Food sovereignty

By Ma. Ceres P. Doyo
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 01:45:00 07/30/2009

"Why should we prioritize the production of corn to feed animals in Korea when we cannot even feed all the Filipino people?" asked Arze Glipo, lead convenor of the Task Force Food Sovereignty (TFFS). Think about that.

A number of readers sent feedback on last week's column piece ("Global land grab, agricolonialism") and expressed alarm. One came from a Korean who felt shame that Korean companies are out to take over vast tracks of land in the Philippines and in other developing countries in order to meet Korea's needs for food and biofuel. Korea is not the only country doing this.

A Filipino working in an organic farm in Hokkaido, Japan also sent a letter. Another letter came from Alice Raymundo who belongs to the Task Force Food Sovereignty network. The NGO's name tells you there is reason to watch over our farmlands lest they fall into the hands of powerful countries that have only their own interest at heart. We used to think that sovereignty was only about territorial authority of the political kind. Now we can see that it also has something to do with the food on our table.

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Global land grab, agricolonialism

Last week the Inquirer had a front-page story, “S. Korea leases 94,000ha in Mindoro; agri execs surprised”. It coincided with the July 2009 cover story of World Mission Magazine (“The Global Land Grab”) whose cover blurb says: “Huge amounts of farmland in poor nations are being bought or leased. The Philippines is on the map as a lease hotspot.”

World Mission (WM) is a Catholic monthly published by the Comboni Missionaries “as part of their ministry and program of missionary awareness in Asia.” It is not a pietistic publication. It deals with world social issues (hunger, poverty, disease, the environment, inspiring persons, religious dialogue) as well as spirituality and faith in these times. I know WM’s editor, Fr. Jose Antonio M. Rebelo MCCJ (wm.editor@gmail.com) and I’ve written a couple of articles for his feisty magazine. It is very well designed too.

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Art in the time of swine flu

Sorry for corrupting the title of a great novel but just now I can’t think of how to describe a great and daring effort to showcase Philippine art in these dreadful times when health and home are under threat.

Manila will have its first international art fair, “Manilart 09”, starting today until July 19 at the NBC Tent, in Bonifacio Global City in Taguig. At last we have our own, and we don’t have to envy our next-door neighbors Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong and Taipei which regularly hold international art fairs and attract art lovers from all over the world.

Support Philippine art. Go, please, go, and go home with some great art pieces if you have the money to spread around. Enjoy what you buy. Your descendants will enjoy them too.

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'Biskwit'

Welcome back, Mildred Perez. We are very proud of you.

And you, Chip Tsao, what say you? (We have not forgotten.)

Back two days ago from Hong Kong was the praiseworthy 38-year-old Filipino domestic helper who returned P2.1 million (HK$350,545) in cash and checks which she found in a garbage bin several months ago.

Why in a garbage bin? Because Mildred was scavenging. Because she had quit her job. Because she had an abusive employer. She had been rummaging through garbage piles for scraps in order to support herself and find means to pursue her case in court against her employer. She was out of work.

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'We are the world'

THE YEAR was 1985 when I first watched the TV documentary on how the song, “We are the world,” was made, line by line, note by note, part by part. While watching the final version being sung by 45 pop artists, individually in parts and as a chorus, plus the images of hunger and poverty, I had a very profound experience. The earth broke open, the landscape in my heart moved and I sank to the floor and wept.

Being more of a classical music listener, I was not a Michael Jackson follower, but I can say that I bought at least one Jackson recording, and that was “We are the world.” I still have the “USA for Africa” album in cassette tape (no CDs then) where it is the lead song. (USA stands for United Support of Artists.) There are nine other songs (not by Jackson) in the cassette but it was “We are the world” that I played over and over. Buying the album meant taking part in a huge fund-raising for a cause. And every time I played the song and sang along, I felt one with the world and the universe. It became my anthem.

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My text friend, Bro. Ceci

THIS column was supposed to be on the 2009 World Food Summit and the human right to food but … that can wait.

I was stunned when I read on Tuesday the half-page obituary on the sudden passing of De La Salle Brother Ceci Hojilla. It had a big picture of him laughing. Cecilio Montelibano Hojilla served as a De La Salle Brother for 48 years, the obit said. “Br. Ceci left a legacy of being a teacher, a mentor, a storyteller, a photographer, a friend, and a brother to countless young people.” He was 65.

I met Bro. Ceci face to face only once. He invited me to deliver the keynote address at a La Sallian convention at the De La Salle Center in Batulao some years ago. The subject I was to speak about was poverty as I saw it as a journalist. I remember meditating and praying over it for a week and writing till late at night, trying to give it a human face. I was forced to take stock of what it was like inside of me and outside of me.

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‘Kamoteng Kahoy’

The other day I went to see the movie “Kamoteng Kahoy” directed by Maryo de los Reyes and written by Ricky Lee, both veterans and multi-awarded. I went because the movie was based on a real-life tragedy that happened in Mabini, Bohol in 2005.

