Pimentel Speech On Organic Farming

We are an agricultural country. That means we produce or can produce our domestic food requirements and with innovation, generate surpluses for export. Unfortunately, we are overly dependent on imported chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Such dependence causes at least two undesirable results: 1. It makes our farm lands much too acidic and kills the microbes that by nature rehabilitate those lands over time, and 2. It depletes our much needed dollar reserves as the next slide shows.

In the last 2 years, government files show that we spent the costs indicated (in round figures) to import chemical fertilizers & pesticides: • 2007 - Chemical Fertilizers – US$300 m - Pesticides – US$106 m • 2008 - Chemical Fertilizers – US$ 774 m - Pesticides – US$174m

• Now comes the World Wide Filipino Association composed of overseas Filipinos. They want to help get the country out of too much dependence on imported chemical fertilizers and pesticides. • Led by Jun Aguilar, Cesar Torres, Cita Garcia, Kumeh Comendador, Rudy Dianalan & other selfless volunteers, WFA plans to produce organic compost or biomass for our farms use.

The proposal is not weird or wild at all. Scientific studies abroad (Europe & Asia) released in the first quarter of 2009 indicated that the world population is assured of: (a) quality food from agriculture using organic compost or vermicast alone, and (b) healthy food as well.

- The WFA wants to help barangays put up their own organic composting and vermiculture plants that can manufacture non-chemical fertilizers and pesticides. • By doing so, WFA members believe that we heal the soil, eliminate the need to import fertilizers & pesticides, and produce health food for all.

What is needed for the barangays to go into organic compost or vermiculture in a systemic and sustained manner?

We need 1. the barangays to accept & adopt the proposal; 2. the WFA to pilot test the concept in select barangays; 3. Congress to pass the laws to get LGU support for the conversion of biomass into vermicast/organic compost; 4. the government to help create a local market for it; & 5. the help of the Ecology Center in Quezon City.

Organic (garbage or biodegradable) waste must be properly managed. Improperly handled, garbage attracts disease-carrying pests. Flies are carriers of 12 disease potentials; roaches, 17; rodents, 30, just to cite obvious examples. Expensive pesticides would then be needed to kill the pests. In the process, toxic residues find their way into our food that invariably render our people sickly. And to combat people’s diseases, we have to import expensive chemical-based drugs. Thus, the endless cycle of our people’s dependence on imported chemicals is established.

With scientific methods available, there is enough raw material (solid waste) for us to manufacture compost fertilizers & pesticides for the production of our food needs.

The technology to execute mass production of organic fertilizer and to revive (bio-remediate) the soil made dull and acidic by chemical fertilizers has been available in the country since 1960. There is no need to search abroad for equipment and the technical know-how for those ends.

Commissioner Metodio Palaypay of National Solid Waste Management (NSWM) gave the information that Filipino inventor-entrepreneur, Gonzalo Catan, Jr., developed the “Vermilog technology” locally. The technology ensures high success rates for vermicomposting compared to ordinary processes. The use of shredders & irrigation equipment for the production of vermicast/vermicompost also do not need expensive imported fuel. The machines can now be run by Green Charcoal Hydrogen, another invention of Mr. Catan.

Green Charcoal is an alternative renewable fuel sourced from biodegradable wastes. It uses the same raw materials as in the production of vermicast organic fertilizer. By using Green Charcoal Hydrogen fuel technology, we help clean our environment and help the economy. And we upgrade “useless” biomass waste to high-value fuels and fertilizers.

Green Charcoal can replace diesel and bunker fuel for factory and vehicle use. Yes, even coal in coal-powered plants. Green Charcoal does not create carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide and mercury which ordinary charcoal, petrol fuels and coal-powered plants do.

Green Charcoal has a tremendous potential for wide-scale use in household and commercial cooking, transportation and industrial power not only for the country but world-wide as well.

Green charcoal promotes the country’s self-reliance in the use of available resources for fuel and organic farming.

As an alternative fuel with low or zero emission of greenhouse gases, it reduces our country’s contribution to global warming.

Green Charcoal is our country’s very own ingenious response to the energy and global warming crisis. It will provide employment for thousands of Filipinos & increase the income of local governments which will use biomass waste, produce their own Green Charcoal and vermicast organic fertilizers.

•Break the chains that bind us to chemical based fertilizers and pesticides. •Use instead our locally produced compost and biomass. •Produce health and quality food for our people. •Save precious foreign exchange reserves for other vital needs. •Raise incomes of our people especially in the

Reference: http://www.nenepimentel.org/speeches/20090427_Organic.asp