Just being Editor in the field of Agriculture and neither an environmentalist nor a psychologist, I am quite disturbed to read “Human Connection To Nature Has Declined 60% In 200 Years, Study Finds” by Monique Moate (03 April 2023, End Time Headlines, wd  cnews6.com). That explains many bad/sad things to me!

I say”
“Not BAD” – If you “simply commune with nature” by “being there” in the open, you are not influencing Mother Nature, simply enjoying what she has or is for you.

“BAD” – A farmer is trying to play God by trying to influence the relationships of living beings that God created in the world and on his field – that he must appreciate, not exterminate.

I believe, given those examples, directly my well-being depends on me, primarily on me, not the Creator, not God, not Mother Nature.

Considering that, I say the well-being of a farmer depends primarily on him, not the Supreme Being. His behavior in the field greatly influences the outcome of what he does as a farmer, the Laws of Nature having been declared long before the farmer was born.

Farmer or not, according to Ms Monique:

“Computer modelling predicts that levels of nature connectedness will continue to decline unless there are far-reaching policy and societal changes – with introducing children to nature at a young age and radically greening urban environments the most effective interventions.”

Ah! Along with radically greening urban environments, I would insist on radically greening all those rural environments, especially the farms!

And how do we green the farms? Simple: Prohibit the farmers from burning anything on it, from spraying any chemicals on any “unwanted” species, We show them how “dead leaves turn into life-giving materials” by adding life to growing plants, farmer crops or not! In short: Natural Fertility.

And how do we get the farmers to obey such a command? Simple: Teach them to produce their own organic fertilizers!

In fact, I know of 13 ways by which we can farm successfully without using chemicals – without having to follow the strict rules in producing organic fertilizers that some environmentalists dictate. These 13 practices are called, collectively, Regenerative Agriculture (RA):
(1) Cover Cropping,
(2) Crop Rotation,
(3) Farm Crops + Tree Crops (Agroforestry),
(4) Green Manuring,
(5) Intercropping,
(6) Multiple Cropping,
(7) No-Till Farming,
(8) Organic Fertilization,
(9) Ratooning,
(10) Rotational Grazing,
(11) “Three Sisters” Planting,
(12) Trap Cropping, and
(13) Trash Mulching.

My personal list, I must point out. With such a list, not a single farmer has any good reason for avoiding Regenerative Agriculture.

Farmer, if you love Farming, you must love Mother Nature and not Chemicals loving Mother Nature!

The heart of the matter lies in connecting with Mother Nature, I Agriculturist say. If there is no such connection, there is no obedience to the laws of Mother Nature! (No, I did not learn that in school, at UP Los Baños College of Agriculture, now UPLB. It’s personal observation.) Mother Nature knows best!@517

 

 

Poor Logic! PH CA Justice Antonio Bruselas Jr Pushing For “Filipino” As Primary Court Language; As A UPLB-Taught Teacher, I Say “Justice Does Not Depend On Language But Logic!”

Jane Bautista writes in the 11 August issue of Inquirer.Net (newsinfo.inquirer.net):

“To bring judiciary closer to people” is the rationale for Associate Justice Apolinario Bruselas Jr of the Court of Appeals in Manila even as he has been trying for more than a decade to cause a ripple of change in the system by writing (his) decisions in Filipino.”

Atty Bruselas, this is not simply a question of justice. It is first a question of (1) truthfulness followed by the (2) ability to translate – #1 is more important than #2. Justice is all logic. (“Logic” image source Shutterstock, shutterstock.com, “2 heads” from Shutterstock.com).

(Also, the translators should have an Editor In Chief, no kidding.)

No Sir! It is not language that is important in giving justice to anyone anywhere – it is logic. And logic can be explained in any language.

Now then, how do we explain, with or without a court case finished or not finished, how justice is playing in the field of agriculture, where we find that millions of Filipino farmers are poor!?

My own answer to my own question is: “Justice is not playing in the farmers’ fields! Why should farmers be poor who toil night and day with the soil?”

