TheFarm@PinoyBusiness.ORG is moving to a bigger virtual landscape, the new address is http://farm.168center.com/.

All articles posted in this website will be exported to the new address.Sadly, for some who are linking to this site, you have to manually edit the link URL and point to the new address.

See you on the new farm!

 UPDATE: TheFarm is now EarthNews and can be found at http://earthnews.pinaymom.org/.

“In One Hour we can Change the World and it all started in Earth Hour”

Around the world, the Earth Hour is being heralded as a success. More than 30 million were expected to have turned off their lights for 60 minutes.In the Philippines, more than 50 cities nationwide switched off their lights. This is the first time the Philippines joined this event which began in Sydney last year.

On the 29th of March 2008, malls- including SM and Ayala, museums, EDSA, Roxas Boulevard, billboards, McDonald’s arches, Jollibee iconic signages, monuments, streets and even houses were plunged into darkness.

According to WWF and Meralco, the Philippines were able to save 56MWh of energy and reduce the greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 30-tonnes in Luzon alone. Read the rest of this entry »

I was writing an article about the Earth Hour 2008 but I decided to put it on hold when I received an email from friend which I copied verbatim below. As an individual, I also registered on http://www.earthhour.org/sign-up so I can participate on this very worthwhile endeavor. Global warming is now the greatest thread in our world has ever faced and I think this is the WAR WORTH FIGHTING FOR.

In support of the world-wide campaign against Global Warming, we are encouraging everyone to participate in the 60-minute “lights-out” event on March 29, 2008 from 8 to 9PM. While participation in this activity is entirely voluntary, we encourage everyone to do their share in this and other similar endeavors to save our planet. Please read the brief article below to further understand the rationalé behind this movement.

Read the rest of this entry »

A 4-man team of graduating MBA students from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), visited the Philippines to study the wide-scale production of Malunggay (Moringa). They presented their study in a forum organized by the Department of Agriculture on the 17th of January 2008. In their presentation, they recommended that it is now the right time for the Philippines to position the country as the main source of malunggay in international trade,or some other country will do it.

I’ve received some emails from the readers of this website asking me on how to plant a malunggay. Although we have 2 malunggays in our backyard, which we planted as we what we are accustomed and that is through stem cutting, I really don’t have any idea on how to plant malunggay for a mass scale production. Since I have started an article about malunggay , I guess I owe something to the readers and so I did my own research. Read the rest of this entry »

click image to see beautiful shots of coffee!

The morning of our childhood always began with a steaming hot, aromatic cup of coffee. Freshly brewed, barako coffee harvested, dried, and ground right in our home.

No one bothered to ask why we, children as tender as five or six years old, were allowed to drink the wicked brew so early in the day, and that early in our life. In Batangas, coffee-drinking is a daily, sometimes hourly, habit way of life, shared by entire families at breakfast, or at any time of night and day.

We drank coffee as we ate a breakfast of fried rice and dried fish before dashing off to school. We’d dunk our pandesal into it till the bread went soggy and unrecognizable but seductively delicious to our young taste.

Read the rest of this entry »

Click image to enlarge

As I was writing an article about 2008 as the Year of the Potato according to United Nation, an email arrived on my inbox stating that “Cure for dengue - camote tops”. Indeed a post was made on PinoBusiness.ORG regarding this email.

It is said the soup made from camote tops specifically the purple sweet potato can make Dengue patient’s platelets count back to normal. Although, still not proven to cure Dengue completely.

Last month, I donated my blood to my friend who was diagnosed with Dengue. Read the rest of this entry »

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BELIEVE it or not, I am now craving for malunggay noodles. I am so fascinated with malunggay’s green leaves that I have just planted so many seedlings in a small farm the family has been growing in Lipa, Batangas.

In the midst of the holiday rush for gifts and the free flow and exchange of rich and creamy food stuff, I remember the taste of malunggay noodles, which I experienced for the first time in one of the regional trade fairs hosted by the now-defunct project, WoW Philippines, of the Department of of Tourism.(The DOT should revive WoW Philippines in 2008 to help our farmers and traders in the provinces promote their products in Manila).

Those malunggay noodles came from Cagayan Valley, Read the rest of this entry »

I know, i know it’s not summer here yet but I just want to share to you one of nature’s greatest gifts to us while it’s still not too hot for you to get out and enjoy the sun.

We humans evolved under the sun, and there are still some of us worshiping the sun even in our modern world. The human race for thousand years lived in harmony with the sun which is the source of heat and light. Sadly, over the last few years, we’ve been told NOT to get out of the sun for the fear that we might get skin cancer. A lot of medical doctors considered the sun as the main source for causing skin cancer, including cataracts and aging of our skin. However, it is the high excess of omega-6 fats in our diet that puts us in a much higher risk of developing skin cancer when exposed to TOO MUCH sun.

Did you know that what is being discovered instead is that lack of sun exposure is one of the greatest risk factors for disease?  Read the rest of this entry »

It’s usually my habit to tune in to AM radio specially on my way to the office and back home early in the evening while driving. One particular Thursday morning , I was listening to DZMM program when I heard the lively tandem of Ariel Ureta and Winnie Cordero interviewing a guy who is a part of the on-going Herbal Festival 2007 being held in Quezon Memorial Circle,Quezon City. I listened attentively because the guy - which unfortunately I forgot the name, was talking about the good benefits of different herbs in our body. I just learned that only 10 of our numerous herbals/medicinal plants were approved by the Department of Health, namely:

1. Bawang or garlic = reduces cholesterol in the blood.
2. Bayabas or guava = my favorite, usually used to disinfect wounds (antiseptic). The fruit is rich in Vitamin C as well.
3. Ampalaya or bitter gourd = very popular to treat or prevent diabetes, clinically proven to lower a patient’s blood sugar. Did you know that the products of Charantia, the company that made the tea from ampalaya (and capsule too), is now being exported abroad like U.S.A., Canada, Mexico, Europe, Japan, Korea and parts of the Middle East? Read the rest of this entry »

My colleagues are asking me why I named my sub domain here at PinoyBusiness.ORG as FARM. What’s so significant about this name (or word)? Well, in it’s literal meaning, a Farm is a piece or a tract of land cultivated for the purpose of agricultural production.In contrast, a land that is not cultivated cannot be called as Farm.

With this description in mind, I decided that I want to have a space in this virtual world which I can call my virtual farm. A place or space wherein I can sow all my ideas, cultivate them with visions, shower with ambitions, fertilize with actions and be sun-shined with God’s intervention. I pray and hope that these soon-to-be planted ideas will yield great results that I can share to other people specially the readers.

Like a real farm that needs to be cultivated and be taken cared of, they said that great ideas can yield great results if nurtured properly, and I know that there’s a lot of ways to nurture an idea until it bears fruit. A farm cannot stand on it’s own without the help of the neighbors and the machineries. I may have the seeds but I’ll be needing the assistance of the experts - YOU, to help me grow it. I ask you to help me propagate bright, good, positive and sustainable ideas. I mentioned the word “sustainable” because I want the audience, the public who will visit my farm to be encouraged to pick any of the harvests that they can apply and nourish on their own.

There are endless possibilities that can be done on a farm. It can be used not only to produce harvest but also dairies and livestock. Basically, the goal of a farm is to produce a lot of products which in turn will make a profit. In this virtual farm, I am hoping to produce practical ideas which will give benefits to me and to you in a form of knowledge.

Little by little, as the trees of  knowledge bears fruit, the road to the FARM will be opened for everybody to enjoy the picking as much as you want.

Take a peek now on my farm!