Tuesday, December 29, 2015

"For just once the world is mine."

"For just once the world is mine." 
           Dr Abe V Rotor


1. For just once the world is mine
With rowdy friends and I,
Happily with a jug of wine,
Words come easy, ‘Aye, Aye!’ ” 
  (INTERNET PHOTO)~

2. Through time, humanity has changed through use
Of its environment for man’s needs through abuse,
From adaptation to modernization,
All in the name of civilization.



3. Who cares about the broken bridge in summer?
When fishing poles bend to the weight of catch,
Young and old wait for the pot to shimmer.
Everything’s silent save the breeze and chime,
And river flowing in the idleness of time.

4. Pleasance to you youth, bright as the sun;
The world be at war or be at peace.
Ask not where have all the flowers gone;
Seasons come, and seasons go at ease. 

5. Rage and break, rage and break,
On the cold wall and be free;
Make the sky and the river meet
Under a rainbow by the sea. ~ 
  
             
                                 

             

Tuesday, December 22, 2015

Fight for a Cause, a peerless chance.

Fight for a Cause, a peerless chance. 

Dr Abe V Rotor

                                            No, not a mob adrift with the current;
fight for a Cause, a peerless chance;
 death the cost, but the meaning of your life,
while you walk here on earth but once. 

   Acknowledgement: Internet photos

 

Friday, December 11, 2015

Childhood memorabilia are among the most precious collections.

Childhood Memorabilia 
 Leo Carlo R Rotor

Childhood memorabilia are among the most precious collections. They are treasures of the past coming alive in sweet memory and recollection. Timelessness makes them classic - masterpieces to one's life in his own right, albeit others' perspective.




"I can imagine in years to come that my papers and memorabilia, my journals and letters, will find themselves always in the company of people who care about many of the things I do." - Alice Walker

"'No matter how much suffering you went through, you never
wanted to let go of th
ose memories." - Haruki Murakami

"Your memorabilia becomes more significant. It does put you
in a different category." - Jim Palmer

“Nothing is ever really lost to us as long as we remember it.”
― L.M. Montgomery

Thursday, December 10, 2015

Enshrine traditional knowledge through research. ^

Enshrine traditional  knowledge through research.

Dr Abe V Rotor
Here are some examples by which traditional  knowledge can be enshrined through research.

1. Corn silk tea is good for the kidney.

When boiling green corn, include the inner husk and the silk as old folks do. Add water than normally needed. Drink the decoction like tea. It is an effective diuretic. But how can we make it available when we need it?


Silk is the composite pistil of corn which receives the pollen necessary in pollination. Internet photos

Sister Corazon C. Loquellano, RVM, in a masteral thesis at UST came up with corn tea in sachet. Just powder dried corn silk and pack it in sachet like ordinary tea. The indication of good quality is that, a six-percent infusion should have a clear amber color with the characteristic aroma of sweet corn. It has an acidity of about 6 pH. You may add sugar to suit your taste.

2. Succulent pod of radish is a local remedy for ulcer.

It is in a public market of Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) I found young pods of radish (Raphanus sativus) sold in bundles. We also relish young radish pods as salad or mixed in chop suey. How true is it that it can cure of stomach ulcer?

Lourdes Jorge tested radish seeds for anti-ulcer properties on albino rats as her masteral thesis in medical technology at UST. Result: Radish seed extract is effective and is comparable to commercial Cimetidine or Tagamet in the treatment of gastric ulcer. 

3. A simple remedy for diarrhea

Diarrhea claims the lives of 3 million people, with nearly 2 million of them children under five years old. Yet a simple and inexpensive treatment can prevent many of those deaths.

Here is a simple formula for oral rehydration therapy (ORT): a fistful of sugar + a pinch of salt + a jug of water. This old home remedy is now recognized by the WHO and UNICEF of the United Nations (UN-WHO) which recently reported that it has saved some 40 million lives. This home grown remedy hopes to further demote diarrhea from its present status as the second leading cause of death among children, to an ordinary ailment that can be readily prevented or treated.

