The UPOU Organic Demo Farm

Mary Jane selecting flat leaf romaine lettuce to sell.

The farm is located behind IRRI.

Mary Jane weighing the assorted lettuce.

I brought three kilos of assorted lettuce to Cafe Antonio.

Pre-Christmas Projects

My gardener and I made a 25 meter long net fence for my goats. This will separate the grazing area and the herb and vegetable plots. 

Twinkle and Bumblebee will be on their own at the farm this Christmas break. I hope they will be ok!

Transplanted some basil cuttings before going home.

Organic Adventures 2013

December 16, 2013 - Holy Carabao Holistic Farms, Sta. Rosa

December 16, 2013 - Rainbow School Field Trip to Sta. Elena Fun Farm

December 14, 2013 - SOAPer Event in Bangkong Kahoy Valley, Quezon

December 12, 2013 - Teaching Organic Agriculture Online symposium with Dr. Kevin Murphy at UPOU

December 10, 2013 - Presentation on Permaculture for Landscape Architecture students at UPLB

December 7, 2013 - UPOU Organic Agriculture Batch 3 Graduation and launching of the Organic Agriculture Module

December 3, 2013 - Kainang Masaya Health and Wellness Fair

November 25-26, 2013 - The 2nd National Environmental Science Conference 
and Workshop

November 24, 2013 - The 4th Balik Bukid Country Fair, Sta. Elena Fun Farm

November 22, 2013 - Laguna Farm Road Trip with the Good Food Community

November 16, 2013 - SOAPer Farm Tour to Forest Wood Garden, San Pablo City

October 17, 2013 - The 10th National Organic Agriculture Congress

October 17, 2013 - The 1st Philippine Natural and Organic Products Expo 2013

October 11, 2013 - Organic Products Matching Forum at UPLB

October 9-10, 2013 - Interviews with the organic farmers of Tayabas, Quezon

October 6, 2013 - Lyceum Calamba Field Trip to Costales Nature Farms, Majayjay, Laguna

October 6, 2013 - Lyceum Calamba Field Trip to Ilog Maria Honey Bee Farm, Silang, Cavite

Organic Vegetable Project at Kainos Farm

My friend, Timi, at Kainos Farm. Behind him is the hybrid solar and wind-powered generator.

Timi and Kuya Cris

That's me starting to work on the first raised bed

I have a raised bed organic vegetable garden project in Calamba, Laguna. I'll be posting our progress here so that everyone can see how it is done. I already drew up the plans and now it's time to do some hardcore farm work. Timi and Cris will be helping me with the garden. Wish us luck!

It's an Organic October!

What: The First Philippine Natural and Organic Products Expo 
When: October 17, 18, 19 
Where: Philippine International Convention Center, CCP Complex, Roxas Boulevard, Pasay City

What: Organic Food and Farming for All - An Organic Food Festival
When: October 4
Where: CSWCD Lobby

Change is Possible

Let's Take Our Health Back!!!: A Call for Community Health Awareness & Activism

Our health is determined by the existing and prevailing consumerist culture that controls every aspect of our lives. Some of us simply accept an illness or a disease as a normal part of life. "We will all get sick anyway," most of us would say. With this consumerist, sedentary mainstream lifestyle, of course all of us will get sick! But not in old age, as most of us would think, we are getting sick NOW. Abnormally...now, at the prime of our lives. What's frustrating is that these illnesses are preventable. It's not supposed to happen.

It's not JUST because we CHOOSE or PREFER a lifestyle that's unhealthy, but it's because our society actually supports this kind of lifestyle with fast food, junk food, instant food, and other exploitative ways to satisfy our greed for material things and convenience and comfort. It's normal, this lifestyle is normal.

When we talk about health, the issue of environment always follows. Has it actually dawned upon us that the industries that support our consumerist lifestyles are actually the ones polluting the earth? We crave more, we want more, and so they give us more! This is what they call demand. 

So why don't we stand up and rally together to demand, this time, for our health? 

Let's create healthy communities by educating people about sustainable practices. People nowadays, especially the youth, consume about 3000 calories a day. Those 3000 calories came from food imported all over the world, with so so much energy invested in producing a plateful of food for three meals. Imagine the magnitude of production: the farmers, the fuel, the machinery, the transportation, the packaging, the marketing, and so on. With 3000 calories loaded into your body, you sit down or lie down all day doing unproductive things. What a waste of energy! That waste of energy has a physical manifestation in fat, in obesity. I mean, how many people view the situation this way? It pains me to see all those energy invested go to waste. It also pains me when people don't finish their food and throw it away in the trashcan. Let's change this.

