos Sur some years ago. I am posting the outline of the proposed program after it was recently presented in a lecture in the academe. It may also serve as reference for development planners. ~
Part 4 - Farming is a way of living, a mode off life
Agro-Ecology: That’s What Practical Farming is All About
Dr Abe V. Rotor
The Ifugao Rice Terraces and Machu Picchio in Peru (lower photo) are farming models of Agro-Ecology, many are as old as the Egyptian civilization and that of Ancient China.
“Farming is a way of living,” says the dean of farm management in the Philippines, Dean Felix D. Maramba, quoting Eugene Devenport who said that farming is not only a business, but a mode of life. “Sometimes the business is the prominent feature, so successful that life seems to run on one long sweet song. Sometimes the business runs so low that life is a bitter struggle.”
The farm and the family home is intertwined; in fact they are one. Anything that affects the farm as a business also directly affects as a home. The farm operator is the head of the household and the bulk of the farm work is done by the members of the family. The farmer is the farmer 24 hours a days, on weekdays as well as on Sundays and Holidays.
The children are brought up in close contact with nature. They develop an appreciation of the manifestations of the Creator through living things and their order. The farm boy does not have to wait until he is grown up before he can work and share family responsibilities. He is brought up early in the family business. In this way he will learn the value of industry and a sense of proprietorship early in life. The work habits and resourcefulness developed by farm children are kept throughout their lives.
Composting is a regular feature of farming and gardening.
This old school of Dean Maramba may not be the model progressive farmers are looking for today, but definitely the better farmer is the entrepreneur who grew up with farming and pursued training in technology and farm management, and has gain the confidence and skills in transforming the traditional concept of a farm into an agribusiness and therefore, he has a better chance in dealing with the complexities of world of the agriculture and business.
Make the correct decisions in farming.
Farming is no easy task. It is full of decisions - decisions based on socio-economic principles, and guided by rules of conduct and natural laws and of society. These are 10 guidelines in decision making.
1. Surplus labor resources of typically large rural families should be directed to labor-intensive projects, such as integrated farming.
2. Hillside or upland agriculture requires the cultivation of permanent crops, preferably through mixed cropping, such as intercropping of coconuts with orchard trees and annual crops.
3. Coastal and river swamplands should be preserved as wildlife sanctuaries, and should be managed as an ecosystem, rather than an agricultural venture.
4. Wastes can be recycled and converted into raw materials of another enterprise. Farm wastes and byproducts of processing can be processed biologically into methane, organic fertilizer, and biomass for vermiculture.
5. Productivity of small farms can be increased through pyramidal or storey farming. Batangas and Cavite farmers are well known for storied multiple cropping.
6. Poor soils can be rehabilitated through natural farming, such as green manuring, crop rotation and use of organic fertilizers, all integrated in the farming system. Corn-peanut, rice-mungo are popular models of crop rotations.
7. Cottage industries are built on agriculture, guided by profitability and practical technology. It is time to look at the many agro-industries, from food processing to handicrafts.
8. Tri-commodity farming maximizes utilization of resources, such as having an orchard, planting field crops, and raising fish and livestock on one farm.
9. Cooperative farming is the solution to economics of scale, these to include multipurpose and marketing cooperatives of farmers and entrepreneurs.
Sampaguita, Philippine national flower, is now cultivated like tea on large scale.
10. Since the number of days devoted to farming is only one-third of the whole year, livelihood outside of farming should be developed. Like a sari-sari store, a small farm cannot afford to have too many hands. Other opportunities should be tapped outside of farming by other members of the family.
Always go for natural food
The rule of thumb is that, it is always preferred to eat foods grown under natural conditions than those grown with the use of chemicals. These are criteria to know if a food is natural?
· It must be fresh, or freshly packed
· It must be free from pests and diseases
· There are no harmful chemicals and artificial additives, including antibiotics residues.
· Food must not be tainted with radiation
· Natural food excludes the so-called junk food.
· It has been processed by natural means such as blast freezing, sun drying
and the like.
· Packaging materials are safe to human health, animals and the environment.
· It meets standard organoleptic test (taste test) and nutritional value requirements.
There are many kinds of vegetables you can choose for backyard and homelot gardening.
Native vegetables - patani, alukong or himbaba-o, eggplant, and amoalaya make the best Ilocano pinakbet.