According to WHO/UNICEF, ORT should begin at home with home fluids or home-prepared sugar and salt solution at the first sign of diarrhea to prevent dehydration (loss of body fluid). Feeding should be continued at all times.

However, once the patient is dehydrated, the regimen should be switched to official preparation usually in pre-measured sachets that are ready to be mixed with water. The formula is commercially sold or supplied by local government and relief agencies like WHO and UNICEF. In 1996 alone UNICEF distributed 500 million sachets to over 60 developing nations.

Everyone experiences at certain times symptoms that may be associated with diarrhea, such as too much drinking of alcohol, intolerance to wheat protein (gluten) or lactose (milk), or chronic symptom to food poisoning. It is also associated with anemic condition, pancreatic disorder, and radiation treatment (chemotherapy) ~

Thursday, December 3, 2015

"For whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee.".


Dr Abe V Rotor
Living with Nature School on Blog
Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid (People's School-on-Air) with Ms Melly C Tenorio
738 DZRB AM Band, 8 to 9 evening class Monday to Friday (www.pbs.gov.ph)

                                         Bells in acrylic, AVR 

The Bell Tolls

For whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee.
One man dies and a little in me dies, too.
And if a thousand, more so a million die,
For no reason, brothers but hatred, oh,
I’d rather die in the battlefield, too.
                                                                     - avrotor
A young scholar, Mr Juan Torre, gave a lecture on world history in a local school where he finished high school. 

“Two thousand five hundred years ago Alexander, the Great, set to conquer the world at a very young age.”

He was looking at the junior and senior students who comprised the audience. He remembered where he was seated some years in a similar lecture during his time. A smile broke on his boyish face before he continued. “The young warrior climbed on top of the highest hill of Alexandria in Greece and gazed over the horizon. With a huge army he inherited from his father he conquered city after city, country after country, and joined them into the biggest empire the world had ever seen.”

The speaker paused and said, “I’m sure you must have known from your readings, or on the TV and movie screen, the adventurers of the great Macedonian.”

The audience nodded, indeed a positive response.

The speaker continued, “One thousand years after, Genghis Khan rode across Asia and annexed much of China and neighboring tribes to his homeland Mongolia. Earlier and not far away, the barbarian Attila, the Hun led an army that plundered Middle Asia, and pushed deep into the borders of Christian Rome.”

“In the 17th century Napoleon Bonaparte the crowned dictator of France subdued the whole of Western Europe except England. Then towards the middle of the twentieth century Germany’s Hitler and Italy’s Mussolini conquered Europe, while Japan invaded and annexed much of Asia in the guise of Co-Prosperity Sphere.”

“What happened to these adventurers of history?” The brilliant speaker asked the students? Getting no answer he paused and proceeded. He took the microphone off its stand and walked down the middle aisle of the hall.

“Alexander died without seeing the fruits of his conquest. Genghis Khan died from mortal wounds inflicted by an enemy from his own race. Attila mysteriously died before he could enter the gates of Rome. Napoleon lost in the Battle of Waterloo and died in exile. Hitler and Mussolini met tragic deaths. Japan lost thousands and thousands of lives from two atomic bombs dropped on two cities – and there are still people dying from radiation to this day after 45 years.”

The room was silent. The speaker’s voice came afresh, “History warns us of man’s inhumanity to man in war. When put together wars have caused the death of millions of people and untold sufferings of survivors. War stops the clock of progress.”

The speaker cleared his throat and continued, “War is the greatest test on human endurance, how society rebuilds itself, and how values triumph. At the end, freedom and peace prevail.”

There was an air of confidence from the young scholar. “Yes, freedom and peace will always prevail,” he repeated in a low voice.

A hand slowly rose at the back and Carla, in thick eyeglasses, “When will there be peace in Syria and Afghanistan?”

If you were the speaker, what would be your answer?

x x x

Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Ecology in Miniature Dioramas

 Ecology in Miniature Dioramas

Dr Abe V Rotor
Faculty Curator, Former St Paul Museum, SPUQC

These mini-dioramas have been removed to give way to a new project in the former Museum. This lesson is dedicated to the students who made them, and to visitors who appreciated the value of these masterpieces.

