2nd QCIM: My City, My Run

BY GISELLE ELGINCOLIN

I look back at October 18, 2009 with much regret, not having been able to enlist in the first Quezon City International Marathon (QCIM). Every time I would ply my usual course, the banners and streamers announcing the QCIM would beckon me; I had to look away to hide my envy. Why wouldn’t I? It was the first running event of its kind in the city I knew as home. And I wasn’t in the running.

Now that the starting line is set for the 2nd QCIM on December 5, 2010, I am making sure that all my roads lead to this prestigious event. The race route is significant to me, with the landmarks bearing affinity to milestones of my life in this city.

You see, I was born here. I grew up playing in the streets of Visayas Avenue where many government offices lined the then secluded road, as if standing at attention to salute the Quezon Memorial Circle on the Elliptical Road. It is the site where QCIM2 race participants will converge to run towards their dreams.

Being the daughter of a marathoner back in the early 1980s, my father would tirelessly wake us up at dawn so we could join him in his weekend jog at the Quezon Memorial Circle where the late president Manuel L. Quezon’s monument stands tall and proud. Back then, I wasn’t interested in the sport; it was the Circle’s trademark fountains I was drawn to. Every time we would drive home at night from a family outing, my parents would wake me and my siblings up when the fountains of the monument were in sight. The entertaining display of dancing water and lights was always a fitting finale to cap the day. It was a signal, too, that we were almost home.

Within spitting distance from the Circle is the University of the Philippines, Diliman, another leg in the QCIM2 route. Back in college at this state university, I longed for leisure walks along the Academic Oval when I wasn’t late for class. A backpack and my Trapper Keeper notebook in tow, I was always awed by the natural canopy that the Oval’s trees served. Today, the same university provides the avenue for my budding passion for running. Almost across the College of Mass Communication where I graduated from, the Executive Runners Club of the Philippines (RUNNEX) meets every Sunday for its free running clinic. Clad this time in my running shoes, the state university now serves as sacred practice ground for my new-found wings.

U.P. is bounded on one side by Commonwealth Avenue, the widest highway in Metro Manila that could lodge as many as 18 lanes. To me, no full marathon could be had in Quezon City without traversing through this famous road. I can’t recall how many times I have driven here on the defense amidst a sea of cars; this time I will simply steer myself through this runway and marvel at the many changes this part of my city has undergone. This experience affords the race participants a rare chance to sprint, skip, and hopefully, smile while conquering this otherwise busy freeway, which then takes you to La Mesa Ecopark.

42K runners navigate inside this 2,700-hectare watershed which provides water to about 12 million residents of Metro Manila. As a teacher currently practicing my profession in my beloved city, my work brings me to places such as this that instill in our children ecological awareness and love for the environment. The site is a reservoir, forest and outdoor recreational park rolled-into-one, making it a favorite destination for families and schoolchildren. The very idea of exploring the La Mesa Ecopark on rubber-shoed foot gives a semblance of being one with nature in the middle of the bustling city life. I hear that the spectacular view of the forest will send you flying into some pure wonderland.

As I look forward to finally joining the momentous QCIM2, I reclaim the streets and landmarks of my city, my history with it and my future. I will pay homage to the place where my childhood, present family life, and profession poetically run into each other.

This run is personal to me. It is a homecoming of sorts, even if I never really left.

NOTE: Article from a RUNNEX member, is originally posted on QCIM Facebook Fan Page.

From the Garden to your Kitchen

Whether growing herbs for culinary, medicinal or ornamental value, they make a worthy addition to any garden. Growing herbs for nutritional purposes is above all the most rewarding.

They easily add flavor to your meals while improving your health due to their vitamin, mineral and other nutrient content, not to mention save you money.

Growing herbs indoors in a sunny windowsill, just steps away, enables you to harvest healthy ingredients all year round. They smell and taste great and are an exceptional addition to many recipes and add nutrition to your daily diet.

Herbals supply nutrients that are beneficial to preventing and treating of many health conditions. So, you may want to consider planting herbals to benefit your needs.

