Agro-Ecology: That’s What Practical Farming is All About

Agro-Ecology:

That’s What Practical Farming is All About

Dr Abe V. Rotor

The Ifugao Rice Terraces and Machu Picchio in Peru (lower photo) are farming models of Agro-Ecology, many are as old as the Egyptian civilization and that of Ancient China.

“Farming is a way of living,” says the dean of farm management in the Philippines, Dean Felix D. Maramba, quoting Eugene Devenport who said that farming is not only a business, but a mode of life. “Sometimes the business is the prominent feature, so successful that life seems to run on one long sweet song. Sometimes the business runs so low that life is a bitter struggle.”

The farm and the family home is intertwined; in fact they are one. Anything that affects the farm as a business also directly affects as a home. The farm operator is the head of the household and the bulk of the farm work is done by the members of the family. The farmer is the farmer 24 hours a days, on weekdays as well as on Sundays and Holidays.

The children are brought up in close contact with nature. They develop an appreciation of the manifestations of the Creator through living things and their order. The farm boy does not have to wait until he is grown up before he can work and share family responsibilities. He is brought up early in the family business. In this way he will learn the value of industry and a sense of proprietorship early in life. The work habits and resourcefulness developed by farm children are kept throughout their lives.

Composting is a regular feature of farming and gardening.

This old school of Dean Maramba may not be the model progressive farmers are looking for today, but definitely the better farmer is the entrepreneur who grew up with farming and pursued training in technology and farm management, and has gain the confidence and skills in transforming the traditional concept of a farm into an agribusiness and therefore, he has a better chance in dealing with the complexities of world of the agriculture and business.
Make the correct decisions in farming.

Farming is no easy task. It is full of decisions - decisions based on socio-economic principles, and guided by rules of conduct and natural laws and of society. These are 10 guidelines in decision making.

1. Surplus labor resources of typically large rural families should be directed to labor-intensive projects, such as integrated farming.

2. Hillside or upland agriculture requires the cultivation of permanent crops, preferably through mixed cropping, such as intercropping of coconuts with orchard trees and annual crops.

3. Coastal and river swamplands should be preserved as wildlife sanctuaries, and should be managed as an ecosystem, rather than an agricultural venture.

4. Wastes can be recycled and converted into raw materials of another enterprise. Farm wastes and byproducts of processing can be processed biologically into methane, organic fertilizer, and biomass for vermiculture.

5. Productivity of small farms can be increased through pyramidal or storey farming. Batangas and Cavite farmers are well known for storied multiple cropping.

6. Poor soils can be rehabilitated through natural farming, such as green manuring, crop rotation and use of organic fertilizers, all integrated in the farming system. Corn-peanut, rice-mungo are popular models of crop rotations.

7. Cottage industries are built on agriculture, guided by profitability and practical technology. It is time to look at the many agro-industries, from food processing to handicrafts.

8. Tri-commodity farming maximizes utilization of resources, such as having an orchard, planting field crops, and raising fish and livestock on one farm.

9. Cooperative farming is the solution to economics of scale, these to include multipurpose and marketing cooperatives of farmers and entrepreneurs.

Sampaguita, Philippine national flower, is now cultivated like tea on large scale.

10. Since the number of days devoted to farming is only one-­third of the whole year, livelihood outside of farming should be developed. Like a sari-sari store, a small farm cannot afford to have too many hands. Other opportunities should be tapped outside of farming by other members of the family.

Always go for natural food
The rule of thumb is that, it is always preferred to eat foods grown under natural conditions than those grown with the use of chemicals. These are criteria to know if a food is natural?

· It must be fresh, or freshly packed
· It must be free from pests and diseases
· There are no harmful chemicals and artificial additives, including antibiotics residues.
· Food must not be tainted with radiation
· Natural food excludes the so-called junk food.
· It has been processed by natural means such as blast freezing, sun drying and the like.
· Packaging materials are safe to human health, animals and the environment.
· It meets standard organoloeptic test (taste test) and nutritional value requirements.

There are many kinds of vegetables you can choose for backyard and homelot gardening.

Native vegetables - patani, alukong or himbaba-o, eggplant, and amoalaya make the best Ilocano pinakbet.

There are many vegetables to choose from: leafy – malungay, talbos (kalabasa, kamote, sayote), kangkong,; Stem – asparagus, bamboo shoot; flower– katuray, squash flower, cauliflower, broccoli, himbaba-o (alokong); fruit – ampalaya, squash, cucumber, green corn, sayote, tomato, eggplant, green papaya, pepper; root – Gabi, kamote, ube, tugui, ginger, onion, garlic, carrot, radish; seed – patani, sitao, white bean, black bean, cowpea, green pea, chick pea, pigeon pea, peanut, linga (sesame), paminta (black pepper)

Malunggay is the most popular tree vegetable in the tropic. In the province no home is without this small tree at the backyard or in a vacant lot. The leaves, flowers, juvenile pods and young fruits of Moringa oleifera (Family Moringaceae) go well with fish, meat, shrimp, mushroom, and the like. It is one plant that does not need agronomic attention, not even weeding and fertilization, much less chemical spraying. You simply plant an arms length cutting or two, in some corner or along the fence and there it grows into a tree that can give you a ready supply of vegetables yearound. What nutrients do we get from malunggay?