“To bring justice closer to the people” is not simply to speak their language – especially in the Philippines where there are multi-languages, but to make sure that the people understand in their language what they are going through in and out of court, that which is in English.

More importantly – Forget the language, Atty! The Philippines has 5 million native speakers (Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org): Tagalog, Cebuano, Ilocano, and Hiligaynon. In addition, there are 7 languages with between 1 and 5 million native speakers: Central Bikol, Waray, Kapampangan, Pangasinan, Maguindanao, Maranao,  and Tausug.

What is more important than understanding the (English) language of the court is understanding the logic of the law. I can understand the logic of the court only if I can understand the logic of the law!

Example: What is most important to me right now, as an Editor In Chief in Agriculture (if self-appointed) – is to bring to the farmers the literature of farming that will bring about the prosperity of all farmers, big and small! That would be justice for all. Literature that they would understand. No, Sir, not simply a problem of translating from English to any of the Filipino languages.

Voltaire says, “It is better to risk saving a guilty person than to condemn an innocent one.” Applying that, it is better to risk saving the poor in their poverty than condemning somebody else for that poverty!

Now then, instead of condemning the current set of technologies of farming, I prefer to offer a qualitatively and quantitatively different set of technologies for agriculture. It’s called “Regenerative Agriculture.” No, I did not invent that set; the term was masterminded by Robert Rodale.

and yes, RA reinvents Agriculture eveywhere. Brilliant logic!@517

President Fidel Valdez Ramos – The One President I Would Have Supported If He Declared Another Martial Law, That Time To Modernize Philippine Economy!

We are talking here of heroes in the field and on paper, both Ilocanos like me – Ferdinand Edralin Marcos (FM) from Ilocos Norte was a Hero on Paper and Fidel Valdez Ramos (FVR) from Pangasinan was a Hero in the Field. Now, FM was a good President, but ambition got the better of him; FVR was a good President too, but ambition failed him. (image from YouTube.com)

FM held on to his ambition of power;
FVR could have en-Visioned a New Philippines: like Nasyon nga Naraniag ken Umili nga Naragsak (Bright Country and Happy People). FM had the first in his plan; he stopped short of the second. He may have been thinking outside himself and his family, but not thinking of Filipinos achieving for themselves.

And elsewhere, I myself was only thinking of my Ilocano family!

So, as a form of saying goodbye to my townmate President, who died yesterday, July 31, I have written this article, declaring:

Mr Ramos, you could have done more and better after Mr Marcos!

I’m talking now of Visionary Leadership.

What the Philippines needs today is a Blueprint for Archipelagic Development (BAD). (BAD would have been good for FM.)

If I have learned anything from former PH Secretary of Agriculture William Dar, who played the unmatchable & stellar role as Director General who brought the nternational Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) from last place to first place in the achievement list of members of the international CGIAR Group, it’s this:

·      You need Vision (institutional ambition)

·      Your Mission will bring you to the achievement of that Vision.

·      Your Vision & Mission will bring you to your desired Destination.

So!

What Ferdinand “BBM” Marcos Jr needs to do is demand that his Secretary of Agriculture come up with a blueprint for a New Philippine Agriculture – Agrikulturang Pataba ng Pilipinas! (Agpataba!)

Fertilize the soul of this country, not simply the soil!

Of course, you will need a new and experienced and determined and visionary Secretary of Agriculture to do that: my candidate is “old” William Dar, from Ilocos Sur. BBM, of course you know him – Dar was the one whom you unceremoniously replaced when you became PH President. Please correct your mistake now!

What did Mr Dar say then?

"Ang legacy po natin ay may direksyon ang sektor ng agrikultura (Our legacy is that the agriculture sector has direction), ‘yung (the) thinking, it led to a new food security development framework. There was the global summit of the food systems approach so we made our own version of that, sinama na natin ito lahat sa (we rolled everything into the) OneDA Reform Agenda. That's a legacy. We have a direction for the future. It will be the solid foundations of the sector."

What my townmate and PH President FVR had not seen, and what current President BBM has not grasped, is that the Philippines needs an enriching mind managing the whole agriculture of the nation. Total agriculture!@517