There are many vegetables to choose from: leafy – malungay, talbos (kalabasa, kamote, sayote), kangkong; Stem – asparagus, bamboo shoot; flower– katuray, squash flower, cauliflower, broccoli, himbaba-o (alokong); fruit – ampalaya, squash, cucumber, green corn, sayote, tomato, eggplant, green papaya, pepper; root – Gabi, kamote, ube, tugui, ginger, onion, garlic, carrot, radish; seed – patani, sitao, white bean, black bean, cowpea, green pea, chick pea, pigeon pea, peanut, linga (sesame), paminta (black pepper)
Malunggay is the most popular tree vegetable in the tropic. In the province no home is without this small tree at the backyard or in a vacant lot. The leaves, flowers, juvenile pods and young fruits of Moringa oleifera (Family Moringaceae) go well with fish, meat, shrimp, mushroom, and the like. It is one plant that does not need agronomic attention, not even weeding and fertilization, much less chemical spraying. You simply plant an arms length cutting or two, in some corner or along the fence and there it grows into a tree that can give you a ready supply of vegetables year round. What nutrients do we get from malunggay?
Here is a comparison of the food value of the fresh leaves and young fruits, respectively, in percent. (Marañon and Hermano, Useful Plants of the Philippines)
· Proteins 7.30 7.29
· Carbohydrates 11.04 2.61
· Fats 1.10 0.16
· Crude Fiber 1.75 0.76
· Phosphorus (P2 O 5) 0.24 0.19
· Calcium (CaO) 0.72 0.01
· Iron (Fe2O3) 0.108 0.0005
Owing to these properties and other uses, rural folks regard malunggay a “miracle tree.” Take for other uses. The root has a taste somewhat like that of horse-radish, and in India it is eaten as a substitute to it. Ben oil extracted from the seed is used for salad and culinary purposes, and also as illuminant. Mature seeds have antibacterial and flocculants properties that render drinking water safe and clear.
From these data, it is no wonder malunggay is highly recommended by doctors and nutritionists for both children and adults, particularly to nursing mothers and the convalescents.
Get the best from your favorite fruits
1. Be keen with the appearance, smell, feel – and even sound – of the fruit before harvesting or buying it. There’s no substitute to taste test.though. Develop your skills on these fruits: mango, musk melon, soursop or guyabano and its relative, sugar apple or atis. Also try on caimito, chico, siniguelas, and such rare fruit as sapote.
2. To ripen fruits, rub table salt on the cut stem (peduncle). Salt does not only facilitate ripening, it also protects the fruit from fungi and bacteria that cause it to rot. You can use the rice box-dispenser to ripen chico, caimito, avocado, tomato, and the like. Wrap the fruits loosely with two or three layers of newspaper before placing them inside the box. As the fruits ripen they exude ethylene gas that hastens ripening. 3. Bigger fruits are always generally preferred. Not always. Native chico is sweeter and more aromatic than the ponderosa chico. Big lanzones have large seeds. Bicol or Formosa pineapple, although not juicier, is sweeter than the Hawaiian variety. Of course we always pick up the biggest mango, nangka, caimito, watermelon, cantaloupe, atis, guyabano, and the like.
4. There are vegetables that are eaten as fruit or prepared into juice. Examples are carrot, tomato, green corn, and sweet green pea. Asparagus juice, anyone? Try a variety of ways in serving your favorite fruits. nangka ice cream, fruit cocktail in pineapple boat, avocado cake, guava wine. Enjoy the abundance of your favorite fruits, consult the fruit season calendar.
Engage in cottage industries, such as home made coconut virgin oil.The price of this “miracle cure” has soared and there is now a proliferation of commercial brands of virgin coconut oil in the market. The old folks show have been doing this for a long time. One such person is Mrs. Gloria Reyes of Candelaria (Quezon) who makes virgin coconut oil. This is the step-by-step process.
1. Get twenty (20) husked, healthy, and mature nuts. They should not show any sign of spoilage or germination. Shake each nut and listen to the distinct sound of its water splashing. If you can hear it, discard the particular nut.
2. Split each nut with a bolo, gathering the water in the process. Discard any nut at the slightest sign of defect, such as those with cracked shell and oily water, discolored meat, presence of a developing endosperm (para). Rely on a keen sense of smell.