Coral Reef
The idea of miniaturized dioramas depicting ecological scenes was pioneered by students taking up ecology subject at St. Paul University QC. Their works - two dozen mini-dioramas depicting major ecosystems - were displayed for 15 years at the school museum, then the centerpiece of natural history.

A diorama is a “view window” reproduced from an actual or imagined event or scene made by artists who have a background of painting, architecture and sculpture combined, and of course, history. In this particular case, the diorama artists must have a working knowledge of ecology and biology.

One who may have visited any of the following museums has a better understanding as to what a diorama is in terms of structure, content and medium: National Museum in Manila, Ayala Museum at Greenbelt in Makati, and National Food Authority Grain Industry Museum in Cabanatuan. But the dioramas in these museums are large and spacious. It gives him the feeling that he is right on spot where the event is taking place or where the scene is located. This is enhanced with the right ambiance of lighting, musical background, narration or dialogue and the like.

The mini-dioramas at SPUQ are much simpler and smaller. They are works of amateurs but nonetheless exude the quality an artist cum ecologist can best show with the help of faculty members and the museum staff. Here are seven mini-dioramas depicting the Tropical Rainforest, the Ocean, Pacific Lagoon, Coral Reef, Alpine Biome, Savannah and the Desert,

1. Tropical Rainforest
The earth once wore a broad green belt on her midriff – the rainforest – that covered much of her above and below the equator. Today this cover has been reduced - and is still shrinking at a fast rate. The nakedness of the earth can be felt everywhere. One place where we can witness this is right here in the Philippines where only 10 percent of our original forest remains. Even the great Amazon Basin is threatened. As man moves into new areas, puts up dwellings, plants crops, becomes affluent, increases in number, the more the tropical rainforest shrinks. Our thinking that the forest as a source of natural resources is finite is wrong. Like any ecosystem, a forest once destroyed cannot be replaced. It can not regenerate because by then the soil has eroded, and the climate around has changed. It is everyone’s duty to protect the tropical rainforest, the bastion of thousands of species of organisms. In fact it is the richest of all the biomes on earth.

Tropical Rainforest
2. The Ocean
Scientists today believe that eighty percent of the world’s species of organisms are found in the sea. One can imagine the vastness of the oceans – nearly 4 kilometers deep on the average and 12 km at its deepest - the Marianas Trench and the Philippine Deep - and covering 78 percent of the surface of the earth. Artists and scientists re-create scenarios of Jules Verne’s, “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea,” such as this diorama, imagining man’s futuristic exploration in the deep led by Captain Nemo, the idealistic but ruthless scientist. Such scenarios are no longer fantasy today – they are scenes captured by the camera and other modern tools of research. And the subject is not one of exploration alone, but conservation, for the sea, limitless as it may seem, is facing the same threats of pollution and other abuses man on land, in water, and air. The sea is man’s last frontier. Let us give it a chance.

3. Pacific Lagoon
The vastness of the Pacific Ocean is disturbed now and then by the presence of islands – big and small, singly or in groups - that appear like emerald and pearl strewn on the dark blue water, presenting a most beautiful scenery that attracts people to experience true communion with nature. Originally these islands were the tips of volcanoes, at first fierce and unsettled, but later became tame to the elements that fashioned them through time into lagoons, and other land forms of varied geographic features. As seen in this diorama, this island typical of Boracay is rich in vegetation, coconut trees grow far into the water and on the white sand that cover the shores. The coral reef teems with many kinds of marine life, from rare shellfish to aquarium fishes. In fact the whole island is a sanctuary of wildlife. It is a natural gene bank, a natural museum of biological diversity.

