Organic Food in the Philippines: Where Can We Source it From?

If you’re a health conscious person or beginning to be one, you’re probably changing your lifestyle, doing more exercises, changing your eating habits and most probably, looking closer on the food you eat.

Chances are, you are now finding on how to eat less meat, more vegetables and fruits, and most likely – organic food.

Organic Food, is just going back to the basics, the all-natural way of feeding our body with the right food we need and the right nutrients to keep us going healthy.

However, many times we fail to do so, since, organic food may be good for the body, BUT, many people find it quite “pocket-burner.”

Looking at the price tag of organic vegetables and fruits may be a “sore” for starters, but if you compute it the long haul, it is cheaper than buying other food. Why? Since it will save you from “hurting” yourself by feeding yourself food that are inadequate for your body – which can later on lead to sickness – that is, evidently, more costly than spending on organic food.

Why Go for Organic Food?

Organic Food is the natural way of TRULY feeding the body. The basic state of the vegetables and fruits make it the best candidate of nutrients-giving food for our body. The more we alter the things we eat, the lesser nutrients we get from it, and the more risk we put in our body.

Processing our food (putting preservatives and additives) may make it tastier to our tongue, but not good for our body in general.

Organic Agriculture  in the Philippines

Basically, organic farming shouldn’t be a stranger to farmers. Since, it is the bases for every form. However, due to developments, and farmers wanting higher yield through “quick” fixes, chemicals were introduced by big manufacturers to give farmers “more volume” of yield, thus, making more profit.

In the Philippines, many individuals tried to re-introduce organic farming in the 80’s when only aa limited few started doing. It was not only until the late 90s and early years of 2000, when more people noticed organic food again, thus, many tried organic farming themselves.

At first, people look into “clinical” ways to answer to their health needs, but realizing that most of the diseases are results of our lifestyle, a change in the habit of how we eat, exercise and all other things, came to sense.

Filipinos became more conscious on what they eat. Not just focusing on the taste, but on the contents and effects of the food to the body as well.

Thus, it is very timely, for the Department of Agriculture to be more aggressive in their campaign recently on Organic Farming or Organic Agriculture in the Philippines.

I just find it so ironic, that considering we are an agricultural country, yet, recent administrations tried to convert our country to an industrial or even technological country, which personally I find absurd. We have vast natural resources – that if we capitalized on – can be a core of the world’s economy for their needs for organic food.

Anyway, in a recent opportunity granted by the Agricultural Training Institute or ATI, an agency of the Department of Agriculture, I was able to see a more aggressive approach of the government to promote Organic Agriculture.

I remember that only private individuals and companies, were very vocal in organic farming. I had coverages in a business show in ABS-CBN that involved many Filipino farmers going into organic farming. But many of those farmers are a bit on their own in terms of honing their knowledge in organics.

Fortunately, Organic Agriculture is advocated now by the Secretary of Agriculture himself, who was one of the principal authors of the RA 10068 or the Organic Agriculture Act of 2010, when Sec. Proceso Alcala was still then a representative of a district in Quezon Province.

RA 10068 establishes a comprehensive national agricultural program which will promote organic-farming methods through farmers’ and consumers’ education, and the extension of assistance to local government units, peoples’ organizations, non-government organizations (NGOs), and other stakeholders.

I hope that soon, with much supply of organic outputs in the Philippines, more Filipinos will have access to lower price of REAL organic vegetables and fruits. And later on, organic farmers can export farm outputs elsewhere in the region and even the world.

Organic agriculture gives farmers an opportunity to yield more money with less inputs on the crops. Plus, it gives more value to every square of their farm lots as organic vegetables and fruits are high-value crops – making it more cost-efficient and cost-effective for farmers to venture on.

In a brief experience in select farms up North, I came to realize new things that I did not encounter before.

One of which is that,  not all vegetables and fruits from the Baguio are “fresh” and “organic.”

YIKES!!!

I really had a hard time trying to figure that out. Since most of the time, I thought that if veggies and fruits were bought in Baguio, then, they must be fresh. Hmm…

With that, I am now convinced to be more vigilant in the food that I eat.

I am more convinced as well to encourage everyone to convert their spare lots or spaces in growing own organic vegetables.

We can our own farmers you know, and be a good source of our food. That way, we can be sure of the quality of the food we eat.

I’d be willing to be a farmer just to be sure I’d be giving my loved ones the best food on their plate.

Anyway, the good thing about this organic “adventure” is that I had the opportunity to go, to re-learn, and to taste (again), AUTHENTIC organic produce.

Here are the farms that I was able to visit.

• Lily of the Valley Organic Garden (La Trinidad, Benguet)
• Master’s Garden (La Trinidad, Benguet)
• Garden of Life (La Trinidad, Benguet)
• Sagada Organic Coffee (Arabica Coffee)

Tell me if you do try to go into organic farming, either comment here or on my Facebook, Google + or Twitter. You can also post comments, suggestions or questions below.