3. With the use of an electric-driven grating machine, grate the only the white part of the meat. Do not include the dark outer layer of the meat.
4. Squeeze the grated meat using muslin cloth or linen to separate the milk (gata) from the meal (sapal). Gather the milk in wide-mouth bottles (liter or gallon size).
5. Cover the jars with dry linen and keep them undisturbed for 3 to 5 hours in a dry, dark and cool corner.
6. Carefully remove the floating froth, then harvest the layer of oil and place it in a new glass jar. Discard the water at the bottom. It may be used as feed ingredient for chicken and animals.
7. Repeat the operation three to four times, until the oil obtained is crystal clear. Now this is the final product – home made virgin coconut oil.
Virgin coconut oil is a product of cold process of oil extraction, as compared with the traditional method of using heat. In the latter coconut milk is brought to boiling, evaporating the water content in the process, and obtaining a crusty by-product called latik. The products of both processes have many uses, from ointment and lubrication to cooking and food additive. There is one difference though, virgin coconut oil is richer with vitamins and enzymes - which are otherwise minimized or lost in the traditional method.
Get rid of waste by utilizing them.
Agricultural byproducts make good animal feeds, as follows:
· Rice straw, corn stovers and sugarcane tops, the most common crop residues in the tropics, contain high digestible nutrients, and provide 50% of the total ration of cattle and carabaos.
· Rice bran and corn bran are the most abundant general purpose feed that provides 80 percent of nutritional needs of poultry, hogs and livestock, especially when mixed with copra meal which is richer in protein than imported wheat bran (pollard).
· Cane molasses is high in calorie value. Alternative supplemental feeds are kamote vines for hogs and pineapple pulp and leaves for cattle.
Here is a simple feed formula for cattle:
- Copra meal 56.5 kg;
- Rice bran (kiskisan or second class cono bran) 25 kg;
- Molasses 15kg;
- Urea (commercial fertilizer grade, 45%N) 2.0kg;
- Salt 1.0kg; and
- Bone meal 0.5kg.
Average Daily Weight gain of a two-year old Batangas cattle breed fed with this formulation is 1.5 to 3 pounds. Good feed conversion ratio for cattle is between three and a half to four. This means that for every three and a half pounds of feed, the animal should gain one pound of weight.
These are byproducts which have potential feed value: These are byproducts or wastes in the processing of oil, starch, fish, meat, fruit and vegetables. The abundance of agricultural by-products offers ready and cheap feed substitutes with these advantages.
- It cuts down on feed costs,
- reduces the volume on imported feed materials,
- provides cheaper source of animal protein,
- provides employment and livelihood, and
- keeps the environment clean and in proper balance.
- Protect nature through environment-friendly technology.
One example is the use of rice hull ash to protects mungbeans from bean weevil. Burnt rice hull (ipa) contains silica crystals that are microscopic glass shards capable of penetrating into the conjunctiva of the bean weevil, Callosobruchus maculatus. Once lodged, the crystal causes more damage as the insect moves and struggles, resulting in infection and desiccation, and ultimately death.
Ducks raised on rice paddy to control Golden Kuhol and other pest
This is the finding of Ethel Ni̱a Catahan in her masteral thesis in biology at the University of Santo Tomas. Catahan tested two types of rice hull ash, One is partly carbonized (black ash) and the other oven-burned (white ash). Both were applied independently in very small amount as either mixed with the beans or as protectant placed at the mouth of the container. In both preparations and methods, mungbeans Рand other beans and cereals, for that matter Рcan be stored for as long as six months without being destroyed by this Coleopterous insect.
The bean weevil is a cosmopolitan insect whose grub lives inside the bean, eating the whole content and leaving only the seed cover at the end of its life cycle. When it is about to emerge the female lays eggs for the next generation. Whole stocks of beans may be rendered unfit not only for human consumption, but for animal feeds as well. It is because the insect leaves a characteristic odor that comes from the insect’s droppings and due to fungal growth that accompanies infestation.
Rice is substitute, and a better one, to wheat flour.
Of all alternative flour products to substitute wheat flour, it is rice flour that is acclaimed to be the best for the following reasons:
· Rice has many indigenous uses from suman to bihon (local noodle), aside from its being a staple food of Filipinos and most Asians.
