No Crice-sis?

One early morning, preparing to leave home for Villegas Organic and Hobby Farms in Batangas, my breakfast-to-go was packed with a news that the Philippines is importing another 250,000 tonnes of rice because of the typhoons that struck the country.  This is on top of the 1.5 million tons of rice we have contracted with Vietnam to supply us early 2009. We have become the world's biggest rice buyer and the government is claiming there is no rice crisis. 

Rice is the most important food crop, a staple food in our country.  Over 10 million metric tons of rice is needed to feed Filipinos.  However, it is palliative to say that rice importation is the solution to rice shortage (or no shortage?!).

A senator notes that rice importation "symbolizes the government's neglect of the local agriculture sector." An NGO adds, "Rice importation has not resulted in lowered rice prices, but worsened the bankruptcy of farmers and even placed the country in greater food insecurity."

While rice production from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nation's point of view "is facing serious constraints including a declining rate of growth in yields, depletion of natural resources, labour shortages, gender-based conflicts, institutional limitations and environmental pollution. Overcoming hunger, poverty and malnutrition - while protecting the environment - requires collective action by all stakeholders. The diversity of the regions, peoples, and resources connected within the world's rice-based systems, requires a diverse approach for global rice-based development that includes participation from the local to the international level."

A study made by the Food and Nutrition Research Institute (FNRI) of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) showed that consumers in the Philippines waste some 25,000 sacks of rice, amounting to Php30 million everyday.

How do we, in our own little way, avert a full-blown rice and food crisis?

This SUMMER 2010:  Expose your kids to the values of Care, Health, Ecology and Fairness through sustainable and organic agriculture.  At Villegas Organic and Hobby (VOHO) Farms, we are ensuring informative FUN FOR YOUR KIDS while ensuring food security and nutrition, poverty reduction and overall environmental wellness through the employment of sustainable and organic agriculture practices.

Take a tour of the farms in 5 minutes, click here. 
We Care for your Health, We Nurture the Earth!!!
CALL +632.774.8472  
SMS +63.9088.858.656 
EMAIL activeculture.club@Gmail.com   activeculture@Ymail.com
SKYPE activeculture.club (kindly email us first before calling)
WEB http://villegasfarmcomplex.multiply.com/

Other activities at the VOHO Farms:
Lakbay-Aral sa Bukid Organiko (Study Tour in an Organic Farm)--SIGNATURE TOUR
Summer Camping--SPECIAL PROMO, Lakbay-Aral for Parents and Teachers, Tree Planting and Harvesting, Educational Trip stop-over, Communing with Nature, Tree Climbing, Fishing, Animal Care and Experience, Trail Hiking, Preparing and Tasting Ethnic foods and delicacies, and more

Some of the Organizations that have been to the farm are De La Salle Lipa faculty and students; United Nations Filipino Consultants and Expatriate Staff; Medical doctors and practitioners of Alternative medicine; Agricultural Development and Marketing Officers from Myanmar, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Japan and Philippines.