Many herbals are delicious brewed as tea. At the Villegas Organic Farms, we serve fresh herbal tea of italian oregano, gotu kola, tarragon, mint, stevia. Get to know 80 species of herbs and crops, their value to your health, and experience their benefits through a Study Tour in an Organic Farm. Email us for a schedule.



HERB BASKET


Grow a herb garden in containers. Start with the FROM THE GARDEN TO YOUR KITCHEN portable herb baskets.

The herb baskets come in small and large baskets of between 3 to 5 varieties of herbs.  Great for Christmas giveaways!  Email us for orders.

"Growing herbs is easy and fun and an easy way to enhance your green living."


NOTE: Most of the content here are taken from age-oldherbs.com

Poison(ed) Bananas

BY TONY CRUZADA

AERIAL SPRAYING of hazardous chemicals over banana plantations in Davao continues despite scientific evidence of their harmful effect on human health and the environment.  The plantation owners are not to be bothered nor deterred.  Not by public clamor, nor by law (which they can, after all, buy).

What we see is the insensitivity and arrogance of capitalist corporations.  So they produce poisoned bananas, uncaring about consumers, workers and affected communities.  And under modern forms of enslavement with neo-colonial indifference and unmoderated greed.

Since protest, pleading and law dont work in this case, our best and only recourse will have to be: to produce and export clean and nutrilicious bananas ourselves.  There is clean technology for growing organic banana that is preferred by the Japanese market and presumably other green markets abroad.

The bananas are grown with conscious regards and compassion for workers who co-own the enterprise.  This is being done by Negros farmers under the guidance of the organization AlterTrade.

In the receiving countries to which the poisoned Davao bananas are exported, we should network with civil society organizations and consumer networks to mount an all-out campaign to shift to clean, organic bananas.  While here we should expand the organic banana production and be ready to fill the demand.

In expanding production of organic banana we shall be creating jobs and business for agrarian reform beneficiaries and landless rural workers.  The emphasis on clean and healthy production methods (chemical-free) will cause a recovery of the caring attitude for people that communities should nurture.

And because production will be through worker cooperation and the enterprise will be worker-owned, dignity of work will be restored, and labor amply rewarded.  Morever, the enterprise can be opened for investment by small entrepreneurs such as vegetable and fruit vendors so that a wider population can benefit from the enterprise and shore up their household economy.

In this manner, immediate neighborhoods in the plantation areas are connected to other communities in municipal and urban markets, propelling the banana export industry for the benefit of many.  And the beneficiary entrepreneurs can serve as change agents for more caring, self-sufficient communities.

As this pattern of production and fair trade is multiplied across many other products and localities, we shall have a nationwide rebuilding of the life chances of household and flourishing of local economies.

As to the arrogant aerial-spraying corporations, they will either go organic or close shop.  Let Philippine bananas be green-organic.  Let Filipino enterprise be compassionate.  Let our communities be richly productive through communal modes of production and the restoration and nurturer of the sense of community.

About the Author:  Tony Cruzada is a social researcher who currently writes for Kamayan para sa Kalikasan journal.  Catch him at Kamayan Edsa for an environmental forum that meets every 3rd Friday monthly, 10:30AM to 2:00PM.

Want to learn how to START an organic farm or CONVERT your farm to organic?

NEXT - What is KASAMA KA Organik Koop?

Aktong OA

Better known as Organic Agriculture (OA) Act of 2010

IT states that it is the "Policy of the State to promote, propagate, develop further, and implement the practice of organic agriculture in the Philippines that will cumulatively condition and enrich the fertility of the soil, increase farm productivity, reduce pollution and destruction of the environment, prevent the depletion of natural resources, further protect the health of farmers, consumers, and the general public, and save on imported farm inputs."

As well as, "Undertake a comprehensive program for the promotion of community-based organic agriculture systems which include, among others, farmer-produced purely organic fertilizers such as compost, pesticides and other farm inputs together with a nationwide educational and promotional campaign for their use and processing, as well as the adoption of organic agricultural system as a viable alternative."