· In making leavened products, rice can be compared with wheat, with today’s leavening agents and techniques.
· Rice is more digestible than wheat. Gluten in wheat is hard to digest and can cause a degenerative disease which is common to Americans and Europeans.
· Rice is affordable and available everywhere, principally on the farm and in households.
Other alternative flour substitutes are those from native crops which are made into various preparations - corn starch (maja), ube (halaya), gabi (binagol), and tugui’ (ginatan), cassava (cassava cake and sago).
Lastly, the local rice industry is the mainstay of our agriculture. Patronizing it is the greatest incentive to production and it saves the country of precious dollar that would otherwise be spent on imported wheat.
Let’s aim at unifying agriculture and ecology into agro-ecology. This is what practical farming is all about. x x x
Part 5 - Let's Save Nature from Genetic Engineering
Dr Abe V Rotor
Dismembered Nature in acrylic AVR
Scenario: A rat glowing in the dark carrying the phosphorescent gene of the jellyfish - for what motive drove the crazy scientist? People jump off their seats, children shriek, there is fun and pandemonium. This new creature became a novelty and celebrity, a symbol of a postmodern technology. It is now an orphan detached from its natural gene pool. To return to its population, it must escape from the laboratory, and share its new gene with its kind. Soon enough a population of glowing rats fills the "village of a Hamlyn". Now we need a modern Pied Piper to wipe these Genetically Modified pest out. Could he?
This is true to GM plants, animal, microorganisms - the foreign gene will remain forever as it crosses the boundaries of fields, colonies, populations, countries, islands, or in short, the boundaries of time and space.
There is no way to sweep away genetic pollution, unlike conventional pollution. It even surpasses radioactive fallout because radioactivity has a self life even if it takes hundreds of years to declare the level safe to health and environment. Perhaps the only time the spread of genetic pollution in a particular carrier comes to an end is when its own species becomes extinct. By then it shall have found other hosts to continue the transfer.
When protein gene from say peanut is spliced into soybean, you transfer allergy susceptibility as well, and doctors may not be able to trace it at all. Meantime we say it is safe. How about protein gene coming from non-edible source? The problem with GM products is the lack, or impossible, pre-test guarantee. By the way allergy is not limited to humans; it is universal to living things in various manifestations. This is not good because allergy is a safely valve of the body system.
There is this case called "Suicide Gene" spliced into a high value crops allegedly by the exclusive distributors of a GM crop like hybrid corn. The mechanism is simple. Combine the suicide gene with the DNA of a hybrid corn so that the progeny or F1 will not produce seeds for a second crop, thus preventing farmers to source and share seeds, an age old farming tradition. Because suicide gene is transferable by natural pollination, it easily finds its way to pollute natural gene pools not only limited on a particular crop but other crops as well. It is chain reaction ad infinitum. A never ending Big Bang.
Genetic engineering, through aggressive promotion claims, is the messiah of agriculture. It is as if it is the ultimate solution to feed an exploding population with both its needs and affluence. In the first place it is a senseless race. It may give a feeling of triumph for the day without reference to the future, to our children and children's children.
How can we assure sustainable productivity of our farms ruined by erosion, soil nutrient depletion, water loss due to excessive cultivation? The rule is that,
the more you plant and harvest, the more your farm gets overworked. Declining productivity will result to declining yield of whether GM or non-GM crop.
We cannot hurry up nature. It needs fallow, it needs to go with the seasons, to complete the natural cycles operating for through eons of time. Destroy the integrity of the Carbon cycle and you will disturb photosynthesis. Nitrogen cycle and you will stunt growth. Phosphorus and fruiting will fail. Potassium and your plants are sickly and weak. Calcium and your soil becomes acidic. Even minor elements have far reaching consequences. Disturb Iron (Fe) cycle and your plants get anemic (chlorotic). Manganese, which is a catalyst, and nutrient conversion (inorganic to organic compounds) slows down. Disturb the Water cycle and you will end up with drought.
The farm becomes an orphan, and we need subsidy, a guardian, benefactor. We need rehabilitation, the cost of which is more than the value of many harvests. Meantime the farm has to recover like a sick person. Where is GM on the rescue.
