Beauty & Brains Farming

About 55 years ago, in 1966, I came across the book Soil Development ( published 1952) written by Edward H Faulkner , American original thinker-farmer, displayed at the open shelves of the library of UPCA, now UP Los Baños. That’s when I began to think organic farming gave us healthy foods. It was something like, “Health comes from the soil.” Here comes Earwin Belen with his Facebook sharing (05 Jan 2022), “Still True In 2022!” (image sources: “WiFi,” m.facebook.com ; fruits, EcoWatch , ecowatch.com )   “Organic food is not healthier” – British Alan Dangour . “Organic food is healthier” – British Carlo Leifort . Eh? Karen McVeigh says “Organic Food Not Healthier, Says FSA,” (29 June 2009, The Guardian , theguardian.com/ ). Findings over the past 50 years were reviewed by a team of the London School Of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine headed by Dr Alan Dangour . “We have concluded that there's no good evidence that consumption of organic food is beneficial to health based o...

Vi.Deo – No, not Virtual God but Vibrant God, if not Visible God. God does not need any glorification from us mortals; He is glorious by Himself – but He needs to be portrayed as to be vibrant, if not visible to us, Roman Catholics, at least every Sunday at mass, via the gospel! I, blogger of 22 years, realize only today, Sunday, 04 Sept 2022, we Roman Catholics have ignored the power of the virtual presentation (Vi.P) to expound and explain the gospel. Vi.P – the New World explaining the Old World. Expecially because the Bible is extra difficult to understand. Vi.P also signifies virtual pencils for portraits. (“Pencils” image from Jen H, The Daily Post, wordpress.com ) The top image is from The Feast Facebook webpage, the guest priest at the PICC presenting the gospel, Luke 14:25-33: Great crowds accompanied him on his way and he turned and spoke to them. “Anyone who comes to me without hating father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, yes and his own life too, ...

I have 2 friends, “The Left” and “The Right” (Male and Female), and our friendships go back deep into the early 1960s. “The Left” has always been a writer; “The Right” has always been a non-writer – and right now are both wanting and struggling to write their last book and testament (autobiography) – both are suffering from Writer’s Block! The Writer’s Block of “The Left” tells you that experience is not a guarantee for success; that of “The Right” tells you everyone needs help! (image sources: male from storymind.com , female from writersblog.co ) Both the Storymind and Writer’s Blog advise that you first find “inspiration” – the problem with that is, “What do you do if you can’t find inspiration?!” Storymind says, “One way to beat Writer’s Block” – and proceeds to list 5 tips! So, here’s some free anti-Writer’s Block advices from me: Go digital. The writers shown in the images above are primitive, sorry to say – they belong to the age I will call “Early Digital” – finger...

ANN says billionaire Bill Gates believes “All rich countries should move to 100% synthetic beef” ( Author Not Named , undated, “Reject Bill Gates’ Impossible Burger,” Organic Consumers Association , organicconsumers.org ). That’s Gates’ contribution to the re/solution of Climate Change!? His best is not good enough! Still from ANN: Bill Gates has invested in Impossible Foods whose CEO, Pat Brown , says his genetically engineered synthetic meat substitutes will replace the use of animals by 2035. Hah! It would be impossible to convince me, a Filipino, to eat synthetic meat – I love the taste of lechon and fried chicken, for instance. You’d think the Impossible Foods pitch would be about the horrors of factory farming. Instead, Gates and Brown take aim at regenerative organic agriculture and grass-fed beef. According to Fortune.com: “Gates and Brown believe that genetically modified seeds and chemical herbicides, in the right doses – and not land-intensive organic farming – are...

Today, Friday, 02 Sept 2022, I post this essay as the 1000 th in this blog “CoViD21” – short for “Communication for Village Development in the 21st Century.” Blogging since 2000, I have decided to dedicate myself unrelentingly to village development – an area much neglected. Actually, the 999 essays published before this one appeared in my blog “ Towards A New Eden” but which I have come to the conclusion that building a New Eden is too much of a promise, and developing villages is a dream within one’s reach in a lifetime. The development of villages I have in mind is via Regenerative Agriculture (RA). Rodale Institute introduced the term “Regenerative Organic Agriculture” in 1989 “to distinguish a kind of farming that goes beyond sustainable” (undated, Rodale Institute, rodaleinstitute.org ). So, I now believe that “Sustainable Development” is inadequate! We must go after “Regenerative Development,” especially via Agriculture. At this point, I must say that the application of...

British naturalist Sir David Attenborough has been calling on the leading nations of the world to “adopt tougher climate targets” ( Timothy Reuter , 02 Nov 2021, “David Attenborough: It Could Soon Be Too Late To Tackle Climate Change,” World Economic Forum ( weforum.org ); “Every day that pass by in which we don’t do something about it is a day wasted. If we don’t act now, it’ll be too late.” “The UN said greenhouse gas concentrations had hit a record last year and the world was ‘way off track’ in capping rising temperatures.” Not only that. “Attenborough said leading nations had a duty to help poorer countries because industrialization had been one of the major factors in driving climate change.” “Industrialization had been one of the major factors in driving climate change” – and in the Philippines, I digital campaigner for combatting physical climate change, am looking at this: Agriculture is the hugest contributing factor to climate change! (Image sources: “Climate Change”...

Do you know what is missing in the fight against Climate Change when it comes to Agriculture, and Agriculture only? This essay could be an eye-opener for many, including IRRI, PhilRice, and UP Los Baños. Here is the 40-year old World Resources Institute (WRI) talking down Regenerative Agriculture, saying “Regenerative Agriculture: Good For Soil Health, But Limited Potential To Mitigate Climate Change” via Janet Ranganathan, Richard Waite, Tim Searchinger & Jessica Zionts . The WRI is the 12 th website I have consulted today, Wednesday, 31 Aug 2022, and I abruptly stopped when I read it because it’s eye-popping – here is an institute telling me that RA has “limited potential” for arresting Climate Change! Sorry, but the World Resources Institute does not know enough about Regenerative Agriculture. At least, the 3 above-mentioned WRI authors don’t! The WRI authors say pertinently: Regenerative agriculture has become the darling of many policymakers, food companies and farme...