Environmental forum: ‘Go for ecological agriculture practices!’
Environmental Coalition Green Convergence held the 350th installment of the monthly Kamayan Para sa Kalikasan Forum about alternatives to intensive agriculture and achieving food security on May 17, 2019 (Friday) at Kamayan Restaurant, EDSA, Mandaluyong City.
Green Convergence President Dr. Angelina Galang emphasized that “agriculture has almost permanently gone to mass farming methods.”
“While this has arguably contributed to food security,” Galang said, “it resulted in a common perception that plants used in farming and for food are for such purposes only.”
Intensive use of crops solely for mass farming led to “their fading role in maintaining the integrity of our ecology,” she further stressed.
President Bert Peeters of the Philippine Permaculture Association described this phenomenon’s impacts to people, “We are becoming individually more and more separated…our society is a growing ego-system, but a shrinking eco-system.”
To help regain the crops’ ecological role and human connection to the ecosystem, Annie Guerrero, President of Cravings Group introduced the idea of ‘green chefmanship.’ She explained, “Being green means organic, local and sustainable.”
“[It includes the] use of Bokashi technology, an anaerobic composting by fermentation, [and] a process of mixing beneficial microorganisms into kitchen wastes to create powerful yet inexpensive fertilizers,” Guerrero further described the idea.
Green chefmanship coincided with Peeters’ view that “We have to go smooth with biodiversity by connecting to the places where nature thrives…studying the energy flow…and understanding the beautiful shapes of living things.”
Peeters added, “All we need is a little wilderness.”
Since March 1990, Kamayan Para Sa Kalikasan Forum has become an institutionalized platform that enables NGO and government representatives, the media, students, teachers, church groups, and concerned citizens to discuss pressing environmental issues in the country. This month’s forum is organized by Green Convergence and is supported by Kamayan Restaurant EDSA with the assistance of the Forest Foundation Philippines.
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