Let's teach people to start businesses that will be beneficial to the community. Don't start a business just for profit, start a business with a conscience! Think about the health of the people who will be consuming or using your products and services. 

Learn to get back to the earth and plant food for yourself and others. In this country, farming has always been equated with a lowly social status. This explains why people from the rural areas have come to the city. They want to experience city life, they are ashamed of their farming backgrounds. Let's change this. Let's give farmers respect. Let's give them credit for what they are doing, for providing us with food. Better yet, let's learn to take care of the land available to us no matter how small or big it is. If we devote our energy in making the land productive then we can live in a more sustainable and healthy environment. Plus we get to exercise and workout!

So what does farming, business, and education have to do with health? Well, everything!

Achieving a healthy lifestyle is a community effort. We create a supportive and vibrant community that is conscious of the choices that we make. We make these choices to make a difference and make a stand. That we are not dependent on what society wants us to eat or how society wants us to live. We know what is best, we are just too afraid to resist and act.

It is an eternal perspective that keeps me going and keeps me hopeful for a better future. I am a Christian, a follower of Jesus Christ and I believe that He wants us to be good stewards of the environment and our own bodies, our health and the health of others. All of creation will come to pass, this is our belief, but we also believe that we are being prepared for a new Heaven and a new Earth. To fellow believers, I challenge you to take a stand and be a Christian who acts out faith. Don't be complacent, don't be passive. Be a good steward of everything He created. Practice what you preach, walk the talk. 

As for those who have a different ideology, perspective or motivation, I'm sure you have solid reasons as well for fighting for our health and the environment. 

A culture revolves around food production. 

Health begins with the production of safe and healthy food. 

The production of safe and healthy food produces good values.

And good values helps us differentiate "greed" from our "needs."

You want to change the system? Change the system of food production and you'll be amazed how things will follow.  Los Banos is a university town, we should be more dynamic, we should present alternatives to our country. Let's prove that we can be a healthy and sustainable community and show our countrymen that we can aim for a sustainable PRESENT, not just the future, but the PRESENT. 

I know two people who passed away today. And I have a growing list of students posted on my table who died of different types of cancer. They all studied in Los Banos. 

I will fight for them.

I will fight for my family who has a history of cancer.

I will fight for my health.

I will fight for the health of my community with a trowel in my hand.

Please, for whatever personal reason you have, please fight with me. 

Educate. Encourage. Inspire. Influence. Have a conscience. Be compassionate.

Start a new revolution.

Banana Peels Will Save the Day!

16 year-old Invents Bio-plastic from Banana Peels

September 12, 2013 | Filed under: News,Sci & Tech | Posted by: Amanda Froelich

Elif Bilgin

By: Amanda Froelich,

True Activist.

What comes to mind before you discard your banana peel? Certainly not the consideration of its use to reduce petroleum-based pollution and create bio-plastic, yet this is exactly what Elif Bilgin, 16, from Istanbul, Turkey, sought to achieve and successfully accomplished. Winner of the 2013 Science in Action award, Google’s third $50,000 annual competition, she addressed the need for environmentally friendly alternatives with practical resources and easy-to-attain banana peels.

A motivated and compassionate scientist, Elif was driven to find an alternative from petroleum produced plastics to benefit the environment. In her journal she mentions that Thailand discards 200 tons of banana peels per day, therefore the starch and cellulose so important for plastic production could be put to much better use. From her research she discovered that potatoes and mango peels are already commonly used, therefore in Koc High School, Turkey, she began experimenting.

Over the period of two years, her trials using banana peels many times ended with disappointment; 10 failed experiments that created plastics not strong enough or too easily decayed did not slow her down, however. Fueled by past scientist’s determination, she wrote “Even Thomas Edison said ‘I have not failed. I have just found 10,000 ways that won’t work”. Her persistence resulted in triumph with her last two trials, both creating plastics that had features she sought.

