Must Room for Mushrooms

(must have room for mushrooms)

Heaven is in the mood for watering the earth.. It has been pouring hard and profusely this weekend -- a nice break from the scorching heat of the sun the whole week.

A friend said, when there is a rainbow after a rain, sure there is a rain after the heat (seems to be the pattern these past weeks).  When there is heat, there is the dad who is honored today.. Huh? Honored with much warmth =)

As Paul Lewis puts it, "A Father's words are like a thermostat that sets the temperature in the house."  HAPPY FATHER's DAY!!  Especially to the best father in the world, MY DAD :)  You Rock Dad!! [READ: Rock is one that is similar to or suggestive of a mass of stone in stability, firmness, or dependability; as in "The Father has been the family's ROCK during difficult times"]

http://www.care2.com/send/pickup/116/869/200/212/873/195

What about mushrooms?  What do I need to make room for mushrooms?

Sustainable Culinary Tour in an Organic Farm

With the modern lifestyle of eating low quality, non-nutritious "fast" food or drinking soft drink, humans have lost their connection with the natural food and its value in their lives.  People have redefined that what is refined or processed is the new food.  We are caught up in the trap of commercial food which resulted to wrapping Mother Earth with toxin.  What we have not realized, it is taking its toll on our health and speeding human's extinction.

Kasama Ka Organik Koop has designed a Sustainable Culinary Tour with the line of emphasis on the role of organic and sustainable agriculture in ensuring the supply of safe and affordable food (free from agrochemical contamination of the soil, air and water), halting global warming/climate change, and reducing the detrimental environmental impacts of conventional agriculture that depends largely on toxic chemical fertilizers and pesticides.

At the end of the tour, the participants are expected to:

• Understand sustainability and how it affects human body and earth body
• Understand the basic principles of sustainable agriculture
• Appreciate sustainability in the human, environmental, economical, societal and global context
• Learn values of care, health, ecology, fairness
• Experience (and taste) organic traditional cooking
• How to start a backyard organic garden or herb pots
• Enjoin the community in advocating for better nourishment for a better earth

We Care for your Health, We Nurture the Earth!!

CALL +632.774.8472   SMS +63.9088.858656   EMAIL activeculture@Ymail.com

In simple terms . . . 

Do you know somebody who wants to own an organic farm in CALABARZON? 
Contact ActiveCulture@Ymail.com  for the Open House schedule 

Kiping The Filipino Heritage Alive

4 AM on 15th of May 2004 at Shell McKinley Station in Makati City, a group of people converged from different cities in Manila, in a bus off to Pahiyas Festival in Lucban, Quezon, Philippines.  The Nature Awareness and Conservation (NACCI) volunteers lead the group. 

The trip started with NACCI giving a description of the Lucban, the historical background, the festival and the cultural importance to the locals.. All these were happening while I was on my bed, sleeping soundly, before I felt a nudge waking me up.. I called the Tour Organizer to learn that the bus was paving its way to SLEX -South Luzon Expressway...

Study Tour "Lakbay-Aral" in an Organic Farm

for Hospitality (HRM), Culinary Arts (any food service course)

At the top of the food chain are the Chefs and Restaurateurs who the Hospitality, Culinary Arts students are aspiring for. 

In the school community, which is their training ground, they are in the forefront in food preparation and quality service to diners.  They design new food products, explore ways to process food with the right packaging, plan and create menus, supervise the work in the kitchen and setup in the dining.  They ensure safety and quality.  With safety and quality vis a vis sustainability, food is ensure availability today and tomorrow.

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

KASAMA KA!!

Kalipunan ng Sustenableng Agrikultura at Magsasakang Organikong Kooperatiba (KASAMA KA) 

The KASAMA KA Organik Koop with it's mission to promote, demonstrate and popularize the nucleus and satellite organic farm clusters and its value chain optimization is open to non-members to avail of the following services:

TRAINING & CAPACITY BUILDING
Being accredited by Agriculture Technical Institute as ESP on Sustainable Organic Ecological Agriculture,  it is conducting training programs for students, health afficionados, farmers, farm managers and owners:

• Lakbay Aral Program and Tours
• Apprenticeship SOEA Training Program
• Organic Conversion
• Organic Inspection and certification
• Practicum Students/OJT Program
• Other specialized training program

SALE OF ORGANIC PRODUCTS

• Vegetables ie lettuce, brassicas
• Culinary herbs
• Plotted plants and fruit trees
• Vermi & Vermicompost
• Organic fertilizers
• Brooded layers and meat type of free range chicken

FARM CONSULTANCY which includes, but not limited to, research and development, management of farm lots.

