Evolution of Faith

 Evolution of Faith

                Dr Abe V Rotor

                   Neo-Gothic church, Parañaque

Move over Baroque, once bastion of the ancient
world, evolved from the underground and grassy hut,
into mighty fort for war and worship - a kingdom,
until Gothic took its place - ah, freedom!

Soaring into Heaven, scaled not by walls or stairs
but by spires rising like swords piercing the blue sky -
until smog hid its view, and took away its purity,
no longer a rod to fear, pointing at eternity.

High rise buried Baroque and Gothic, with billboards
around; Gregorian chant turned to rock and pop,
in time passing, not by the clock but by the car,
and space a catacomb of concrete and steel bar.

Make way for the Messiah, make haste, we are told;
but who would he or she be? Of what race and tongue?
manger we no longer find, find the star by the Google chart;
does faith make any difference in science and art?

The world did not really change, but we - we did.
Creation, we're but a part - never the Creator, forbid. ~

Romanticism is alive in a Heliconia

Romanticism is alive in a Heliconia

Dr Abe V Rotor

False Bird of Paradise (Heliconia sp) growing wild in an idle lot. 

Don Jose subd., Fairview QC

False Bird of Paradise - what a queer name, 

yet you grow where you rise to fame;

being imprisoned and alone ignites a fire

to bloom and rise across a barb wire. ~  

Magnificent Balloons

Magnificent Balloons

We see happy kids in the past, no other 

than us, in sweet passing review.

Dr Abe V Rotor

Balloon peddler on Quezon Ave., MM

"Fly me to the moon (with these beautiful balloons)

and let me be among the stars,"

 a song that raised us up in dreams and adventure

around the world and Mars.

We wonder where balloons take our children now
with make-believe heroes,
creation of the computer, fast foods and malls,
leaving tradition in throes. 

But Jules Verne's Around the World story lives on,
and the Gossamer, too;
we see happy kids in the past, no other than us, 
in sweet passing review.~

Strange Images of Trees

Strange Images of Trees 

Dr Abe V Rotor 

Living with Nature - School on Blog 

Lagro QC

Whoever felled this old balete tree,

drove the deities away; 

and the spirit of the tree shall not rest,

no prayer can repay.

Mt Makiling, Laguna 

You bear the hardest wood -
ebony in deep shiny black;
your foes no less my kind
feeling and love we lack.

Tierra Pura, Tandang Sora, QC

Sunrise, sunset, the ground is alive,

lilting children under your care 

that make up for your loneliness 

in a world with so little to share. 

Masinloc, Zambales

You were once doomed by the wind,

but benevolence saved you;

by your fruits and resting limbs,

sanctuary and playground, too.  

Mt Makiling, UPLB Laguna 

Black and white makes you bold and real

of your strangler's reputation,

climbing on your host tree to the sky,

a piece of mystery of creation.

    

Burgos, La Union 

Tree house I see built on your limbs

has stolen your view on the scene, 

the breeze in your leaves hushed away,  

a living monument unseen. 

Cebu City

Embroidered leaves by the bagworm,

turning to crimson and fall;

mutual indeed is host and tenant,

nature and creatures all. 

Kaohsiung, Taiwan 

Re-encarnation - this elephant tree had been

once roaming around in band;

threatened, endangered and gone, 

what would it become the next time around? 

UST Manila 

Shadow of death I see across the lawn,

save the sun all mourning;

haunting the playground empty and quiet,

save a dead tree walking. 

Ateneo de Manila University QC

To the conscious passerby,

in the morning holy, 

in the evening scary, 

a veil to laugh or to cry.  

St Paul University QC

Young devil tree, but you aren't;

your eyes but holes to your heart;

your arm raised to praise, to call

a friend, such is nature's art.

Tagbilaran, Bohol

Saplings race to meet the sun,

lanky to posts they shall become;

sans branches but bole and round

soon fall to the ax one by one.   

Agoo, La Union 

Over laden, if all these fruits,

a burst of a lifetime -

young to die like a mother 

cut in her prime.  

UST Manila 

Living cradle to while away the time,
to catch up with many a lost sleep;
watch out, a nap gone over the clime,
 where time and opportunity slip. 