Read more http://www.trueactivist.com/16-year-old-invents-sustainable-bio-plastic-from-banana-peels/

 

Her efficient method of using banana peels was well documented in her online science entry and easily shows how with little equipment, certain plasticizer ingredients, and starch from the banana peels, it’s possible to create a plastic that retains quality and structure long-term. Elif hopes that the use of bio-plastic will be used to replace some of the petroleum-based plastics in use today for such applications as insulation for electrical cables and for cosmetic prosthesis.
Hoping to attend medical school someday, her future holds many bright achievements to be sure; she’ll continue competing as a finalist in the Google Science Fair for the 15-16-year-old category, and will fly, with 14 other contenders, to the company’s Mountain View campus in California.
Brilliant minds of a variety of ages continue to discover alternative methods for sustainable energy; the one question is, who will now apply these practical findings?
Sources:
Elif’s Science Project
Science America Review

Read more http://www.trueactivist.com/16-year-old-invents-sustainable-bio-plastic-from-banana-peels/

 

http://www.trueactivist.com/16-year-old-invents-sustainable-bio-plastic-from-banana-peels/

 

Previously the idea of cleaning up the world’s oceans with their vast accumulations of disposed plastic material was considered an impossibility. Now a 19-year-old inventor says he and his foundation has a way to clean up the world’s oceans, and not only does he say we can do it, but that we can do it in five years time and produce a profit from it. It is called the ‘Great Pacific Garbage Patch’ or sometimes the “Pacific Trash Vortex”, and it is a massive collection of plastic particles accumulating in the Pacific. Other oceans have their own collections of plastic wastes as well; furthermore, most of the debris in our oceans are plastic materials that accounts for approximately 90% of all the waste debris. Scientists have considered all manner of ways how the debris could be retrieved but there was no clear answer for it. Now a 19-year-old inventor by the name of Boyan Slat says we can remove nearly 20 billion tons of plastic waste with his concept he calls an ocean cleanup array. It is made from a massive series of floating booms and processing platforms that gradually suck in the floating plastic like a giant funnel. The angle with how the array is set up allows all of the plastic to go to where the platforms processing centers are floating. At the platform processing area it would separate the naturally occurring life such as plankton an only keep the plastic materials to be recycled. plastic pollution indian patch 19 year old inventor finds way to clean up the worlds oceans in under 5 years time What is most impressive about the array is that once it goes operational it would clean up the oceans in only 5 years time! He also makes a point in saying that due to the vastness of our oceans most do not know how badly polluted the oceans really are. “One of the problems with preventive work is that there isn’t any imagery of these ‘garbage patches’, because the debris is dispersed over millions of square kilometers,” Slat says on his website. “By placing our arrays however, it will accumulate along the booms, making it suddenly possible to actually visualize the oceanic garbage patches. We need to stress the importance of recycling, and reducing our consumption of plastic packaging.” 8 19 year old inventor finds way to clean up the worlds oceans in under 5 years time Slat was able to come up with the idea while in school, and so he wrote a paper on his concept. Once Slat's paper was published it immediately caught the attention of many marine experts. His paper won all manner of prizes, which included the Best Technical Design 2012 from the Delft University of Technology. When he and others realized that the concept would work he took a leap of faith and created a non-profit organization he calls The Ocean Cleanup Foundation. This group will focus on the goal of developing his invention, raise funds for it and make it operational as soon as possible. His concept would save numerous aquatic species of fish and help reduce PCB and DDT containments affecting all of us. Best of all it operates on the power of the sun and by the oceans themselves. Not only is Slat's concept self-powered, it would also be very profitable from the all the recycling, which is estimated in the amount of 500 million dollars (U.S.) per year. According to Slat's website it "would make in fact more money than the plan would cost to execute. In other words; it's profitable." Read more: http://vr-zone.com/articles/19-year-old-inventor-finds-way-to-clean-up-the-worlds-oceans-in-under-5-years-time/19381.html#ixzz2el6WkLB8
Read more at http://vr-zone.com/articles/19-year-old-inventor-finds-way-to-clean-up-the-worlds-oceans-in-under-5-years-time/19381.html#PbQKK2zTpWSQ1rjP.99

19-year-old inventor finds way to clean up the world’s oceans in under 5 years time Read more: http://vr-zone.com/articles/19-year-old-inventor-finds-way-to-clean-up-the-worlds-oceans-in-under-5-years-time/19381.html#ixzz2el6Io38J
Read more at http://vr-zone.com/articles/19-year-old-inventor-finds-way-to-clean-up-the-worlds-oceans-in-under-5-years-time/19381.html#PbQKK2zTpWSQ1rjP.99