Please help us support our Organic Farmers.  Should you be interested in becoming a member, please send us a shout.
Want to know the benefits of a KASAMA KA koop member? Click here.

Will you spare us 5 minutes to complete a survey to help us identify the means to empower cooperatives and stop poverty in the Philippines? 
Yes, I want to be instrumental in the growth of the cooperatives!

NEXT - Philippine Organic Agriculture (OA) Act of 2010

Chef with a green CAP (Chef Apprenticeship Program)

It's no joke that there is this moniker, "Green Chef," floating around the Culinary industry.   Like everyone else on earth, everybody is trying to do their share in the green revolution, moreso, the chefs and restaurateurs who are at fist to fist with food quality and safety, poverty reduction, zero-waste management (average of 260 kg per person or 676 kg of waste to landfill, much of it coming from the kitchen).

The Chefs and Restaurateurs are faced with greening responsibilities  from cooking technologies, real-fresh produce, hormone-free meat, energy-efficient kitchen equipment and appliances, environment-friendly cleaning aids.  The Villegas Organic and Hobby Farms SAGE Learning Center, with it's expertise on sustainable agriculture and zero-waste management, has cooked-up a special program to produce a culinary leader who embraces a healthy lifestyle and cares for the environment.

Dubbed as Green Chef Apprenticeship Program, it's objective is to imbibe the values of CHEF (Care, Health, Ecology, Fairness) in becoming a responsible chef, experiencing food first hand from its origins and gain understanding of how it affects the environment, thus, show respect to the ecology of life.

This whole day orientation and forum is set on May 29, 2010 Saturday at Malvar, Batangas City (approximately an hour from Magallanes). 

We can only accomodate 50 persons so get your slots early :
Reserve by April 20 avail of the discounted rate Php1,200.00
Reserve by May 10 avail of the discounted rate Php1,400.00
Last day of reservation  (if there are available slots) May 27 with rate Php1,800.00

For group discounts:
EMAIL  activeculture@Ymail.com  activeculture.club@Gmail.com
CALL  774.84.72    SMS 9088.858.656

Educational Field Trip: Organic Farm in Batangas, Philippines

Catholic Filipino Academy students, parents and teachers participated in Lakbay-Aral sa Kalikasan (Study Tour with Nature) at Villegas Organic and Hobby Farm Complex, Batangas, Philippines

The Villegas Organic and Hobby (VOHO) Farms hosted almost 80 participants from the Catholic Filipino Academy – consisting mainly of grade school kids including their parents, seven high school students and some pre-school kids – who actively took part in the one-day "Lakbay-Aral sa Kalikasan" on 27 February 2010.

The "Lakbay-Aral sa Kalikasan" was purposely designed to immerse young students on living things, sustainable environment and organic agriculture (which they have limited exposure to in the city) and to make their learning experience fun, memorable and exciting.

Mr. Pablito Villegas, Dr. Isagani Catedral and Ms. Dinah Rose Pizarro facilitated the study tour program, providing outdoor hands-on learning on earthworms and their value in promoting sustainable environment, soil and its types, culinary and medicinal plants, and the inter-relationships of worms-soil-plants, demonstrated in a sustainable/environment-friendly farm and ecological balance through the maintenance of biodiversity and employment of zero waste management practices, as exemplified by the VOHO Farms. The students also enjoyed hands-on fishing, running after free-range chickens and playing in the tree house and "bahay-kubo" (indigenous Filipino house), thereby enriching their eco-experience and enhancing their appreciation for nature.

After the educational field tour, as part of their commencement activity, high school students were introduced to Organic Gardening 101. On the other hand, grade school kids planted fruit tree seedlings and prepared dedication cards to their tree. A five-year old girl wrote on her tree: "I will save papers so you can live long." This concluding session intended to instill in the students their valuable role in protecting the environment and to leave in them a memorable experience to share with their friends and family.

The recently passed Organic Agriculture Act of 2010 clearly mandates the inclusion of organic agriculture curriculum in all levels of the Philippine educational system. The remarkable success of the study tour program (educational field trip) last Saturday was a step toward promoting the sustainable environment and organic agriculture in the schools and its community or constituents.