Here is a comparison of the food value of the fresh leaves and young fruits, respectively, in percent. (Marañon and Hermano, Useful Plants of the Philippines)

· Proteins 7.30 7.29

· Carbohydrates 11.04 2.61

· Fats 1.10 0.16

· Crude Fiber 1.75 0.76

· Phosphorus (P2 O 5) 0.24 0.19

· Calcium (CaO) 0.72 0.01

· Iron (Fe2O3) 0.108 0.0005

Owing to these properties and other uses, rural folks regard malunggay a “miracle tree.” Take for other uses. The root has a taste somewhat like that of horse-radish, and in India it is eaten as a substitute to it. Ben oil extracted from the seed is used for salad and culinary purposes, and also as illuminant. Mature seeds have antibacterial and flocculants properties that render drinking water safe and clear.

From these data, it is no wonder malunggay is highly recommended by doctors and nutritionists for both children and adults, particularly to nursing mothers and the convalescents.
Get the best from your favorite fruits

1. Be keen with the appearance, smell, feel – and even sound – of the fruit before harvesting or buying it. There’s no substitute to taste test.though. Develop your skills on these fruits: mango, musk melon, soursop or guyabano and its relative, sugar apple or atis. Also try on caimito, chico, siniguelas, and such rare fruit as sapote.

2. To ripen fruits, rub table salt on the cut stem (peduncle). Salt does not only facilitate ripening, it also protects the fruit from fungi and bacteria that cause it to rot. You can use the rice box-dispenser to ripen chico, caimito, avocado, tomato, and the like. Wrap the fruits loosely with two or three layers of newspaper before placing them inside the box. As the fruits ripen they exude ethylene gas that hastens ripening. 3. Bigger fruits are always generally preferred. Not always. Native chico is sweeter and more aromatic than the ponderosa chico. Big lanzones have large seeds. Bicol or Formosa pineapple, although not juicier, is sweeter than the Hawaiian variety. Of course we always pick up the biggest mango, nangka, caimito, watermelon, cantaloupe, atis, guyabano, and the like.

4. There are vegetables that are eaten as fruit or prepared into juice. Examples are carrot, tomato, green corn, and sweet green pea. Asparagus juice, anyone? Try a variety of ways in serving your favorite fruits. nangka ice cream, fruit cocktail in pineapple boat, avocado cake, guava wine. Enjoy the abundance of your favorite fruits, consult the fruit season calendar.

Engage in cottage industries, such as home made coconut virgin oil.The price of this “miracle cure” has soared and there is now a proliferation of commercial brands of virgin coconut oil in the market. The old folks show have been doing this for a long time. One such person is Mrs. Gloria Reyes of Candelaria (Quezon) who makes virgin coconut oil. This is the step-by-step process.

1. Get twenty (20) husked, healthy, and mature nuts. They should not show any sign of spoilage or germination. Shake each nut and listen to the distinct sound of its water splashing. If you can hear it, discard the particular nut.

2. Split each nut with a bolo, gathering the water in the process. Discard any nut at the slightest sign of defect, such as those with cracked shell and oily water, discolored meat, presence of a developing endosperm (para). Rely on a keen sense of smell.

3. With the use of an electric-driven grating machine, grate the only the white part of the meat. Do not include the dark outer layer of the meat.

4. Squeeze the grated meat using muslin cloth or linen to separate the milk (gata) from the meal (sapal). Gather the milk in wide-mouth bottles (liter or gallon size).

5. Cover the jars with dry linen and keep them undisturbed for 3 to 5 hours in a dry, dark and cool corner.

6. Carefully remove the floating froth, then harvest the layer of oil and place it in a new glass jar. Discard the water at the bottom. It may be used as feed ingredient for chicken and animals.

7. Repeat the operation three to four times, until the oil obtained is crystal clear. Now this is the final product – home made virgin coconut oil.

Virgin coconut oil is a product of cold process of oil extraction, as compared with the traditional method of using heat. In the latter coconut milk is brought to boiling, evaporating the water content in the process, and obtaining a crusty by-product called latik. The products of both processes have many uses, from ointment and lubrication to cooking and food additive. There is one difference though, virgin coconut oil is richer with vitamins and enzymes - which are otherwise minimized or lost in the traditional method.
Get rid of waste by utilizing them.
Agricultural byproducts make good animal feeds, as follows:

· Rice straw, corn stovers and sugarcane tops, the most common crop residues in the tropics, contain high digestible nutrients, and provide 50% of the total ration of cattle and carabaos.