We asked this question before: Where is modern agriculture on the rescue? When we introduced heavy inputs of commercial fertilizers, pesticides, miracle seeds, (and now GM seeds), coupled with mechanization for large scale production, borrowed money, etc. We shifted from traditional to modern with little innovative transition.
We pushed the frontiers of agriculture too far out to the sea (mariculture), to the hills (Slope Agriculture), and deep into the forest (agro-forestry). Grossly these proved to be disastrous particularly to nature, to ecology, sustainable productivity.
Now we are combining modern agriculture with GM agriculture. GM rides on modern agriculture, the kind millions of farms all over the world failed before. But wait for these scenarios to unfold. GM agriculture with aeroponics (multi-storey urban agriculture), hydroponics (soiless culture) and stem cell farming (laboratory farming of hamburger). All these our Wise Men claim to be agriculture in Postmodern times.
Would we ask them again like before, "Where were you when we needed you most?." ~
ANNEX A - A Prayer for Our Environment
from Pope Francis' Laudato Si'
SOURCE: Internet
Salt + Light Media
Tuesday, June 5, 2018
CNS photo/Kim Jae-Sun, EPA
Join us today in effort to create worldwide awareness on the importance of our environment with this prayer taken from Pope Francis' encyclical Laudato Si'.
All-powerful God, you are present in the whole universe and in the smallest of your creatures.
You embrace with your tenderness all that exists.
Pour out upon us the power of your love,
that we may protect life and beauty.
Fill us with peace, that we may live
as brothers and sisters, harming no one.
O God of the poor,
help us to rescue the abandoned and forgotten of this earth, so precious in your eyes.
Bring healing to our lives,
that we may protect the world and not prey on it,
that we may sow beauty, not pollution and destruction.
Touch the hearts
of those who look only for gain
at the expense of the poor and the earth.
Teach us to discover the worth of each thing,
to be filled with awe and contemplation,
to recognize that we are profoundly united
with every creature as we journey towards your infinite light.
We thank you for being with us each day.
Encourage us, we pray, in our struggle
for justice, love and peace. ~
ANNEX B - Therapeutic Effects of VIOLIN AND NATUREViolin and Nature is an experimental approach to music
Dr Abe V Rotor
Music must be elevated from the level of entertainment and expression of skills to one that brings the listener to a state of catharsis, relieving him of the stresses and tensions of daily living.
Author plays the violin
Rationale
Music therapy is now recognized as part of alternative medicine. There are musical compositions that bring about the so-called Mozart Effect, named after Amadeus Mozart whose compositions are acclaimed by scientists to be the most therapeutic of all musical compositions, even among his contemporaries in the classical and romantic schools.
This article is the result of a research conducted by the author with his class at the UST Graduate School as respondents to the hypothesis that the combination of Violin and Nature sounds has therapeutic effects to the listener. And if so, how? What aspects of our body physiology, mind, psyche, and spirit are affected? In what ways, and how do we measure such effects?
Cover of tape, later copied into CD. Other versions were produced: Violin and Birds, Violin and Waves
Can auditory art be developed by converting word to music, and re-create the sound of nature to accompany it? The idea is to find a compatible blend of science - the prosaic and formal, with humanities - the entertaining, cultural, and the sounds of nature, definitely a rare experience that takes place in the inner vision of the mind. Violin and Nature is a CD recording of 32 extemporaneous popular and semi-classical compositions played on the violin by the author with accompaniment of birds, insects, wind, waterfall and running stream.
People say, “ Relaks lang” or “just do it” as part of daily conversation. Either it is taken as advice or compliment, the message is clear: life today is growing tenser. “ Take it easy” has a reassuring note that everybody must learn to live in a stressful world.
Both the poor and rich are subject to different forms of stress, so with the city and village dweller. Ironically, stress does not spare growing affluence. In fact, it persists invariably throughout life, virtually from womb to tomb.
The idea of dealing with tension or stress is how one is able to reduce it effectively so as to enjoy life and get rid of its complications from headaches to various psychosomatic symptoms- and eventual health problems, if it is not checked on time.
One proposal is the use of therapeutic effects of music and nature, thus the rationale of this experiment that employs the combined soothing sound of the violin, and the harmony of nature.
