Benefits of indigenous food and heirloom rice production were spotlighted during Green Convergence’s 421st Kamayan Para Sa Kalikasan forum themed “Rediscovering Indigenous Food” on July 18, Friday, via Zoom and Facebook livestream.
Opening the discussion, Green Convergence President Victoria Segovia first expressed the contrast of today’s time to the past in terms of food growing activities—how people patronize fast food more and are alienated from organic farming practices, compared to before when people showed deep reverence for the environment to provide food for their nourishment.
“The globalization of the food economy makes food just another commodity to be traded rather than a vehicle for cultural expression and nourishment for the hungry,” Segovia said.
Indigenous foods are foods, plants, and animals that organically live and survive in certain geographic locations according to certain weather conditions.
In line with this, the Chairman of the Social Action Committee of Sta. Teresita Parish in Tupi, South Cotabato, Ernesto Pantua Jr., shared their program on indigenous food for health, livelihood, and environment, where they aim to make healthy and ecologically sustainable food available for Christian communities and Indigenous Peoples (IPs).
The program was initiated upon identifying core problems through their diocese vicariates—concerns regarding conventional farming, unemployment, insufficient income, and insufficient health food for families.
The program started with a three-day seminar with various dioceses, where they were introduced to indigenous food, to which Pantua attested to seeing the benefits of eating indigenous food on their physical and mental health.
Learning through the seminar, he shared some indigenous food choices for liver health, such as togue, labong, and coconut palm; for stomach, spleen, and pancreatic health—eggplant, ampalaya, and sayote; for lung and large intestinal health—monggo, kadiyos, and sitaw; for heart and small intestinal health—malunggay, alugbati, and saluyot; and for kidney and reproductive health—kamote, gabi, and ube.
Program Officer of the Social Action Center of Zambales (SACZ), Loy Arueza, also shared their program on empowering farmers through indigenous rice production and promotion of social enterprise, which started in 2015.
Arueza said that this program was conducted with the environment in mind, given that indigenous rice production is organic farming, as well as an advantage to health, given that a lot of those who attend mass in their diocese have diabetes and hypertension.
In terms of farming production and profitability, they strengthen their systems through prioritizing use of tradition, improving seed varieties through heirloom rice seed exchange, formulating organic fertilizers, and developing climate-resilient production systems using System of Rice Intensification (SRI).
The program also aims to support farmer-led producers and businesses through direct marketing (house-to-house, church-to-church, schools, and online selling), establishing market-based systems with Kadiwa programs and even malls, and increasing consumers’ awareness about the indigenous rice market.
To ensure the sustainability of their indigenous rice production, Arueza shared that they engage with local government units (LGUs) to create local ordinances on promoting and adapting organic agricultural programs, strengthen participation in local development bodies, access Market and Credit at government agencies, and form the Self-help Group (SHEG) approach introduced by Caritas Philippines.
Moreover, they also work closely with stakeholders, such as the LGU, certain government agencies, One Million Lights Philippines, and even academic institutions like President Ramon Magsaysay State University and Ateneo de Manila University, and share their best practices, both locally and internationally.
Discussing the underdeveloped market of indigenous food and rice species due to globalization, greatly affecting the supply and demand, especially for farmers, Pantua emphasized the need for education for awareness of the health benefits from indigenous food, specifically with switching to unpolished rice.
“Makikita natin sa Facebook, sa media, na ang prevalence ng hypertension, diabetes, [and] cancer is the result of our food—’yan ang isang malaking factor kaya diyan tayo magsimula,” Pantua said, in relation to education on indigenous food.
In line with this, Arueza then emphasized the need to support farmer groups for sustainability in their production and even their profit.
Regarding the concern about the accessibility and affordability of heirloom rice in the market, parallel to the health benefits that come with shifting to unpolished rice, Pantua suggested incentivizing farmers and even consumers who switch to organic.
On the other hand, Arueza said that government support is weak with regard to organic programs compared to those who engage in conventional farming.
“Mas mabuti sana kung hindi lang machineries ang nakukuha ng organic farmers mula sa gobyerno kundi binhi, pera, o organic fertilizer din, kasi burden ‘yon sa mga magsasaka ng organic,” Arueza expressed, linking it to the concern on accessibility and affordability of heirloom rice.
Summing up the discussions in the forum, Green Convergence Trustee Dr. Angelina Galang reiterated the “nature knows best” environmental principle and concluded that patronizing local food means keeping the environment healthy and natural. It also brings out good health and livelihood.
“If we all realize that indigenous food is good for the environment and for our health, we will patronize it. If we patronize it, farmers will be encouraged to grow them. Hopefully, prices will go down, more people will buy, more farmers will plant, and more people will be healthy,” Dr. Galang remarked as she closed the forum.
Kamayan Para Sa Kalikasan is a monthly initiative organized by Green Convergence Philippines that enables non-government organizations (NGOs) and government representatives, the media, students, teachers, church groups, and concerned citizens to discuss, analyze, and create solutions to pressing environmental issues in the country.
For those interested to be a member of Green Convergence, visit these links to register: bit.ly/gcindividual or bit.ly/gcnetorg.
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