AVANT GARDENER Yvette Tan I’ve always maintained that owning a farm is the original Filipino dream. Unfortunately, like many dreams, owning a successful farm can be challenging. Aside from the difficulty in acquiring adequate farmland suitable for the crops or livestock one wants to cultivate or...
AVANT GARDENER Yvette Tan Agriculture industry. This is the name we call everything that falls under the terms “agriculture,” which, contrary to popular misconception, isn’t just about planting and harvesting. Agriculture work isn’t limited to farming, but that’s for another column....
AVANT GARDENER Yvette Tan What do avocados, bananas, oranges, and kale have in common? The answer is that their popularity in the Western — and by extension, global — market are the results of heavy marketing campaigns. Contrary to popular belief, these beloved crops didn’t achieve prominence...
AVANT GARDENER Yvette Tan Chocolate and bananas are a delicious combination, but did you know that these two crops also pair well together in the field? Cacao has been on the news lately. What isn’t talked about is how many cacao farmers have been commenting that it takes a long time - about four...
AVANT GARDENER Yvette Tan As we enter another two weeks of lockdown, the two biggest concerns people have are making money and food. Actually, even the “making money” part is ultimately so they can buy food. If this pandemic has highlighted anything, it is that food is important, and that...
AVANT GARDENER Yvette Tan As the number of farmers in the country continues to decrease even as their median age increases, there has been a push to encourage people, especially young ones, to consider agriculture as a source of income. While there are many success stories of people who have made a...
AVANT GARDENER Yvette Tan Food has become such a big part of pop culture that there are people who base their personalities on what they’ve eaten and where they’ve eaten it. There is nothing bad about this. Eating is an easy way to get to know a culture, and experiencing different flavors can...
AVANT GARDENER Yvette Tan There’s a story about Nick Joaquin that’s been going around the creative writing circle for as long as I can remember. It’s said that during a writer’s workshop, the National Artist got so annoyed at a participant's work that he allegedly told the poor workshop...
AVANT GARDENER Yvette Tan In history class, we learn that the Philippines has had a robust trade with China for centuries before the arrival of the Spanish. Before the ethnic Chinese who had settled in the Philippines were rounded up by the Spanish and forced to live in enclaves (among other...
AVANT GARDENER Yvette Tan A farmer friend posted a meme of a sign on a farm that said in Tagalog: “Visitors are coming! Lock up your plants!” Something a lot of farmers deal with that isn’t talked about a lot is petty theft. We’re not talking about sacks of produce or fertilizer or a bunch...
AVANT GARDENER Yvette Natalie Tan Just what exactly is needed to produce a grain of rice? Quite a lot of labor and capital. Despite rice being a staple of the Pinoy dining table, not many Filipinos understand how the country’s favorite grain goes from binhi (seed) to bigas (milled rice). When...
AVANT GARDENER Yvette Natalie Tan I was recently asked to give a lay person's overview on the country’s food security situation for Bahay Kubo Kitchens organized by Mesa ni Misis and FEED (Farmer Enterprise & Economic Development) as part of the United Nations’ Food Systems Summit. Here’s...
