By Joyce Reyes-Aguila Indeed, Filipinos are knowledgeable about food just as much as they love it. Town fiestas, family reunions, and even homecooked meals are celebrated with heirloom dishes and “secret ingredients” of all kinds. The Pinoy way of appreciating food entails learning how to execute your mother’s recipe perfectly and discerning which kakanin (delicacy) from a table of similar offerings is your grandmother’s creation.It is about knowing how to make the perfect condiment or sauce based on soy sauce, vinegar, and chili pepper. Yes, it’s also about calling a meal without rice an injustice. The food served on our tables truly reflects a culmination of our history thus far, and tells of the richness of our local produce. Each recipe in every region, province, and barangay is a tribute to how our forefathers and the generations after them have communed with nature and applied their taste and preferences for their nourishment. Over generations, the Filipino palette remains continuously served and tantalized with new offerings local and international. It is developed, threatened, refreshed, and reinvented each day. Even as our domestic food basket overflows with choices, it is vulnerable at the same time. Thankfully, urbanization and the adverse effects of climate change are driving efforts to provide an ecosystem of support to our farmers, fisherfolk, and middlemen and women.The initiatives have allowed our government and non-governmental organizations to look at the present conditions of our natural resources and how they are harvested, produced, and cared for. Revisiting them has also thrown new light onto the wonders of the Filipino food basket, encouraging many to prepare food that heals and improves the human condition.   The shift Department of Agriculture (DA) Undersecretary Bernadette “Berna” Romulo Puyat is witness to the abundance in the supply of various agriculture and fishery products all over the country. In a Philippine Panorama feature sometime last year, she shared that the country “offers a wide range of ingredients ranging from rice, corn, seafood, high-value crops, and livestock. To date, we have 54 Ark of Taste (an international catalog of endangered heritage food items) products listed with the Slow Food Foundation, an operational body for food diversity. What binds various Filipino food items together is the use of staple produce such as rice, seafood, and meat in our traditional dishes. Although prepared in different ways, the main ingredients remain the same.” The undersecretary travels to many areas of the country to support the 10-point agenda of DA Secretary Emmanuel Piñol and the Duterte administration. Aware of the challenges the Philippine food industry faces, the government outlines the following areas of priority: Conduct a national mapping plan to determine the types of crop every region of the country can produce, provide intensive technology modernization and mechanization, giving farmers easy finance programs, building strategic post-harvest facilities, conducting inter-agency government coordination toward the protection and preservation of water sources, spearheading a relentless campaign on the enforcement of agricultural and fisheries laws, and the re-introducing the study of basic agriculture in Philippine primary and elementary schools. “Since I started in the DA (in 2006), I have witnessed the paradigm shift and changes in the priorities of the department,” she says in a more recent interview. “While the DA is continuously working on modernizing the agriculture sector to increase our productivity, we are also introducing environment-friendly facilities and practices to our farmers such as the practice of organic agriculture and the use of solar-powered irrigation systems, given the effects of climate change experienced in our country.” Romulo-Puyat explains that sustainable farming and fishing practices will ensure the availability of food for future generations, and assure food supply for the country should its import sources for certain products are compromised or hit by natural calamities. According to her, the most pressing challenges for food in the country remains the sufficiency of food staples, the difficulty for farmers and fisherfolk to access the market, and the recovery of calamity-stricken farming and fishing communities. Aside from its 10-point agenda, she says the department is intensifying efforts to address these problems by “providing assistance for production, processing, postharvest, marketing, as well as the mitigation and adaptation measures in response to climate change.” According to the undersecretary, the present administration is supporting farmers in various stages of the value chain: production, postharvest, processing, and marketing. “We also provide easy access to credit so that our producers will have the capital needed for production and rehabilitation, just in case they are affected by natural calamities like typhoons and droughts,” she explains. “We give crop insurance to hasten the recovery of affected farmers. The DA has been facilitating emergency loan programs (e.g. Survival and Recovery Loan Program) and crop insurance to our affected producers.” Farmers and fisherfolk also receive livelihood training and banca nets from the government. The DA also extends production support to ensure the productivity of farmers. The agency distributes seeds, fertilizers, farming implements, and machines, complimenting this with postharvest facilities and training on processing to lessen postharvest losses, says Romulo-Puyat.   