19-year-old inventor finds way to clean up the world’s oceans in under 5 years time Read more: http://vr-zone.com/articles/19-year-old-inventor-finds-way-to-clean-up-the-worlds-oceans-in-under-5-years-time/19381.html#ixzz2el6Io38J
Read more at http://vr-zone.com/articles/19-year-old-inventor-finds-way-to-clean-up-the-worlds-oceans-in-under-5-years-time/19381.html#PbQKK2zTpWSQ1rjP.99

 

Previously the idea of cleaning up the world’s oceans with their vast accumulations of disposed plastic material was considered an impossibility. Now a 19-year-old inventor says he and his foundation has a way to clean up the world’s oceans, and not only does he say we can do it, but that we can do it in five years time and produce a profit from it. It is called the ‘Great Pacific Garbage Patch’ or sometimes the “Pacific Trash Vortex”, and it is a massive collection of plastic particles accumulating in the Pacific. Other oceans have their own collections of plastic wastes as well; furthermore, most of the debris in our oceans are plastic materials that accounts for approximately 90% of all the waste debris. Scientists have considered all manner of ways how the debris could be retrieved but there was no clear answer for it. Now a 19-year-old inventor by the name of Boyan Slat says we can remove nearly 20 billion tons of plastic waste with his concept he calls an ocean cleanup array. It is made from a massive series of floating booms and processing platforms that gradually suck in the floating plastic like a giant funnel. The angle with how the array is set up allows all of the plastic to go to where the platforms processing centers are floating. At the platform processing area it would separate the naturally occurring life such as plankton an only keep the plastic materials to be recycled. plastic pollution indian patch 19 year old inventor finds way to clean up the worlds oceans in under 5 years time What is most impressive about the array is that once it goes operational it would clean up the oceans in only 5 years time! He also makes a point in saying that due to the vastness of our oceans most do not know how badly polluted the oceans really are. “One of the problems with preventive work is that there isn’t any imagery of these ‘garbage patches’, because the debris is dispersed over millions of square kilometers,” Slat says on his website. “By placing our arrays however, it will accumulate along the booms, making it suddenly possible to actually visualize the oceanic garbage patches. We need to stress the importance of recycling, and reducing our consumption of plastic packaging.” 8 19 year old inventor finds way to clean up the worlds oceans in under 5 years time Slat was able to come up with the idea while in school, and so he wrote a paper on his concept. Once Slat's paper was published it immediately caught the attention of many marine experts. His paper won all manner of prizes, which included the Best Technical Design 2012 from the Delft University of Technology. When he and others realized that the concept would work he took a leap of faith and created a non-profit organization he calls The Ocean Cleanup Foundation. This group will focus on the goal of developing his invention, raise funds for it and make it operational as soon as possible. His concept would save numerous aquatic species of fish and help reduce PCB and DDT containments affecting all of us. Best of all it operates on the power of the sun and by the oceans themselves. Not only is Slat's concept self-powered, it would also be very profitable from the all the recycling, which is estimated in the amount of 500 million dollars (U.S.) per year. According to Slat's website it "would make in fact more money than the plan would cost to execute. In other words; it's profitable." Read more: http://vr-zone.com/articles/19-year-old-inventor-finds-way-to-clean-up-the-worlds-oceans-in-under-5-years-time/19381.html#ixzz2el6WkLB8
Read more at http://vr-zone.com/articles/19-year-old-inventor-finds-way-to-clean-up-the-worlds-oceans-in-under-5-years-time/19381.html#PbQKK2zTpWSQ1rjP.99

Little Gardeners

Our neighbor, Zack, helped me plant kangkong, pechay, and lettuce yesterday.

My niece, Juju, helped me feed the goats malunggay and lapnis cuttings.

Our new carpenter, Kuya Ides, started building my goat pen for Bumblebee and Twinkle.

Some New Organic Techniques

Rice hull as mulch. But it makes me wonder, isn't rice treated with lotsa pesticides? Is rice hull a good mulch material?

I saw this Solar Water Drip Irrigation system on SOAP's FB page. I got curious, since it's been extremely hot lately, so I tried it on one plot. I also did a clay pot method I read about in bio-intensive gardening. You're supposed to bury a clay pot in the soil and fill it with water and cover it with mulch. I put used coffee filters inside so it would seep through the soil slowly.

Back to the Garden