The provinces of the Cordilleras are very proud of their culture. This includes Kalinga, where groups are organized around protecting different aspects of their beliefs and traditions.

In the Municipality of Pasil, over an hour away from the Provincial Capital of Tabuk City, local farmers have banded together under Slow Food Pasil, the local arm of the international organization Slow Food, which aims to preserve traditional ingredients and foodways around the world.

I met with Slow Food Pasil presidium spokesperson Lam-en D. Gonnay and his wife, Pasil Slow Food Community coordinator and the focal person on organic agriculture and heirloom rice production in the Municipality of Pasil Rowena B. Gonnay on a trip to Kalinga. Lam-en was kind enough to tell me about their Slow Food Presidium, the first one in the Philippines, which was created to support their local Unoy rice varieties. The Slow Food website describes presidia as “Slow Food Communities that work every day to save native livestock breeds, local fruit and vegetable varieties, bread, cheeses, cured meats, sweets, and more.”

Slow Food Community Pasil came about when someone from Slow Food International (Slow Food) came across a pack of heirloom rice in Italy. The package said that it originated from Pasil. Slow Food sent a representative to the Cordilleras to track down this source of the heirloom indigenous rice. “We took them to the rice terraces and the production areas of our small farmers. They saw that our product was authentic and that we didn’t use [anything synthetic],” Gonnay said in Tagalog. That was in 2009. The next year, farmers from Kalinga, Mountain Province, Ifugao, Benguet were invited to Terra Madre Salone del Gusto, Slow Food’s biannual event that celebrates local food ingredients and culture around the world. “We shared our indigenous practices, what our farmers’ lifestyles are like, and how we ended up exporting rice,” Gonnay said. “We’ve done this in Italy, Sweden, and India.”

The Pasil farmers began exporting rice around 2005, when Mary Hensley, a former Peace Corps member who had been stationed in nearby Lubuagan in the ‘80s, returned with a business proposal. Recognizing the potential of the area’s heirloom rice, Hensley set up Eighth Wonder, a company that exported heirloom rice consolidated by Revitalized Indigenous Cordilleran Entrepreneur Incorporated (RICE Inc.). “That’s when we were organized. [She] went through the government, the Department of Agriculture. She worked with us leaders to consolidate the rice and prepare it for export.” It was one of those exported packs of rice that had made its way into the hands of a Slow Food member, thus exposing Pasil’s small farmers to a world where their culture and traditions were celebrated and their preservation was encouraged.

Gonnay said that they were required to stop exporting in 2016 because they were required by law to prioritize local buyers. “What they didn’t force is that the local market has no consistency,” Gonnay explained. “That’s the only problem.”

That problem persists to this day. “Now each farmer sells on their own.”

Another problem is the encroachment of conventional rice varieties. According to Gonnay, most farmers will, by necessity, choose to plant conventional rice varieties because “they’re less work.”

Slow Food Pasil continues to advocate for the preservation of their heirloom varieties. Though it is only their Unoy rice varieties that are formally recognized by Slow Food in its Ark of Taste, a list of mostly endangered ingredients and foodways around the world, Gonnay hopes that they will have the resources to have more of their traditional and hyperlocal produce recognized by the international organization. “We need someone to do the write-up needed to nominate a product,” he explained. “For example, we want to nominate our wild gabi, which can only be foraged near waterfalls. If it’s picked far from the falls, it will cause the eater’s throat to itch.”

They continue to organize activities that promote indigenous ingredients and foodways, such as a catering service that focuses on indigenous cuisine. They’re also hoping to encourage more Pasil youth to take an interest in their own food culture. “We hope to collaborate with universities so we can reach students,” Gonnay said. “We want young people to wake up to what’s happening now. Instead of supporting [large corporations], I hope we support small farmers.”

It’s not all doom and gloom, however. “There’s a municipal ordinance that prohibits serving processed food during government activities like trainings and seminars,” Gonnay said. “This benefits the farmers because whenever there’s training, [the barangay] orders from them.” He hopes that more barangays adopt the ordinance.

Slow Food Pasil has a lot of plans. “We want to put up an organic product hub, so it’s not just all rice,” he said, citing the organic markets they’ve visited in Baguio as an example. “This connects to many things: health, environment, tourism. It’s a reflection of Slow Food’s slogan of good, clean, and fair food.”