Tropical Lagoon
4. Coral Reef
Second to the Tropical Rainforest in richness in species diversity is the coral reef, often dubbed as a forest under the sea. Corals are simple animals of the Phylum Coelenterata, now Ctenophora, that live in symbiosis with algae. Algae being photosynthetic produce food and oxygen that corals need, and in return receive free board and lodging, and carbon dioxide. Within this zone grow many kinds of seaweeds, some reaching lengths of several feet long as in the case of kelp (Laminaria), and Sargassum, the most common tropical seaweed. As a sanctuary it cradles the early life stages of marine life until they have grown to be able to survive the dangers and rigors of the open sea. Coral reefs are formed layer upon layer through long years of deposition of calcareous skeletons of Coelenterates which is then cemented with sand, silt, clay and gravel to form into rock. Limestone is a huge deposit resulting from this process Scientists believe that without coral reefs islands would disappear and continents shrink. Above all we would not have the fishes and other marine organisms we know today.

5. Alpine Biome
Isolated from the lower slopes and adjoining valley, this ecological area has earned a distinction of having plants and animals different from those in the surrounding area. Because of the unique climate characterized by an intense but short summer and extreme cold the rest of the year, the organisms in this biome have acquired through evolution certain characteristics that made them fit to live in such an environment. Alpine vegetation is dramatic owing to its ephemeral nature. Here annual plants bloom with a precise calendar, attracting hordes of butterflies and other organisms. The trees are gnarled as they stand against the howling wind, mosses and liverworts carpet the ground, streams are always alive, and migrating animals have their fill before the cold sets in. We do not have this biome in the Philippines, but atop Mt. Apo in Davao and Mt. Pulog in Benguet, the country’s highest mountains, lies a unique ecosystem – a combination of grassland and alpine. This could be yet another biome heretofore unrecorded in the textbook.

Alpine 
6. Savannah
Home of game animals in Africa, the Savannah has the highest number of herbivores of all biomes. It had always been the “grand prix” of hunters until three decades ago when strict laws were passed prohibiting poaching and destruction of natural habitats. The diorama depicts the shrub-grass landscape, a stream runs into a waterhole where, during summer, attracts animals from the lowly turtle to the ferocious lion which stakes on preys like zebra and gazelle. Beyond lies Mt. Kimanjaro, Hemingway’s favorite locale of his novel of the same title (Snows of Kilimanjaro). It is said that the beginning of the Nile River, the longest river in the world, starts with the melting of snow atop Kilimanjaro, right at the heart of the savannah.

7. The Desert
Scenes of the Sahara flash in our mind the moment the word “desert” is brought about to both young and old, in fantasy or reality. Here lies a wasteland, so vast that it dwarfs the imagination. 

Deserts are found at the very core of continents like Australia and North America, or extend to high altitude (Atacama Desert) or way up north (Siberian Desert) where temperature plunges below zero Celsius. In the desert rain seldom comes and when it does, the desert suddenly blooms into multi-faceted patterns and colors of short-growing plants. Sooner the desert is peacefully dry and eerie once again, except the persistent cacti and their boarders (birds, insects and reptiles), shrubs and bushes that break the monotony of sand and sand dunes. But somewhere the “desert is hiding a well,” so sang the lost pilot and the Little Prince in Antoine de St. Exupery’s novelette, “The Little Prince.” I am referring to the oasis, waterhole in the desert. It is here where travelers mark their route, animals congregate, nations put claims on political borders. Ecologically this is the nerve center of life, spiritually the bastion of hope, a new beginning, and source of eternal joy particularly to those who have seen and suffered in the desert. The desert is not a desert after all. ~

Wednesday, November 18, 2015

The Beginning of Autumn

  • The Beginning of Autumn

  • "How beautifully leaves grow old. 
  • How full of light and color are their last days." 
  • - John Burrows

Dr Abe V Rotor

Onset of Autumn in acrylic by A V Rotor 

 The leaves are still green but autumn is here,
litter on the forest floor turns red and yellow,
and cracks and tickles under my feet bare.
Oh, how seasons change pure and mellow!   

