Appreciating Organic Farming – And Agriculture Magazine (AgriMag), Monthly Publication Of Manila Bulletin

Here’s appreciating the eminent dangers of Climate Change in the air, literally & figuratively, and knowing the role of modern agriculture in generating greenhouse gases (GHGs) that invariably generate the climate crisis. As a crusading self-taught aggie journalist and editor in chief, I am engrossed in articles that address the climate crunch – we have to write & write about it!

My attention this time is on Agriculture Magazine (AgriMag), the one published monthly by the Manila Bulletin. AgriMag used to be edited by an acquaintance-friend, Zacarias “Zac” Sarian, who died 07 Dec 2020. I just googled the AgriMag website and I find I am the only author published who is banging his head against agriculture and its generation of GHGs. Unfortunately!

Aside: I also googled for any magazine published in the Philippines giving major attention on the climate emergency – and found zero, which is a major disaster in itself. I have been thinking of editing-and-publishing one, except that I have yet to find a financier. (Producing issues is no problem, because I can be the author of numerous articles and simultaneously the one-man band digital editor up to and including producing the portable document format that goes to the print-on-demand printer.)

As I was saying before I interrupted myself, AgriMag did publish 4 of my climate change articles:

(1)   13 Sept 2019, AgriMag, agriculture.com.ph: “Appreciating Climate Change“

(2)   03 Oct 2019, AgriMag, agriculture.com.ph: “Appreciating Organic Farming“

(3)   13 Oct 2019, AgriMag, agriculture.com.ph:  “Appreciating Organic Certification“

(4)   08 Nov 2019, AgriMag, agriculture.com.ph: “Appreciating Sustainable Development“.

Here are excerpts:

Appreciating Climate Change

Climate change is the world’s Number 1 science topic today, and it relates to crops in Agriculture such as rice, corn, and wheat.

And how does inorganic, or non-organic, or conventional agriculture contribute to climate change? From agriculture, CH4 is emitted by livestock and N2O comes from nitrogenous fertilizers used by farmers.

Appreciating Organic Farming

Today, many are talking about organic farming – but not quite knowledgeably. Organic farming applies to Agriculture and the related scientific fields of Forestry and Horticulture. To simplify: Agriculture is growing field crops; Forestry is growing tree crops; and Horticulture is growing farm & garden crops; except for Animal Husbandry in Agriculture, they all concern the growing of crops.

Appreciating Organic Certification

The OCCP [Organic Certification Center of the Philippines] claims in its webpage that “it is a standard-setting and certification body.” If there is no official certification of the status of a certain farmer, group, or product, anybody can claim that the farm produce is organic, and nobody can question that claim.

Appreciating Sustainable Development

[FAO] defines sustainable development as “the management and conservation of the natural resource base, and the orientation of technological and institutional change in such a manner as to ensure the attainment and continued satisfaction of human needs for present and future generations.”

I am sure that those 4 AgriMag articles of mine provided a good glimpse of how Conventional/Chemical Agriculture contributes to Climate Change. What I am not sure of is that AgriMag paid me!@517