KASAMA KA Organik Koop has a series of seminar on Organic Agriculture Act (OAA) and its Implementing Rules and Regulations. Email Us for more details. Other course offerings are as follows:

1]Lakbay Aral sa Bukid Organiko (Study Tour in an Organic Farm)
This is a one-day activity designed to educate and enrich the level of awareness and appreciation of the participants on the principles and practical applications of sustainable organic farming cum zero waste management systems and their impact to the environment, human health and food security as showcased and demonstrated in the crop-poultry-fish production system in the Villegas Organic farms. INCLUSION: 2 snacks, lunch, farm entrance, facilitators, electronic training materials.

2]Three-Day Apprenticeship Training on Sustainable Organic Agriculture
The program is designed for farm caretakers and laborers, technicians and farm managers, with respective modules, to equip them with basic know-how and skills on organic vegetables, herbs, medicinal plants and free-range animal production including chicken, pigs and goats.

This training includes production of organic materials and farm inputs, demonstration of zero waste management, showcasing of livelihood and employment opportunities within the supply and value added chain.  INCLUSION for 3-days: meals, on-farm lodging, farm entrance, facilitators, electronic training materials.

3]Three to Four Months On-The-Job Training
This is an extensive theoretical and hands-on training covering the whole crop cycle on organic vegetables, production of organic materials and farm inputs, farm record keeping and farm management.

The participants should have at least reached high school. They will be given a living allowance by donors/sponsors, potential employers while on apprenticeship training. Successful trainees are for placement on satellite farms and organic agriculture practitioners under the network of the KASAMA KA Organik Koop.

4] Environment, Health, and Food Security Awareness Study Tour for Students of ALL Levels
OPEN as HALF-DAY or WHOLE DAY SESSION
This study tour is mainly designed to increase the level of awareness of students on the role of sustainable and organic agriculture in:
-addressing environmental issues and health hazards;
-ensuring the supply of, and access to, safe and affordable food;
-sustaining the agricultural production and the ecological systems;
-ensuring food safety and security;
-and poverty reduction.

5] Specialized Training tailored according to the Client’s Needs
Specialized training on either (or all desired) of the following: free-range poultry production, vermiculture and vermicomposting, organic agriculture conversion for rice, corn, sugarcane, whichever is required by the participants.

PREVIOUS - What is KASAMA KA Organik Koop?

Food INsecurity

Key Messages of Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) on State of FOOD INSECURITY in the World (2010)

The number and the proportion of undernourished people have declined, but they remain unacceptably high. 
After increasing from 2006 to 2009 due to high food prices and the global economic crisis, both the number and proportion of hungry people have declined in 2010 as the global economy recovers and food prices remain below their peak levels. But hunger remains higher than before the crises, making it ever more difficult to achieve the hunger-reduction targets of the World Food Summit and Millennium Development Goal 1.

The current aid architecture needs to be modified to better address both immediate needs and the structural causes of protracted crises. 
The current system uses humanitarian assistance to support short-term efforts to address the immediate effects of a crisis, and development assistance for long-term interventions to address underlying causes. Areas of intervention that are important in protracted crises (including social protection and risk reduction) are often underfunded. In general, weak governance structures in protracted crisis situations condition aid allocations.

Broader social protection measures help countries cope with protracted crises and lay the foundation for long-term recovery.
Key interventions include providing safety nets, insurance when appropriate, and services such as health and education, which build bridges to longer-term development. In countries in protracted crisis, however, financial, institutional and implementation capacity are limited, so social protection programmes are generally short-term, relief-oriented and externally funded.

Agriculture and the rural economy are key sectors for supporting livelihoods in protracted crises, but they are not properly reflected in aid flows.
Agricultural and rural-based livelihoods are critical to the groups most affected by protracted crises. Agriculture accounts for a third of protracted crisis countries’ gross domestic product and twothirds of their employment. Yet agriculture accounts for only 4 percent of humanitarian ODA received by countries in protracted crisis and 3 percent of development ODA.  KNOW MORE.  

Click here to read Food Insecurity in full text
Click here how you can help gain Food Security