AVANT GARDENER Last week, I wrote about the Ortigas Market and its endeavor to create a community while supporting small and local businesses, including farms and farmers. I asked Marisa Dames, organizer of the Ortigas Market who also happens to be president of DTC Promos, Inc., a marketing...
AVANT GARDENER Have you checked out the Ortigas Market? Folks who live in the Ortigas area searching for a place where they can buy delicious food, shop for snacks and groceries, and engage in community activities can head to Emerald Avenue, which is a carless street on weekends, but is also home...
AVANT GARDENER Food security, food self-sufficiency, food sovereignty, food justice. So many terms, aren’t they all the same thing? Not really. Food security is defined by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) as “the access for all people at all times to enough food...
AVANT GARDENER The agriculture industry is getting desperate, and rightly so. It’s been suffering for decades, with more people giving up, less people entering the industry, and only the very successful, optimistic, or desperate staying behind. This desperation, particularly in attracting young...
AVANT GARDENER Do Filipnos really have a lower IQ than the world average? The World Population Review ranked the Philippines 111th out of 199 countries in terms of average IQ. The report said that Filipnos have an average IQ of 81.64, which is below 85-114, the scores for what is considered average...
AVANT GARDENER It’s an exciting time to be in the tech industry, with so many advancements occurring in so many areas at the same time that it feels like we’re living in a science fiction novel, except this is reality. And while tech bros can make any form of new technology sound hot and sexy...
AVANT GARDENER We Filipinos love our basketball. You may have no interest in sports but will still know who Robert Jaworski is. Alvin Patrimonio. Benjie Paras. Basketball is the biggest sport in the country, its players the highest paid local athletes, the sport earning millions, if not billions,...
AVANT GARDENER *“Walang tubig, walang pagkain,* *o eh di magsayaw na lang tayo.”* *Azenith Tobias* *(Temptation Island, 1980)* “No food, no water, we might as well dance.” So goes the famous line (one of many) from Temptation Island, Joey Gosiengfiao’s camp classic about a group of beauty...
AVANT GARDENER Once in a while, a brash, usually young, thing will burst onto the scene brimming with money, confidence, and sometimes even an actual business plan who believes that they and only they can solve the problems of the Philippine agriculture industry. They’re super confident, even...
AVANT GARDENER It’s time we put bamboo back on the map. I sat down with Deogracias Victor “DV” Sevillano; former governor of Ilocos Sur, former deputy speaker of the 18th Congress, and current vice chair of the Philippine Bamboo Industry and Development Council (PBIDC) to discuss the lack of...
AVANT GARDENER 2023 is the year of the rabbit, which is a wonderful coincidence because the local rabbit industry continues its steady growth in the livestock sector. Many cultures breed rabbits for meat, but in the Philippines, they are still mostly seen as pets. Many people will cite the...
On Jan. 4, 2023, the Philippines and China signed the “Protocol of the Phytosanitary Requirements for Export of Fresh Durians from the Philippines to China,” which allowed the Philippines to export durian to China. This March, Philippine farmers and exporters eagerly await the go signal for the...