AdMU QC

Pendants you wear in the night, 
blinking with the chilly air,
bring tidings beyond your shade,
to far places poor and fair. 

When in bloom golden, only for a day or two;

confetti follows where the bees have gone, 

in every flower is born a new life, the embryo,

seed to a tree in another place and time.   ~

*Lesson Former Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid with Ms Melly C Tenorio, 
738 DZRB AM Band, 8 to 9 evening class, Monday to Friday

The Little Girl under a Tree

The Little Girl under a Tree 

Dr Abe V Rotor

Sketch by the author, ca  2008

A little of Heidi, the orphan girl of Spyri;

a little of The Railway Children of Nesbit; 

a little of A Little Princess of  Burnett;    

a little of Bernadette, the girl of Lourdes;

a little of a Nazi victim, Anne Frank; 

a little of Buko Haram's hostaged girls;

a little of the Isis innocent victims;  

a little of Malala Yousafzai, the courageous; 

a little concern of the sea of humanity  

 for the little girl under a tree. ~ 

Test the power of your third eye and eighth sense of naturalism.

Test the power of your third eye 

and eighth sense of naturalism. 

Can you identify these enigmatic creatures?  

Dr Abe V Rotor

I cling to the leaves on the nether side,

gnawing on its edible part, a parchment I create

to make a shingle out of it which I carry on my back, 

then transfer nearby for the next meal,

and another shingle, until I look like a pagoda 

sans base, moving from place to place, growing,

then I stop and rest; I remain in stupor.

then metamorphose, leaving my domain - 

I am male and I have wings to find a mate;

the female is wingless, she waits for a mate

at her door, lucky for me - for a brief romance,

then she withdraws into her temple

now a maternal nest, and our life cycle is complete.  

What am I?  

   

Obnoxious I look and smell no one dares to get near,

much less to pick me neither by beak nor tongue,   

for my enemies are few, so my friends - if I know;

you see, if you are ugly and dirty no one bothers you,

like anyone else not excluding some humans;

but in my case Nature designed me this way, 

and she thinks I'm beautiful, to me it is a gift of life;

surviving a cruel world.  I rest now and someday

I'll metamorphose into something beautiful 

in the eyes of humans, so beautiful and dainty

no one will ever ask what I was before.

What am I? 

Answers: Cryptothelea heckmeyeri Heyl (pagoda bagworm), will metamorphose into a moth; Papilio alphenor caterpillar on citrus leaves, will metamorphose into a butterfly.  Both belong to Order Lepidoptera.

A Place by the Sea

This is the place I used to know,

Part of my childhood, part of me.

Dr Abe V Rotor 

Sunken Pier, South China Sea, Sto Domingo Ilocos Sur

That was a long, long time ago
In a place by the western sea,
Hidden by feathery bamboo,
Thickets of wild kakawate
And the old resilient maguey.

I used to ride a wooden cart
Creaking on the dry stream bed,
Until I reached where two roads part
One leading to a homestead
From where came our daily bread.

This is the place I used to know,
Part of my childhood, part of me,
Where seasons come and seasons go;
Early dream of a destiny -
A beautiful life by the sea.

Faces I knew, old friends now gone,
Stare the young at someone new;
Big trees that used to shade the sun,
Houses I remember are few,
All makes an unfamiliar view.

Old Rip van Winkle I’m today,
Longer did I sleep than he;
And too long I had failed to pay
Respect to this land by the sea,
And the treaty of time and me. ~

Doves Flying at Sunrise

Doves Flying at Sunrise
Mural and Verse by Abe V Rotor
Doves Flying at Sunrise (2000 to 2007). There is a feeling of ascendancy in this painting. The diagonal perspective enhances such movement, while splashes of light heightens daybreak. The rough sea and dark foreground give contrast to the painting. The hideous presence of large reptiles creates enigma as to what the artist wanted to imply. Mystery in art is an important element. (Wall Mural SPU-QC, 2007-2010. NOTE: Mural had to gave way to landscaping.)

Take me from this world a moment 
to a mural to be with You in this holy event;

From your seat to down below I see 
my friends, my enemies - and me.

Where have all the salmon gone? We might as well ask now.

Genetically Modified salmon could escape from farms and irreversibly destroy wild salmon populations and ultimately the ecosystem. 