Wednesday, October 28, 2015

The World in his Paint Brush

The World in his Paint Brush
Dr Abe V Rotor
 
Markus 2 author's grandson paints a mural 2015, QC

"Freedom in imagination, young as he is, while grownups yearn for expression outside the confines of art; who is the master then? Yet, the path that he takes is rough and uncertain, sans model and determination he'll miss his aim." - A V Rotor

"Nothing, indeed, is more dangerous to the young artist than any conception of ideal beauty: he is constantly led by it either into weak prettiness or lifeless abstraction: whereas to touch the ideal at all, you must not strip it of vitality." - Oscar Wilde

"It is only after years of preparation that the young artist should touch color - not color used descriptively, that is, but as a means of personal expression." - Henri Matisse

Monday, October 26, 2015

Living Pendulum

Living Pendulum
Dr Abe V Rotor

This cherry dangles free like a pendulum against the sun,
clings to the vine, ripening, and soon falls to the ground;
ephemeral are beauty and freedom to its creator bound.  ~

Painting in acrylic by the author

Versatile Vinegar for the Home and Workshop

    Versatile Vinegar for the Home and Workshop
      Dr Abe V Rotor

  1. Clean eyeglasses. Wipe each lens with a drop of vinegar.
  2. Freshen cut flowers. Add 2 tbsp vinegar and 1 tbsp sugar for each quart of water.
  3. Polish car chrome. Apply full strength vinegar with a soft cloth.
  4. Dissolve rust from bolts and other metals. Soak in full strength vinegar.
  5. Clean windows with vinegar and water.
  6. Rub vinegar on the cut end of uncooked ham to prevent mold. It will not change the taste of your ham.
  7. Add vinegar to laundry rinse water. This will remove all soap and prevent yellowing.
  8. Remove hairspray and other p[product buildups from your hair. Massage one ounce of full strength vinegar into hair and leave on for about 20 minutes. Rinse with warm water. The shampoo and rinse your hair as usual.
  9. Boil vinegar and water in pots to remove stains.
  10. Pour undiluted vinegar in coffee maker to remove sediments. Run through like you are brewing coffee. Let cool and run through again if your coffee maker is full of sediment. When done, run in plain water through to rinse a few times.
  11. Remove berry stains from hands with vinegar.
  12. Wash hands with diluted vinegar after working with cement. This will restore smoothness and color of your hands.
  13. Artists use vinegar for etching and blending paint materials.
  14. Soak your fingernails in vinegar for 20 minutes two times a week to strengthen them. They will grow longer a lot faster than normal.
  15. Bring vinegar to a boil in an old saucepan. Reduce to shimmer and place paint brushes with hardened paint on them in the pan. Leave until you see paint loosen. Wash brushes with soapy water to soften the brushes.
  16. Dampen a cloth with vinegar and wipe counters, canisters and other containers to keep them smelling fresh and clean.
  17. Place small containers of vinegar all around the house to take out cigarette smoke smell. Or wave a cloth you soaked in vinegar around the house to clean the air odors.
  18. Pour baking soda down clogged drain. Add boiling vinegar to it and your drain should unclog. If not, your clog is needing a commercial drain opener.
  19. To tighten cane bottom or caneback chairs sponge them with a hot solution of half vinegar and half water. Place the chairs out in the hot sun to dry. They will tighten back into shape.
  20. To eliminate mildew. Dust and odors. Wipe down walls with vinegar-soaked cloth. ~

Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Recycling Farm Wastes

In observance of the International Year of Soils 2015 
Day of celebration: December 5


Dr Abe V Rotor
Living with Nature School on Blog
Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid (People's School-on-Air) with Ms Melly C Tenorio
738 DZRB AM Band, 8 to 9 evening class Monday to Friday

Home made compost from plant residues. Lagro, QC 

1. Crops leave a lot of waste after harvest. The most common wastes for composting are rice straw, corn stover, peanut and mungo hay, banana stalk, ipil-ipil, wood and coconut by-products.

• We are getting in return very little of the value of the fertilizer we apply to our crops. We don’t even get half the value of Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium, the most important ingredients of chemical fertilizers.
30 to 60 % for N,
10 to 35 % for P, and
15 to 30% for K.