· Rice bran and corn bran are the most abundant general purpose feed that provides 80 percent of nutritional needs of poultry, hogs and livestock, especially when mixed with copra meal which is richer in protein than imported wheat bran (pollard).

· Cane molasses is high in calorie value. Alternative supplemental feeds are kamote vines for hogs and pineapple pulp and leaves for cattle.

Here is a simple feed formula for cattle: Copra meal 56.5 kg;
rice bran (kiskisan or second class cono bran) 25 kg;
molasses 15kg;
Urea (commercial fertilizer grade, 45%N) 2.0kg;
Salt 1.0kg; and
Bone meal 0.5kg.
Weight gain of a two-year old Batangas cattle breed fed with this formulation is 0.56 kg on the average,

These are byproducts which have potential feed value: These are byproducts or wastes in the processing of oil, starch, fish, meat, fruit and vegetables. The abundance of agricultural by-products offers ready and cheap feed substitutes with these advantages.

• It cut down on feed costs,
• reduces the volume on imported feed materials,
• provides cheaper source of animal protein,
• provides employment and livelihood, and
• keeps the environment clean and in proper balance.
• Protect nature through environment-friendly technology.

One example is the use of rice hull ash to protects mungbeans from bean weevil. Burnt rice hull (ipa) contains silica crystals that are microscopic glass shards capable of penetrating into the conjunctiva of the bean weevil, Callosobruchus maculatus. Once lodged, the crystal causes more damage as the insect moves and struggles, resulting in infection and desiccation, and ultimately death.

Ducks raised on rice paddy to control Golden Kuhol and other pest

This is the finding of Ethel Niña Catahan in her masteral thesis in biology at the University of Santo Tomas. Catahan tested two types of rice hull ash, One is partly carbonized (black ash) and the other oven-burned (white ash). Both were applied independently in very small amount as either mixed with the beans or as protectant placed at the mouth of the container. In both preparations and methods, mungbeans – and other beans and cereals, for that matter – can be stored for as long as six months without being destroyed by this Coleopterous insect.

The bean weevil is a cosmopolitan insect whose grub lives inside the bean, eating the whole content and leaving only the seed cover at the end of its life cycle. When it is about to emerge the female lays eggs for the next generation. Whole stocks of beans may be rendered unfit not only for human consumption, but for animal feeds as well. It is because the insect leaves a characteristic odor that comes from the insect’s droppings and due to fungal growth that accompanies infestation.
Rice is substitute, and a better one, to wheat flour.

Of all alternative flour products to substitute wheat flour, it is rice flour that is acclaimed to be the best for the following reasons:

· Rice has many indigenous uses from suman to bihon (local noodle), aside from its being a staple food of Filipinos and most Asians.

· In making leavened products, rice can be compared with wheat, with today’s leavening agents and techniques.

· Rice is more digestible than wheat. Gluten in wheat is hard to digest and can cause a degenerative disease which is common to Americans and Europeans.

· Rice is affordable and available everywhere, principally on the farm and in households.

Other alternative flour substitutes are those from native crops which are made into various preparations - corn starch (maja), ube (halaya), gabi (binagol), and tugui’ (ginatan), cassava (cassava cake and sago).

Lastly, the local rice industry is the mainstay of our agriculture. Patronizing it is the greatest incentive to production and it saves the country of precious dollar that would otherwise be spent on imported wheat.

Let’s aim at unifying agriculture and ecology into agro-ecology. This is what practical farming is all about. x x x

Lesson on TATAKalikasan: International Mother Earth Day, April 22, 2024 Let's stop destroying the Earth - our only ship in space

Lesson on TATAKalikasan Ateneo de Manila University

87.9 FM Radyo Katipunan, 11 to 12 a,m, Thursday

International Mother Earth Day, April 22, 2024

 Let's stop destroying the Earth -

our only ship in space

Dr Abe V Rotor

Co-Host with Fr JM Manzano SJ, and Prof Emoy Rodolfo, AdMU

 

A view of the Earth from the moon 

   Two views from Antipolo of  Marikina Valley, a dying ecosystem  

1. Changing Environment, influenced by man, breeds a variety of ailments and diseases. Nature-Man Balance, the key to good health is being threatened.

2. What and Where is the so-called Good Life? The Good Life is shifting with the transformation of agricultural to industrial economy.

3. The Good Life is synonymous to Affluence. People want goods and services beyond what they actually need. Want leads to luxury - to waste.

What is the Good Life when religion becomes an enemy of the environment? 
Millions of trees and palms are sacrificed every Palm Sunday in the Christian World.  Potential loss in coconut alone is immeasurably high, affecting farmers and the industry.