Music is well known to reduce tension. Pipe-in music increases work efficiency in corporate offices, takes out boredom in otherwise monotonous assignments, and fosters proper attitude and disposition, when correctly applied. In fact, scientists have established the biological basis of music by being able to increase the production efficiency in poultry and livestock with the use of background music. The key is the reduction of stress in the animal. The same result has yet to be established in plants. Perhaps, in the microbial world, like yeast fermentation.
A stressful life builds tension in the body. Headache, wakefulness, palpitation, indigestion, trembling and many other symptoms, which wear away the life force, accompany tension. Tired nerves need rest and quiet, as nature needs time to recuperate her exhausted energies.
What is tension? It is the effort that is manifested in the shortening of muscle fibers. Physiologists compare muscle tension with “neuromuscular relaxation” to differentiate popular interpretation of relaxation as amusement, recreation, or hobbies. To be relaxed is the direct physiology opposite of being excited or disturbed.
Neurosis and psychoneurosis are at the same time physiological disturbance, for they are forms of tension disorders. Therefore, the key to treatment lies in relaxation.
Who are victims of tension? Everybody is a candidate. These are models of tensed individuals: the “burnt out” housewife, the tagasalo in the family, the gifted child, the dominant lola, the authoritative patriarch. These persons themselves are not only victims of tension; they spread tension among people around them.
Multitudes long for a better life, but they lack courage and resolution to break away from the power of habit. On the other hand, many escape from the harsh realities of life by taking alcohol and drugs.
Hypothesis
The whole idea of relaxation is in disciplining the body to budget life’s energies, and to immerse oneself to relaxing moods. Music and nature are a great inexhaustible source. Plato and Confucius looked at music as a department of ethics. They saw the correspondence between character of man and music. Great music, they believed, is in harmony with the universe, restoring order to the physical world. Aristotle on the other hand, the greatest naturalist of the ancient world supported the platonic view, which through the Renaissance to the present dominate the concept of great composition. Great music has always been associated with God’s creation.
Nature on the other hand, produces calming effects to the nerve. Sightseeing, picnic and camping are a good break to prosaic city life. Different from ordinary amusements in the park or theater, the countryside is one arena of peace and quiet. Features on TV and print media provide but an alternative scenario. Today “canned” Nature is being introduced in many forms such as traveling planetarium, CD-ROM Nature Series, Ecology Village, and the like, to illustrate the growing concern of people to experience the positive effects of Nature in an urban setting characterized by a stressful modern life.
This experiment is based on the premise that the combined effects of music and Nature help reduce tension in daily living, particularly among working students in the city.
Conceptual Framework
A- Tension tends to dominate the body to relax, resulting in tension build-up in the muscles;
B- Music (violin solos) and Nature’s sounds( birds, running stream etc.) make a composition which provides a rare listening experience in varying intensity; and
C- The experience enhances relaxation, reduces tension and its physiologic effects in the individual.
Methodology
Violin and Nature recorded in compact disc (CD) was then presented for evaluation to students in Research Methodology at the UST Graduate School on two aspects, namely, the content of the tape and the perception of the respondents. Physiologic response was determined by measuring the pulse rate before and after listening to eight sample compositions from the tape for thirty minutes.
These are as follows:
1. Serenata by Enrico Toselli (semi- classical)
2. Meditation, from the Thais by Massenet (classical)
3. Lara’s Theme (sound track of the movie, Dr. Zhivago)
4. Beyond the Sunset (ballad)
5. Paper Roses (popular) by Fred Spielman & Janice Torre.
6. A Certain Smile (popular) from the movie of same title
7. Fascination (popular dance music)
8. Home on the Range (country song)
Respondents Profile
This is the profile of the 42 respondents, which made up one class in research methodology. They are predominantly female students (81%), employed (86%), with ages from 21 to 29 years old (76%).
Content Analysis
The respondents counted eight tunes or pieces, of which 5 are familiar to them. They identified three non-living sounds (running stream, wind, and waterfall, aside from the violin), and two living sounds (mainly birds).
Physiologic Response
The average pulse rates before and after listening to the tape are 79.47 and 73.29 per minute, respectively, or a difference of 6.18. Statistically, the difference is significant, thus confirming the relaxing effects to the respondents after listening to the CD.