It is a good film to watch these days when deathly horror flicks seem to be all there is. The theaters are drowning in blood, gore and green vomit.

I had written about the tragedy that claimed the lives of 27 school children and downed more than 100 after they ate fried cassava snacks sold by a vendor. Questions were immediately raised. Was it the cassava root that did it? Was it the way the food was prepared? Cassava contains linamarin. If cassava is improperly prepared, this toxic component could remain. When ingested, linamarin converts to cyanide in the human digestive system. The Department of Health ruled that it was pesticide, present in the cassava snack, that did it.

And now the movie.

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In death Saro-Wiwa triumphs, Shell pays

Ken Saro-Wiwa, Nigerian writer, poet, martyr and activist who was hanged, along with eight others in 1995, has triumphed even in death. When you gas up at Shell, think of Saro-Wiwa.

A news report the other day said: “The oil giant Shell has agreed to pay $15.5 million in settlement of a legal action in which it was accused of having collaborated in the execution of the writer Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other leaders of the Ogoni tribe of southern Nigeria.

“The settlement is one of the largest payouts agreed by a multinational corporation charged with human rights violations. Shell and its Nigerian subsidiary SPDC have not conceded to or admitted any of the allegations, pleading innocent to all the civil charges.”

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Land, a hunger

As I write this, it is one day to go before the deadline for the passing of CARPER (comprehensive agrarian reform extension with reforms) in the House of Representatives. The good news is that two days ago, the Senate passed on third reading the CARP bill extending for another five years the land acquisition and distribution program of the government. The budget is at P147 billion.

If CARPER was passed before the House adjourned yesterday, then all the last-minute efforts on the part of the farmers and their fellow advocates in the church, academe, media and civil society would have been worth it. But we can’t sit back and say everything will henceforth be smooth.

Last week, the documentary “Lupang Hinarang” by multi-awarded filmmaker Ditsi Carolino had a red-carpet screening at the Ateneo de Manila University to help push the CARPER nearer its fulfillment. There were T-shirts, photo-ops, flyers, the film—just about everything for CARPER. It was heartwarming to see young people manning the campaign, like the future of their country depended on it.

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IP barefoot doctors

Ethnic and modern blended as indigenous healers in their tribal finery descended via the steep escalator of the posh SMX Convention Center at the SM Mall of Asia complex in Pasay City. I ran and descended ahead of them and waited with my camera to capture the colorful sight. Some of them were profusely ornamented, a few were almost bare with only their G-strings on. It was ethnic chic set against the modern. But this was not a fashion show.

More than 100 experienced healers from different indigenous communities all over the country attended the First Indigenous Barefoot Doctors' National Summit on May 20 and 21. The first of its kind, the summit had, for its theme, “Indigenous Peoples: Partners in Health and Wellness”. Garbed in their tribal attire, the delegates who paraded around the complex in the afternoon of the first day drew the attention of mall goers.

The name barefoot doctor became popular in the 1970s and refers to non-doctors who have received medical or paramedical training for service in rural communities in remote areas.

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Free book on sustainable rice agriculture

Whenever sustainable agriculture and organic farming are taken up in this space, quite a number of readers send in feedback and queries, or even offer information about what they are doing in their own farms and backyards. Which means that sustainable agriculture, natural farming, organic farming, or in the new Filipino jargon of enlightened farmers, “likas-kaya at organikong pagsasaka” (LKP) is gaining adherents and advocates.

(I do backyard organic gardening and have lately been eating so much patola—the short, gourd-like type which looks like an oversized sayote. I think I got the seeds from the Bureau of Plants. I have a lot of small, wild ampalaya for juicing.)

At last, the words sustainable agriculture and organic farming have been given a Filipino translation. And that is the title of the newly published book by University of the Philippines-Los Banos (UP-LB) professor Oscar B. Zamora and his team. “Likas-Kaya at Organikong Pagsasaka ng Palay” (Sustainable and Organic Rice Agriculture) was launched last week at the Go-Organic! Philippines forum and bazaar at the Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement (PRRM) headquarters in Quezon City. I thought the book would be for sale but I was surprised when I was told it was free. It is in Filipino so whatever I quote here is my own translation into English.

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Maribojoc

It is not very often that one gets out of the city to find and experience the pristine and the primeval. Last week, I was in Maribojoc in the island province of Bohol to enjoy not just the fiesta and behold its ancient landmarks but to also experience its “secret places,” the blue and green quiet spaces that glide in and out of one’s dreams.

While Bohol now figures big on the tourism map because of the beaches of Panglao, the Chocolate Hills and the cultural sites, it has other little-known spots that could draw a different breed of visitors, explorers who are drawn to paths less traveled. Like myself. Maribojoc has such special places.

The town is only a 30-minute drive from Tagbilaran City, but it still holds one of the country’s last frontiers. I am referring to its vast mangrove areas that are still thick with nipa palm and different species of trees. (More on these later.)

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