4. The world’s population is about 8 billion. Another billion will be added in less than 10 years. Runaway population is the mother of human miseries

5. The proliferation of cities, growth of cities to metropolises and megapolises, each with 10 to 20 million people ensconced in cramped condition. Cities breed Marginal communities

“People, people everywhere, but not a kindred to keep," in condominiums, malls, schools, churches, parks, sharing common lifestyles and socio-economic conditions. They are predisposed to common health problems and vulnerabilities from brownouts to food and fuel shortage, force majeure notwithstanding.

6. Loss of Natural Environment – loss of productivity, loss of farmlands, and wildlife. Destruction of ecosystems - lakes, rivers, forests, coral reefs, grasslands, etc. Destruction of ecosystems is irreversible.


7. Species are threatened, many are now extinct, narrowing down the range of biodiversity. Human health depends largely on a complex interrelationship of the living world. No place on earth is safe from human abuse. Coral Reef – bastion of terrestrial and marine life, is now in distress.

Reflection of deer in a fountain, UST Manila 

8. Wildlife shares with our homes, backyards and farms, transmitting deadly diseases like SARS, HIV-AIDS, Mad-Cow, FMD, Ebola, and Bird Flu which can now infect humans, allergies notwithstanding.

9. “Good Life” cradles and nurses obesity and other overweight conditions. Millions of people around the world are obese, wih 34% of Americans in the US obese.

10. Global warming stirs climatic disturbance, changes the face of the earth.

11. Globalization packages the major aspects of human activity – trade, commerce, industry, agriculture, the arts, education, science and technology, politics, religion and the like.

12. . Mélange of races - pooling of genes through inter-racial and inter-cultural marriages produces various mixed lines or “mestizos” - Eurasian, Afro-Asian, Afro-American, Amerasian, and the like. Native genes provide resistance to diseases, adverse conditions of the environment. But will this advantage hold on even as the native gene pools are thinned out?

13. Modern medicine is responsible in reducing mortality and increasing longevity. It has also preserved genetically linked abnormalities; it cradles senility related ailments. It made possible the exchange of organs and tissues through transplantation, and soon tissue cloning. It has changed Evolution that is supposed to cull out the unfit and misfits. Man has Darwinism in his hands.

14. The first scientific breakthrough is the splitting of the atom that led to the development of the atomic bomb as the most potent tool of war as evidenced by its destruction at Nagasaki and Hiroshima, and the nuclear reactor which still holds the promise of providing incessant energy to mankind. The second scientific breakthrough – Microchip led to the development of the Internet which “shrunk the world into a village.”

16. The third breakthrough in science, Genetic Engineering, changed our concept of life - and life forms. It has enabled man to tinker with life itself. Revolutionary industries Examples: In vitro fertilization, surrogate motherhood, Human Genome Project (HGP or gene mapping), multiple childbirth, post-menopausal childbirth, DNA mapping, etc. Birth of the prototype human robot – pampered, he lives a very dependent life.

17. Genetic Engineering gave rise to Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) and Gene Therapy. It has also primed Biological Warfare into a more terrifying threat to mankind and the environment. On the other hand Gene Therapy aims at preventing gene-link diseases even before they are expressed; it has actuallty revolutionized medicine. More and more countries are banning GMO crops and animals through legislative measures and conservation programs, including protection against “biopiracy”

No to Genetically Modified Organisms Campaign all over the world

18. Today’s Green Revolution opened up non-conventional frontiers of production – mariculture, desalination, desert farming, swamp reclamation, aerophonics (rooftop farming), hydroponics, urban farming, organic farming, Green Revolution adapts genetic engineering to produce GMOs and Frankenfoods. We may not be aware, but many of us are eating
genetically modified food (GMF or Frankenfood) everyday – meat, milk, chicken, corn, potato and soya products, and the like mainly from the US. Many food additives and adjuncts are harmful, from salitre in longganiza to pesticide residue in fruits and vegetables, aspartame in fruit juice to MSG in noodles, formalin in fish to dioxin in plastics, bromate in bread to sulfite in sugar, antibiotic residue in meat to radiation in milk.

• Hydroponics or soiless culture makes farming feasible in cramped quarters, and it increases effective area of farming.
. Aeroponics or Multi-storey farming Vertical Farming Farming in the city on high rise buildings 
• Post Harvest Technology. is critical to Food Production. PHT bridges production and consumption, farm and market, thus the proliferation of processed goods, supermarket, fast food chains, food irradiation, ready-to-eat packs, etc.

19. Exploration into the depth of the sea and expanse of the Solar System - and beyond. We probe the hadal depth of the ocean. We build cities in space - the Skylab. Soon we will live outside of the confines of our planet earth. Now we aim at conquering another planet, another Solar System to assure continuity of mankind after the demise of the earth.

20. Regional and International Cooperation is key to global cooperation: EU, ASEAN, APEC, CGIAR, ICRISAT, WTO, WHO, UNEP, WFO, FAO, like fighting pandemic diseases – HIV-AIDS, SARS, Dengue, Hepatitis, Bird Flu, etc.