Perception
The ten criteria used in rating the perception of the respondents are ranked as follows, adopting the Likert Scale. Note: A scale of 1 to 5 was used, where 1 is very poor, 2 poor, 3 fair, 4 good, and 5 very good.
Criteria Rating Ranks
1. One has the feeling of being
transported to a Nature/Wildlife scene. 4.48 1
2. Listening to the tape creates an aura
of peace and serenity. 4.39 2
3. The composition is soothing to hear,
Has calming effect on the nerves. 4.24 3
4. The composition creates a meditative
mood. 3.95 4
5. It brings reminiscence to the
listener of a past experience. 3.64 5
6. It helps one in trying to
forget his problems. 3.59 6
7. One has the felling of being
transported heavenward, to Cloud 9. 3.55 7
8. There is tendency to sleep while
listening to the composition. 3.52 8
9. It brings about a nostalgic feeling. 3.19 9
10. The composition makes one
sad and melancholic. 2.55 10
Analysis and Interpretation
The means the first three criteria fall between good and very good, while the others, except the 10th, are between fair and good. This finding supports the positive relaxing effects of Violin and Nature.
Conclusion and Recommendation
Listening to Violin and Nature slows down pulse rate significantly, thus reducing tension, and brings the listener closer to a state of relaxation. The effects are measured as based on ten criteria. Topping the scores which are classified Very Good are:
1. One has the feeling of being transported to a Nature /Wildlife Scene;
2. Listening to the tape creates an aura of peace and serenity; and
3. The composition is soothing to hear, and has calming effect on the nerves.
Author's children play in a "home concert."
There are six other parameters that support the hypothesis that the CD is relaxing. This is different from its effect of bringing nostalgia, sadness and melancholy that received the lowest scores and rankings.
However, there is need to improve the quality of the compositions, and their recording using moderns tools and equipment. It is also recommended that similar evaluation be conducted on other age groups and people of different walks of life who are similarly subject to stressful life and environment. ~
References
Don’t Cut the Trees, Don’t
Copyright 2010 Abercio V Rotor and University of Santo Tomas, 206 pp
Philippine Literature Today
Copyright 2015 by C & E Publishing, Inc 237 pp
Abercio V Rotor and Kristine Molina-Doria
ANNEX C - The 7 Deadly sins, according to Mahatma Gandhi and the Vatican compared
Researched by Dr Abe V Rotor
Mahatma Gandhi, man of the last millennium, interprets the seven Deadly Sins as follows:
1. Wealth without Work
2. Pleasure without Conscience
3. Science without Humanity
4. Knowledge without Character
5. Politics without Principle
6. Commerce without Morality
7. Worship without Sacrifice
After viewing the film, Gandhi, with my students, I presented a comparison of Gandhi's interpretation with Vatican's Seven Cardinal Sins, which are as follows:
1. Pride
2. Gluttony
3. Wrath
4. Sloth
5. Lust
6. Greed
7. Envy
Lately the Vatican added three cardinal sins, namely
8. Destroying the Earth
9. Tampering Life (playing God)
10. Indifference to humanity
Gandhi has built a bridge of understanding not only between the Christians and the non-Christians - but among different faiths - that goodness is universal. His way to the Truth, his way to Peace through non-violence, in fact the way he lived and died - truly make him the Man of the Millennium.
12 Sayings of Gandhi
o "Nonviolence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind. It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of man."
o "You must be the change you wish to see in the world."
o "Anger and intolerance are the enemies of correct understanding."
Man should forget his anger before he goes to sleep.”
o "Prayer is not asking. It is a longing of the soul. It is a daily admission of one's weakness. It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without a heart."
o "The essence of all religions is one. Only their approaches are different."
o "It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver."
o "Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will."
• "Truth and nonviolence will never be destroyed."
• "Truth is like a vast tree which yields more and more fruit the more you nurture it."
• "Truth alone will endure, all the rest will be swept away before the tide of time."
• "Truth is self-evident, nonviolence is its maturest fruit."
• "Truth is the first to be sought for, and Beauty and Goodness will then be added unto you." ~
When you see plenty of dangling pods of cotton tree or kapok (Ceiba pentandra L), expect poor rice harvest. Kapok is sensitive to water stress. It does not have deep penetrating roots. Instead it has large spreading roots that depend largely on shallow water source.
Life on the farm, mural detail, AVR