• For rice, there are more nutrients removed from the soil that go into the straw than the grain. Here is a comparison. (Grain versus straw, kg nutrient/MT)
Nitrogen: 10.5 - 7.0
Phosphorus: 4.6 – 2.3
Potassium: 3.0 – 17.5
Magnesium: 1.5 – 2.0
Calcium: 0.5 - 3.5

• Rice straw contains 85-90 percent of potassium (K) of the biomass. Thus much greater amounts of K must be applied to maintain soil supply where straw is removed.

2. Farm animals are ideal recyclers.

• Our Philippine carabao is the most efficient feed converter. Of the ruminant animals it has a digestive system that can extract the most nutrients from roughage. Thus it can survive long dry spells, and its manure is excellent fertilizer.

• Native chickens are more resistant than pure breeds to pest and unfavorable weather. They thrive on palay and corn; they forage in the field, and glean on leftovers. They are therefore, more economical to produce, tastier and free of antibiotic residues and artificial growth hormones.

• Goats thrives on farm by-products and unwanted plants. Practically anything that grows in the field is food for goats. Goats however, must be tethered or kept in pens.

• Another recycling project is vermiculture, the culture of earthworms for composting, bait for fishing, and source of protein supplement in feeds. Earthworm castings are excellent soil conditioners for ornamentals and garden crops.

3. Recycle wastes from market and kitchen. Vegetable trimmings, and waste from fish and animals require efficient collection, segregation and processing into biogas and organic fertilizer.

Fruits in season that otherwise go to waste are made into table wine of different flavors. Typhoon or drought affected sugarcane make excellent natural vinegar and molasses.

4. There are many plants growing in the field that are taken for granted or considered weeds. They are Nature’s Gifts. Tap them instead. Examples: Lantana camara as natural pesticide; oregano as natural medicine for cough and sore throat; chichirica as drug against cancer; pandan as spice and condiment; eucalyptus as liniment and cold drops; bunga de China for toothpaste, lagundi for fever and flu.

5. Water harvesting and conserving: Runoff water is waste. Small Water Impounding Projects (SWIP) are popular in many parts of the world where water is seasonal. Bigger ones can even generate electricity for the locality. The Bureau of Soils and Water Management of the Department of Agriculture has developed the technology on water impounding.
x x x

NOTE: Please add more information to further enrich this article, particularly on those practices in farm recycling indigenous in your place.

Sunday, October 11, 2015

A Child's Parable of The Black Puppy


Anna Christina R Rotor, 12
School Project on CLIVE, 
Year 2 Malvar, Teacher Remy
October 20, 1997
Unedited
Pastel drawing by Anna Christina, 12 (1997)  
It was late in the evening when three children searched for their pet,  wondering what had happened to it.  Their dog was crying in pain and they didn't know where to find. Suddenty, at a corner of their garage, they saw the missing, white dog.  The dog gave birth to three little puppies.  The children were so delighted to see a very beautiful, white puppy with a cute, pink nose.  But they became disappoited  upon seeing two black, ugly puppies, which they didn't even had the color of their mother.  So the children poured all their love to the white puppy.  They even had the plan to make this dog an intelligent one.  After a few days, they noticed that the other black puppy was very weak.  Not for long, it died, which they didn't mind too much.

One morning, the children were shocked to see their favorite puppy lying helplessly and trying to catch its breath. They did everything they could do to save the puppy but it was too late and died.  They children felt very, very sad and tried not to cry.  But then they realized that there is still a black puppy left whom they could love like their love for their favorite pet.

They leaned to love the black puppy and took good care of it.  They taught him different dog tricks and trained him to be a smart dog.

Many years passed, the children were very proud to see the black, ugly puppy grew into a very beautiful, talented and intelligent dog.  

Author's Comment:  Based on my experiences related in this parable, there is one experience that I will never forget.  It is an experience of disappointment and contentment.  At age 10, my favorite cousin died at an early age.  I always let the time pass longing for him.  Just then, I realized that I could do nothing to bring him back.  I finally knew that I could go on with my life without my sorrows.  I began to enjoy my life again and learned to love my other cousins, who sometimes I hated most.  I learned to be more considerate to them and we grew up in a better relationship.