Lesson on TATAKalikasan Lesson: Earth Day Celebrations Around the World

Lesson on TATAKalikasan Ateneo de Manila University

87.9 FM Radyo Katipunan, 11 to 12 a,m, Thursday

Earth Day Celebrations Around the World

             Ecology in the Unifying Element of World Peace 

Researched by Dr Abe V Rotor

Living with Nature - School on Blog (avrotor.blogspot.com)

Also visit Naturalism -the Eighth Sense

Over the past decades, over 193 countries have observed the Earth Day celebration—empowering local communities, students, and governments to create a positive change for the planet, charging forward with the popular slogan, think globally, act locally. Internet

Children-Pioneers of ECOLOGICAL ECUMINISM Movement

 

 

Ecological Ecumenism through Children's Art Workshop 

in expressing love and reverence in God and Nature.

Living with Nature Center, San Vicente Ilocos Sur

Here is a random list of some countries leading the celebration of Earth Day. 

• Glastonbury Festival, one of the world's largest music and performing arts festivals, takes place in Somerset, England.
• Yoga & Outdoor Activities in Gulf Shores, Alabama
• Sustainability and Social Good Pop-Up, NY
• Party for the Planet in Kansas City, MO

The people of Denmark celebrate this day with lots of pompous drums playing pointed at the four corners of the world. Then they attend the March for Science, which is a march done to hold their elected government officials responsible for green initiatives.

• Empower Earth Day Celebration, London
• TreeVolution, an annual festival dedicated to tree planting and conservation,      Nurrangay Reserve Nature Walks, Sydney Australia
• Hakka Tung Blossom Festival, Taiwan

Envision Festival, an eco-conscious festival held annually in Costa Rica.
Envision Festival is a four-day extravaganza held on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica, near the town of Uvita. Set against the backdrop of pristine beaches and dense rainforests, this immersive eve

• Minneapolis Earth Day Cleanup, USA
• Earth Day Parade and Festival< Vancouver, Canada
• Global Unity and Regeneration Gathering, Lanjaron, Spain

In the Philippines, April 22 of every year has been declared as the Philippines' Earth Day under Presidential Proclamation 1481, signed on April 10, 2008, by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to raise the level of awareness on environmental degradation and destruction in the country that threatens the very quality of life.

• Earth Expo, Johannesburg, South Africa
• The March of Science, USA and Elsewhere

Curated by the horticultural team at the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney, Love Your Nature has over 20,000 plants on display and one of the largest living green walls in the Southern Hemisphere. This year’s exhibition celebrates all kinds of plant-love. From prehistoric plants that use clones, spores and seeds to reproduce, to flowering plants that employ colours, shapes and scents to attract animals, and humans matchmaking for bigger fruit, brighter flowers and to protect wild plants for the future.

• Green Man Festival, Brecon Beacons, Wales,
• Earth Day at Ix Art Park in Charlottesville, VA
• April is Arizona Water Awareness Month,
• Burning Man, Nevada's Black Rock Desert, Burning Man is an experimental   community-based event on radical self-expression, art, and communal living.

 
Earth Day actually lasts from March 11 to May 30, but the main festival days will happen on the weekends April 13 to 14 at Yoyogi Park Events Square and April 20 to 21 at Miyashita Park.

Glastonbury Festival located on Worthy Farm, Pilton, Somerset Scotland is the largest greenfield music and performing arts festival in the world. The archive shows how the Festival has developed exponentially over the past 50 years to become the global cultural phenomenon it is today.
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Earth Day turned 51 years old this year. On April 22, 1970, its humble beginnings occurred when Gaylord Nelson conducted the first environmental awareness protest against industry-caused air pollution. 20 million Americans participated in the protest, spreading the importance of climate awareness in our world.
Earth Day is a day of connection and education, and Jarvisen believes a healthy relationship with the world facilitates a stronger bond with its people. Earth Day may have had its start in North America, but cultures around the world help spread environmental awareness through their traditions. This blog shows you how other cultures have spent their Earth Day in the past and the present.
--------------------------------
Earth Day Activities and Ideas

• Clean Up Plastics in your community
• Go to a Park with your family.
• Plant a Tree!
• Use Wildflowers and Native Plants.
• Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle in the Garden.
• Stop Using Chemicals in the Garden.
• Conserve Water!
• Convert your home lot into a garden, Bahay Kubo style
• Organize, participate in watching birds and animals
• Organize, participate in festivals or events that attract tourists to see live natural activities, such as volcanoes, and astrological activities, including solar and lunar eclipses.
• Write, compose poems, songs, draw, paint - be an artist.

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Earth Day April 22, 2024 Global Warming is accelerating!

 Earth Day April 22, 2024

Global Warming is accelerating!
Ninety-seven percent of climate scientists agree that climate-warming trends over the past century are very likely due to human activity since the mid-20^th century.

