AVANT GARDENER

This is my last column as Agriculture editor of the Manila Bulletin and editor-in-chief of Agriculture Magazine.

It has been my honor and pleasure to helm Agriculture Online for the past six years, and the Agriculture Section of the Manila Bulletin and Agriculture Magazine for the past three.

Working in agriculture wasn’t something I fell into, but something I sought out at least two years before working in Manila Bulletin. I was a lifestyle writer who had gotten frustrated with the commodification of food without fair compensation to the people who produce its ingredients—the farmers and fishers and everyone in between.

What spurred me to work in agriculture was having to interview a restaurant owner who didn’t seem to understand the precarious position Filipino agricultural workers have to live with. I remember going home that night livid, vowing to find a way to write about the agriculture industry in a way that highlighted the truth of it, from the words of practitioners themselves. I am thankful to Manila Bulletin for giving me that opportunity.

I have endeavored to tell the story of small farmers and fishers, agribusinessfolk, academics, gardeners, enthusiasts, and allies. I’ve tried to spotlight young farmers and farms and farmers from Mindanao, both underrepresented in agriculture media. My main concern has always been food security/ sovereignty/ justice, something that I tried to highlight as often as possible beyond talking points.

I’ve also trained young agrijournalists and given new writers the opportunity to write about agriculture. One of my writers won three awards in two years under my watch, and a contributor has recently won an award for articles that have appeared in the magazine and on the website. I also managed to grow Agriculture Online from zero to one of the top ten science websites in the country.

As you can tell, I’m quite proud of what I’ve achieved in six years. My journey as Agricultural editor has been interesting and fulfilling, especially since I was following in the footsteps of Zac Sarian, the grandfather of agrijournalism and a personality in the agriculture industry. I remember the last time I saw him before he retired. He gave me a container full of his famous pomelo, and I think that counts as his blessing. I hope he likes how I’ve kept to his legacy.

I am grateful to Manila Bulletin for being my home these past six years, and for supporting me as I told the stories of one of the country’s most problematic yet most promising sectors.

But while I have relinquished my title as Manila Bulletin’s Agriculture editor and Agriculture magazine’s editor-in-chief, I’ll still be keeping this column, so it’s not like I’ll be going away.

I’ll end with how I began my first column, which is to express the belief that farming is every Filipino’s dream; they’ve just forgotten about it.
I still believe this is true, and I still hope that circumstances arise so that it may become a possibility for more Filipinos not just to farm, but to earn excellently from it.

This is Yvette Tan, signing off.