With my unforgettable experience, there is one important lesson that I learned: The one you love least may sometimes be the one you'll love most. ~ 

Monday, October 5, 2015

Yes, we can grow wheat in the Philippines

Dedicated to the late Reynaldo A Tabbada PhD, professor and dissertation adviser of the author, UST Graduate School 

Yes, we can grow wheat in the Philippines

Wheat is the third most important staple food of Filipinos after rice and corn.  Ironically we import it to the last grain to make the popular pandesal and pasta, and a wide variety of bakery products.  Its milling byproducts constitute an important feed ingredient for livestock, piggery and poultry. 
 
Dr. Abe V. Rotor  

Yes, the Filipino can. We love to eat pandesal, a unique and distinctly Filipino kind of bun. Pandesal comes from wheat flour. We import the mother material, the wheat grain, mainly from the United States. Eight (or more) companies which grouped themselves into the Philippine Flour Millers Association or PAFMI import the grain, mill it into flour, and sell it to the baker. The bran called pollard, by-product of milling is formulated into feeds, together with feed wheat which they also import directly. Virtually the same members formed another group, Philippine Association of Feed Millers or PAFMIL. They sell feeds to the livestock and poultry raisers. They also sell meat and related products which they directly import.  These are made into hot dog, hamburger, et al.

 Author with baked products from local wheat harvest
. 
Here is a scenario for the pandesal eater. The wheat comes from the prairies of North American covering the Dakotas, Kansas, Minnesota’s, Missouri and a dozen more States. A state may be bigger than the Philippines in land area. The American farmer who cultivates hundreds, if not thousands, of acres using airplane and railway systems, plants his wheat either before winter (the germinated seed remains dormant or overwinters), or in the spring. Thus, when we import, we specify winter or spring wheat.

Generally the spring hard wheat is preferred for making pandesal, although it is more costly. We import the premium wheat, one of the best in the world. Just to make pandesal! Sixty percent of total volume is made into pandesal. The soft type of wheat (varieties with less of the leavening substance called gluten), is made into cakes, pastries and crackers. There is also the durum wheat or pasta, which are made into macaroni or spaghetti, mainly by the PAFMI members, too. They make those ready-in-two minutes and instant noodles, pancit canton, mami, soups, etc.


 
Standing crop of wheat on a typical ricefield in the Philippines; newly threshed wheat grain. 

Now, where is my pandesal? Either it is shrinking or taking new shapes, or both. Go to the popular bakeshops, they have various versions of pandesal. Of course with different product presentation - and prices. That is why pandesal is difficult to standardize, and more difficult to socialize. Not even during the martial law days. How could it be a poor man’s breakfast? Where is the control button? Well at least, during  Arturo Tanco’s time as DA secretary, wheat importation was in the hands of the National Grains Authority, under PD 4. and the members of the PAFMI and PAFMIL got their allocations of grain to mill and sell. From the revenues of NGA, warehouses and other post harvest facilities for rice and corn farmers were put up. In short, NGA without national budget, depended on corporate source, mainly from wheat importation, subsidized the small rice and corn farmer. Thus was the golden era of the grain industry in the country.

So the wheat grain arrives here. After importation tax, the grain goes to the giant bins and mill complexes of the PAFMIL members concentrated in Metro Manila, others in Cebu and Mindanao. Total value has greatly increased to some 5 billion pesos yearly (low estimate). One can imagine the staggering figure if we include feed wheat and pollard which the PAFMIL also imports. Plus, of course, the imported corn, fish meal and soyabean meal which are important feed ingredients. Next time you eat hamburger, fried chicken or pork chop, think of food on a pie chart. What part is Filipino?


Threshing wheat by hand is similar to rice. Threshing is much easier, and wheat stalk is kinder to the hand. The hay has higher nutrient value than rice, and is easier for animals to digest. Author's son Marlo, then 5 years old, takes pride in displaying a freshly harvested wheat from a farmer's field.