Dr Abe V Rotor
Professor, UST, DLSU-D Lesson in Advanced Ecology UST and DLSU(D) Graduate Schools. How can an ordinary citizen help in cushioning global warming.

Lesson in Photography. Present your best photo (one only) on the subject. Original (with bonus), or downloaded. Give a short explanation.
                        Sign of the Times: Smog, acid rain and ozone depletion rolled altogether. 
                                                        Photo by AVR Fairview, QC 2010

Acknowledgment: Time Magazine

Here are scientific evidences released by the 

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

It is a fact that the Earth's climate has been changing throughout history. In the last 650,000 years there have been seven cycles of glacial advance and retreat, with the abrupt end of the last ice age about 7,000 years ago marking the beginning of the modern climate era — and of human civilization.

The planet's average surface temperature has risen about 1.62 degrees Fahrenheit (0.9 degrees Celsius) since the late 19th century, with most of the warming occurring in the past 35 years with the five warmest years on record taking place since 2010. The warmest year on record after 2016 is this current year. The IPCC report continues with these alarming developments:

• The oceans are getting warmer. 
• Ice sheets are shrinking, especially Greenland and Antarctic. The Arctic sea ice is declining. 
• Glaciers are retreating almost everywhere around the world — including in the Alps, Himalayas, Andes, Rockies, Alaska and Africa (Mount Kilimanjaro),.
• The snow cover in the Northern Hemisphere is melting at an earlier rate. .
• Sea level is rising. Global sea level rose about 8 inches in the last century. The rate in the last two decades, however, is nearly double that of the last century and is accelerating slightly every year.
• Extreme events such as extreme temperature, intense rainfall, and other force majeure 
• The acidity of surface ocean waters has increased by about 30 percent since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution

This global scenario calls for an urgent collective action. It is a plea addressed to governments, organizations, individuals all over the world>  It is a plea beyond message of an Internationally famous broadcaster, natural historian and author, David Attenborough. To wit:

"When we look at the rising ocean temperatures, rising carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and so on, we know that they are climbing far more steeply than can be accounted for by the natural oscillation of the weather … What people (must) do is to change their behavior and their attitudes … for our upcoming generation we have to do something, and we have to demand for government support

"Right now we are facing a man-made disaster of global scale, our greatest threat in thousands of years: climate change. If we don’t take action, the collapse of our civilisations and the extinction of much of the natural world is on the horizon".

- David Attenborough, 2018.

* Earth Day is marked across the globe on April 22 to support environmental conservation efforts. It was first celebrated across US college campuses in 1970 — months after a massive oil spill in Santa Barbara. The movement has since mobilised more than a billion individuals in over 192 countries. The annual event is being marked on Monday with the global theme ‘Planet vs. Plastics’. Internet

Begging for a Seat in School - Neutral Morality in Disguise

 Begging for a Seat in School - Neutral Morality in Disguise

"He who feels for the needy

   with but some coins is a fool,

   in a world deaf to a poor boy 

            begging for a seat in school." - avr

Dr Abe V Rotor

It pains me so much - personally and as a part of humanity - 

to see a boy beggar in rags, or incognito walking with us, 

or abandoned in some dingy corner, when the world proudly 

proclaims, "never in history has Homo sapiens, the thinking, 

reasoning man, reached the pinnacle of progress way, way 

above the banner of enlightenment." 

Wrong. I still feel guilty seeing the likes of this young beggar.  

millions of them around the world - in rich and poor countries,

industrialized and agricultural, for this is not a matter of mercy,

not even compassion - or neutral morality.  Words come easy, 

mother statements as universal truth, prayers are empty still.~  

  

 

An Iranian student of mine at the UST Graduate School c. 1996 gave me this almost worn out reproduction meticulously wrapped in plastic as a souvenir and as an expression of gratitude to me as his professor in natural science. "I carried this with me," he said, "as a source of challenge with the hope that I will succeed in my studies - and to be of help later to children like this boy.  Now I am going back to my country."  

I was speechless. I examined the painting.  There is no name - title and artist, or any note for that matter. A good follower of this blog mentioned the painter artist in passing - for which I am grateful to him. The painter, based on his style and subject apparently belonged to the post classicism era at the dawn of realism, when art began to transcend to the people, which we know today as people's art."*

A disturbing scene to Maslow -

    could he have been wrong?

What is self-actualization

    to the striving throng?

What's good is the Bastille trilogy -

    pillars of modern society:

equality, fraternity,

    liberty - sans dignity?

Motherhood words may come easy;

    they cannot be mistaken,

for the lips that speak of promise

    are easily forgotten.

And the world goes on as it seems;

    a beggar boy, its conscience:

lost youth, lost hope, lost future

    in the midst of affluence.

The door is jarred to full view

    and knocking wouldn't lend an ear;

indifference makes man blind

    or takes him to the rear.