Going local In line with its holistic approach, the DA is aware of the challenges the country’s producers encounter during post-production. “Distribution is a challenge since we are an archipelago, and there is a need for goods to be transported by sea,” she shares. “The presence of middlemen is also a challenge as they comprise unnecessary layers in the distribution system.” Under the leadership of Sec. Piñol, the DA is keen on giving farmers and fisherfolk direct access to the market through projects such as TienDA Farmers and Fishermen’s Market, Karne Isda Supply Suporta sa Masa at Ekonomiya (KISS ME), Philippine Harvest, and linkage with institutional buyers. “The secretary made a pronouncement that for 2018, the DA shall focus on developing the marketing system for agri-fishery products in the domestic market. The department is currently working on institutionalizing the TienDA Farmers and Fisherman’s Outlet so that our producers will have a ready venue for directly selling their produce to the consumers at farmgate prices,” says Romulo-Puyat. The TienDA initiative will be held in different parts of the country with the aim of benefiting more producers and consumers. “We shall also take advantage of our partnership with Ayala Malls and the Department of National Defense (DND) in bringing TienDA to more commercial areas and continuously providing basic commodities to institutional buyers (e.g. TienDA Para sa MgaBayani),” she adds. KISS ME seeks “to cut down the multiple layers of middlemen providing meat and fish producers direct access to the market” by making available cold storage facilities to ensure the freshness of products. Initially, the Commissary Outlets of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, Philippine Air Force, and the Philippine National Police will implement it. “This is to give them access to quality and affordable farm products,” she explains. “(These) will be locally sourced to reduce carbon footprint, and shall be operated by disabled and wounded soldiers.” Based on consumer reception, KISS ME will later be moved to housing subdivisions and population centers through the neighborhood sari-sari stores. Romulo-Puyat credits the DA’s marketing efforts for the discovery of new sources of produce around the country. Some of the emerging areas for the supply of certain produce include Mindanao for high-value fruits such as durian, pomelo, mangosteen, marang, and lanzones. The Cordillera Administrative Region is a valuable source for heirloom rice, nearby Isabela for lobsters, and Sagada for processed meat. Adlai or gluten-free grain is strongly sourced in Regions 2, 4-B, and 9, according to the undersecretary. Further, cacao’s new sources include Davao, North Cotabato, Cebu, and Bohol while coffee producers in Cordilleras, Negros Occidental, and Davao have also been discovered.   Our food heals Another unfolding wonder of our food basket is its ability to cure maladies. Dr. Albert Jo, a doctor of medicine and owner of a wellness center called Rapha Valley Place of Wellness, has made a calling out of educating and encouraging his visitors to know just how food can better their health. According to him, no less that Hippocrates, the acknowledged Father of Medicine, declared: “Let your food be your medicine.” Dr. Jo often journeys with his guests to their organic farm named after the Biblical word for “healing.” “When you are surrounded by greens, it helps you destress,” he shares with Philippine Panorama. “Destressing is the most neglected part of wellness. The choice of (being located) in the highlands of Negros is part of the wellness experience we offer.” Guests in Rapha Valley discover just why Dr. Jo built the place. He refers to the wellness destination as his “inspiration” to heal himself from rheumatic heart disease, asthma, and hypertension. “Even when I graduated as a doctor, I was still using Penadur injection for my rheumatic heart and Ventolin spray for my asthma,” he recalls. “(Then) I had an episode of high blood pressure 15 years ago. I tried garlic and onion because I didn’t want to add to the two medications I already had. “At that time, I weighed about 85 kilos, way above my ideal weight, which was about 64 kilos. I tried several diets but to no avail, until I came across the Hallelujah Diet from the Jordan Rubin Health Institute. I saw some (positive) results (after),” he continues. The Hallelujah Diet is a plant-based diet that promotes self-healing, according to online sources, by ridding the body of toxins that weaken cells, enabling it to obtain the full value of vitamins and minerals that keep cells healthy. Aside from subscribing to the aforementioned diet, and being guided by the teachings of alternative medicine proponent Dr. Joseph Michael Mercola and California-based Gerson Institute, a non-profit organization that educates and trains specialists in “alternative, non-toxic treatment for cancer and other chronic degenerative diseases,” Dr. Jo was on his way to healing. “I gradually changed my lifestyle for a couple of years. I felt better, and the frequency of my chest pains, migratory poly arthritis, and asthmatic attacks became nil,” he shares. And while he is able to inspire through the “Living Life to the Fullest” lecture he developed, he opened Rapha Valley so people can “see the real lifestyle that I’m talking about in actuality,” he declares. Dr. Jo, 60, does not take maintenance medicine or vitamin supplements. “I only take fresh juices of fruits and vegetable and these energize me to do my daily tasks, such as inspecting the farm plants every morning, cooking for our guests, and even giving energy talks here and abroad to those who want to start to be healthy.” The RaphaValley kitchen has a “no fried and oil-sautéed” food policy, as the carcinogen acrylamide produced by frying or sautéing in oil (except when you use grapeseed oil, which can stand high heat, Dr. Jo says) is being avoided. Guests are served dishes using 14 kinds of in-house herbs to flavor the food instead of relying on MSG (monosodium glutamate). MSG is a flavor enhancer that some studies have found to be harmful to human health when not taken in moderation. “Our country has great potential as a natural health destination for tourism,” Dr. Jo says. “We have the land to grow all these healthy food (products). We just have to be wise about it. As I go around the country for lectures, I have seen our indigenous people thrive using natural plants as their medicine.” According to the doctor, turmeric, which has been found to help cure Alzheimer’s disease, is abundant in the country. Guyabano has been identified to help patients with diabetes and hypertension, according to research by the Purdue University & Catholic University of South Korea. Other local medicinal plants people should try, says Dr. Jo, because of their proven medicinal benefits include graviola and lemongrass to kill cancer cells, garlic for its antibiotic properties, and periwinkle to address malignant lymphomas.