Well, at least the pork in a can of pork and beans is ours. But it is not entirely. The corn comes from Thailand. It is cheaper to import corn than to cultivate it here.  Analogously, it is cheaper to import rice than grow it here. No wonder we (the government) import more than one million metric tons of rice every year – from Thailand, Vietnam, China, Pakistan and India! Why should we not grow enough rice and plant wheat, too, and have pandesal?

Pandesal is shrinking, it is getting more expensive. And this is the reason we should plant our own wheat.  As shown in earlier figures from our local wheat varieties which we planted on rice paddies before the EDSA revolution, local wheat can reduce our dependence on imported wheat. We planted Trigo 2 (for cakes and pastries) varieties which were developed by the Institute of Plant Breeding and UPLB. Farmer cooperators in the Ilocos region, Central Luzon, Southern Tagalog, and also in the Visayas and Mindanao planted for straight five years wheat on their ricefield as second crop under a packaged program initiated by DA, NFA, PCARRD and UPLB and other state universities.

Yes, we can grow wheat successfully in the Philippines. A proof other than the recent success is that during the Spanish period, farmers in Cagayan down to Batangas were growing a variety known as a Cagayan wheat. Wheat is very important to the church. We were then self-sufficient and even shipped part of our produce through the galleon. Read Frenchmen, de Gironierre’s autobiography, Half a Century in the Philippines.
  

 Interviews on Wheat 
 As a farmer, I get good average yield, as high as 3.1 MT per hectare, higher than world’s average, comparatively profitable with other cash crops after rice. I use the same tools and equipment as with irrigation, fertilization, and post harvest processes. With the government support I am assured of both market and price of my produce. I also have wheat bran and hay for my livestock, better than those of rice. And I can raise poultry and livestock.

As a consumer, locally grown wheat can be made into arroz caldo, ridgepole, wheat cakes - other than the conventional pandesal, pan de bara, pan de lemon pan de coco, cakes and pastries. Now I can eat more than the average per capita level which is 10.3 to 12 kg, because it becomes more affordable, especially so that wheat comes in various preparations, including rice-wheat mix. In this case I will have higher protein intake as high as 12 percent for whole wheat, 8 to 9 percent for regular flour. Rice has barely half protein level. I get 75 percent starch, so with rice. But I get gluten, the substance that makes wheat, and only wheat, naturally leavening. I get also high crude fiber, oil, minerals and vitamins. Now you see why a big American individual has but sandwich for lunch. Of course, what is in between the bread equally counts.

Wheat, yes, we can adopt you again on our fertile soil and under our beautiful sky and in the loving, faithful toiling hands of our farmers. Wheat, you can be part of our dining table, of our children’s baon, of our farm animals' feed, of our fiesta’s merriment, and not only in hamburger and pandesal. We love you better under a Pilipino name.~

Triticale - a cross between wheat (Triticum) and rye (Secale). Triticale was successfully grown on the Benguet in the seventies.


As a rule, triticale combines the high yield potential and good grain quality of wheat with the disease and environmental tolerance (including soil conditions) of rye. It is grown mostly for forage or fodder although some triticale-based foods can be purchased at health food stores or are to be found in some breakfast cereals, bread and other food products such as cookies, pasta, and pizza dough. The protein content is higher than that of wheat although the gluten in fraction is less. The grain has also been stated to have higher levels of lysine than wheat. As a feed grain, triticale is already well established and of high economic importance.

NOTE: Author served as national coordinator in wheat production in the Philippines, a joint program of NFA (NGA then), DA, and PCARRD under President Ferdinand Marcos' administration. He represented the Philippines in a conference, presented a paper on growing wheat in the Philippines, at the Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento del Mais y Trigo (CIMMYT), Mexico.

Dr Reynaldo A Tabbada was the youngest head of the Department of Biology, University of the Philippines, Diliman, which earned a distinct reputation of Par Excellence during his term. He was also professorial lecturer of the University of Santo Tomas Graduate School.