He who feels for the needy

    with but some coins is a fool,

in a world deaf to a poor boy

    begging for a seat in school. ~

  

 Typical scenes in marginalized societies mainly in metropolitan suburbs. 

(Internet photos) ~

"Please sir I want some more" - from Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens 

 Acknowledgement: Pinterest

* Nikolay Petrovich Bogdalov-Belsky (1868–1945) was a Russian painter.

Re-writing the Book of Life through Genetic Engineering

Genetic Engineering 

 Re-writing the Book of Life

Dr Abe V Rotor

After man has "perfected" the model of the DNA, the code of heredity, he has succeeded in cracking the code itself, which is the “code of life.”

This feat was preceded by the cracking the atom which brought out the first genie, the atomic bomb. What would the second genie look like?

Mutation through Genetic Engineering, acrylic by AV Rotor, 2002

1. Does GMO cause cancer and other diseases? There is no evidence to this yet. But cancer is too complex a disease for us to understand fully. Whatever triggers the disease is not immediately determined until we accurately read it in the human genome map. Questions are asked: “Where did prion (protein infective principle of mad cow disease) come from? “How does it cause Bovine Spongioform Encephalopathy (BSE), and the human the Crueztfeldt Jakob Disease (CJD) to which the mad cow disease is associated?” “Other than cancer why are there more young people contacting diabetes, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases?” We do not know the answers to these questions. We cannot blame these to GMO either. It is too early to say. But we have to be wary.

2. GMO and the Terminator. In this case, the genie is a multinational organism placed by fate in its hands of the farmer. This problem is worse than the conditions imposed by producers of hybrid corn seeds, where farmers are forced to renew their seed stock every time they plant. The Terminator is a GM corn variety carrying genes which automatically kill the crop embryo after harvesting. Consequently, the farmer needs to buy new seeds from the company. The creator, Monsanto, got the ire of many people. It projected a bad image of biotechnology.

3. Processed Food from GMO. Seemingly, you do not see this kind of genie. We do not know but we are eating GM Food, often referred to as Frankenfood, after the novel Frankenstein, no matter how much we try to avoid it. There was no referendum conducted or public consultation before GMF was put to market. Today, GM soybean is processed into cooking oil, soy sauce, TVP (Texturized Vegetable Protein), taho, tokwa, etc.  GM potato finds its way through fast food chain. There are steaks, burgers, corned beef and milk which come from GM cows. But who is accountable when things go wrong, and how can we seek redress?

4. GMO touches the fiber of culture, beliefs and religion. People are generally sensitive to many things: cultural, religious, personal. Protests may be felt even in their silence. Could it be that people are silent since to protest can mean deprivation of food? As they say: Beggars are no choosers.

5. "The genie obliges only to its master's command." Who’s afraid of the big werewolf? Ask George Orwell. Anyone who has read his book, “1984” will understand. His definition of big brother is one that is benevolent and abusive at the same time, according to his will. Susan George, in her book, How the Other Half Dies, is equally provoking. She claims that part of the world is without sufficient food. One half of the world’s population is hungry and deprived of many basic needs, while the other half simply has much more than it needs. What guarantees do we have that GMO will not fall into hands of capitalists? Monsanto gave the early signals. One wonders who controls (owns) the gene banks at the International Rice Research Institute, the International Wheat and Maiz Research Center (CYMMT), and other research centers.

6. GMO may be useful in medicine, but it can also create havoc to the living world. Genetic engineering (GE) is as young as dawn. As light breaks, we take a glimpse before the sun is up. Genetic engineering, according to its proponents, is the key to the control of malaria and dengue. Entomologists have already isolated parasite-suppressing genes in mosquitoes. GE in medicine, such as insulin production, has expanded into the production of more potent antibiotics and hormones. If we can modify the efficiency of beneficial organisms, so can we increase the virulence of pathogens. Genetic engineering may wake up one day the sleeping Bubonic Plague bacteria (Yersinia pestis) that killed one-third of human population in the Dark Ages. Or propel Anthrax into pandemic proportion. Genetic engineering can increase the virulence of potato blight fungus that caused starvation of Ireland in the 18th century. It can trigger the dreaded tungro virus disease of rice, so with rice blight fungus and other rice pathogens, and wipe out ricefields in unimaginable scale.

The incorporation of drugs in genetically modified food plants opens a new field of pharmacology, called biopharming. GMO mixed with vitamins can reduce infant mortality, blindness, and other associated defects. But do we need to take medicine when we are not sick? What would be the effect of biopharmed food crops to our healthy body? Conventionally man derives medicine from products of organisms and from naturally occurring sources. Today we are modifying these sources - even before discovering the potential ones. Scientists believe that we have yet to find out the uses of more than 95 percent of all plants. Man has bare knowledge of the creatures in the deep ocean, and the rich diversity of the living world. The thrust of research has shifted to the gene rather than the species.

7. Modern Frankenstein. It is inevitable that genetic engineering will be applied in human cloning. Today, we have so far applied human biotechnology mostly in helping childless couples bear children, such as through in vitro (outside of the womb) fertilization. But with current results in animal cloning, a technique is being developed to clone the human being without encountering the problems that beset Dolly the sheep, which is premature aging. If this is not handled well, we may be bringing forth a new Frankenstein monster into our midst. x x x

Mother Nature Dismembered by Genetic Engineering

 Mother Nature Dismembered by Genetic Engineering  

The advance of genetic engineering makes it quite conceivable that we will begin to design our own evolutionary progress. - Isaac Asimov

Dr Abe V Rotor

Dismembered Nature in acrylic AVR

Scenario: A rat glowing in the dark carrying the phosphorescent gene of the jellyfish - for what motive drove the crazy scientist? People jump off their seats, children shriek, there is fun and pandemonium.  This new creature became a novelty and celebrity, a symbol of a postmodern technology. It is now an orphan detached from its natural gene pool. To return to its population, it must escape from the laboratory, and share its new gene with its kind. Soon enough a population of glowing rats fills the "village of a Hamlyn".  Now we need a modern Pied Piper to wipe these Genetically Modified pest out.  Could he?   

This is true to GM plants, animal, microorganisms - the foreign gene will remain forever as it crosses the boundaries of fields, colonies, populations, countries, islands, or in short, the boundaries of time and space. 

There is no way to sweep away genetic pollution, unlike conventional pollution.  It even surpasses radioactive fallout because  radioactivity has a self life even if it takes hundreds of years to declare the level safe to health and environment.  Perhaps the only time the spread of genetic pollution in a particular carrier comes to an end is when its own species becomes extinct.  By then it shall have found other hosts to continue the transfer. 

When protein gene from say peanut is spliced into soybean, you transfer allergy susceptibility as well, and doctors may not be able to trace it at all. Meantime we say it is safe.  How about protein gene coming from non-edible source?  The problem with GM products is the lack, or impossible, pre-test guarantee. By the way allergy is not limited to humans; it is universal to living things in various manifestations. This is not good because allergy is a safely valve of the body system. 

There is this case called "Suicide Gene" spliced into a high value crops allegedly by the exclusive distributors of a GM crop like hybrid corn. The mechanism is simple. Combine the suicide gene with the DNA of a hybrid corn so that the progeny or F1 will not produce seeds for a second crop, thus preventing farmers to source and share seeds, an age old farming tradition.  Because suicide gene is transferable by natural pollination, it easily finds its way to pollute natural gene pools not only limited on a particular crop but other crops as well. It is chain reaction ad infinitum. A never ending Big Bang. 

Genetic engineering, through aggressive promotion claims, is the messiah of agriculture. It is as if it is the ultimate solution to feed an exploding population with both its needs and affluence. In the first place it is a senseless race. It may give a feeling of triumph for the day without reference to the future, to our children and children's children.   

How can we assure sustainable productivity of our farms ruined by erosion, soil nutrient depletion, water loss due to excessive cultivation? The rule is that,
the more you plant and harvest, the more your farm gets overworked. Declining productivity will result to declining yield of whether GM or non-GM crop. 

We cannot hurry up nature. It needs fallow, it needs to go with the seasons, to complete the natural cycles operating for through eons of time. Destroy the integrity of the Carbon cycle and you will disturb photosynthesis. Nitrogen cycle and you will stunt growth. Phosphorus and fruiting will fail. Potassium and your plants are sickly and weak. Calcium and your soil becomes acidic.  Even minor elements have far reaching consequences. Disturb Iron (Fe) cycle and your plants get anemic (chlorotic).  Manganese, which is a catalyst, and nutrient conversion (inorganic to organic compounds) slows down. Disturb the Water cycle and you will end up with drought.

The farm becomes an orphan, and we need subsidy, a guardian, benefactor.  We need rehabilitation, the cost of which is more than the value of many harvests. Meantime the farm has to recover like a sick person. Where is GM on the rescue.
We asked this question before: Where is modern agriculture on the rescue? When we introduced heavy inputs of commercial fertilizers, pesticides, miracle seeds, (and now GM seeds), coupled with mechanization for large scale production, borrowed money, etc. We shifted from traditional to modern with little innovative transition. 

We pushed the frontiers of agriculture too far out to the sea (mariculture), to the hills (Slope Agriculture), and deep into the forest (agro-forestry). Grossly these proved to be disastrous particularly to nature, to ecology, sustainable productivity. 

Now we are combining modern agriculture with GM agriculture.  GM rides on modern agriculture, the kind millions of farms all over the world failed before. But wait for these scenarios to unfold. GM agriculture with aeroponics (multi-storey urban agriculture), hydroponics (soiless culture) and stem cell farming (laboratory farming of hamburger). All these our Wise Men claim to be agriculture in Postmodern times. 

Would we ask them again like before, "Where were you when we needed you most?." ~