So with GMO rice and other crops, GMO animals - they will irreversibly destroy natural gene pools and ultimately the integrity of environmental balance, the key to sustainability. 
 mourn for the inevitable fate of the beloved wild salmon

 Dr Abe V Rotor
 
David and Goliath, native and GM types in the wild, won't end up with the biblical ending; the smaller salmon won't stand any chance in competing for food, territory and mate, in fact in all aspects of competition in nature. 

Sockeyed salmon on the run to spawn upstream.

GM salmons will consume more - preys and other food sources - to mature earlier and bigger, armed with planned voraciousness, unwittingly limiting supply for their native counterparts, thinning the latter's population.

It is not just simple one-on-one competition; it is overall and interconnected displacement of members in the food chain, cutting links; worse, the food web is disrupted as chains are disturbed, destroying the integrity of the food web, and may collapse pulling down the local ecosystem.

Why the change in feeding habits? GM salmon carries genetic materials of two unrelated species of fish with different eating habits rolled into one - a heretofore salmon feeding, eating almost anything, small and big, live or dead, freely or covertly or savagely, often in quantities more than it needs called luxury feeding, a laboratory induced characteristic to gain Goliath size in a short time.

GM salmon invade and dominate, native salmon population narrows down, soon the overall biological diversity of streams and rivers and lakes, in fact even the ocean since salmons travel far and wide into the open sea before returning to their place of birth - exacerbated by unabated pollution, infrastructures like dam impeding free movement, over and illegal fishing notwithstanding.

Why GM salmon in the first place? Short term economic advantage to feed an exploding human population and meet virtually endless affluent living. Corporate dominance, cartel in the supply GM stock and methodology of production, making GM salmon growers down the line, captive of the "package" they themselves cannot provide except to grow the fish commercially.

Through corporate linkage with the exclusive supplier can GM producers operate, in the like of Bt Corn which is unprofitable to plant the F2 harvest in the hands of the farmer; the GM female salmon is made sterile, in the same way hybrid seeds carry suicide gene, and that hybrid vigor declines in the succeeding generations, an ethico-moral issue worldwide, on patenting life and depriving the small man of his right and need. 

Fishing as sport loses its essence, it is like fishing in a fishpond. The thrill dies with the GM salmon et al. In the first place, has the GM salmon lost its homing instinct? Would it rather join its half-brother eel fish living freely in the ocean? Or would the GM salmon rather stay put in its borrowed spawning ground - rivers and lakes? How about the GM-contaminated wild type, now a GM-native hybrid. Has it lost its homing instinct, or its adventurous lifestyle?

How fast will GM contamination spoil natural salmon gene pools; the answer is disturbing as egg fertilization occurs in open water, where the GM sperm fertilizes the native salmon egg, by the millions, nay billions, and here the GM female produces only sterile eggs; which means a single GM salmon male can spoil a whole stream in a short time of GM2 degenerate salmon, like BtCorn polluting whole fields of corn sans its intended resistance - both cases sowing fear, in reality and uncertainty, as to the consequences on humans and the environment.  

It might be the Waterloo of the natural salmon - symbol of pride, culture and values, barometer of pristine environment, doyen of Ichthyology, iconic specimen of natural history; I fear and lament, it might be gone forever, because genetic pollution is permanent, and that it spreads out indefinitely to contaminate the last member of the genetically related species. 

Community fishing, a favorite Canadian sport; lodging house for guests in Lac Du Bonnet where the author spent weekends fishing. 

Many a weekend I spent fishing in Lac Du Bonnet, Winnipeg River and Red River in pre-GMO era, when the adventure of youth was free of threats of modern technology, but today, in postmodern era, I can only go back to cherish sweet memories in archive - and holding hope for the brighter side of Homo sapiens to examine sustainability for the sake of future generations and our living world. ~  

Salmon farming in floating cages and fish pens. Acknowledgement: Internet photos

A First for Fish: Genetically Modified Salmon 
Reprint by Catherine Zuckerman
National Geographic, January 2015

Love them or hate them, genetically modified foods are making their way into grocery stores. 

Soybeans and corn have been for sale in the US since the 1990s.  Now if the FDA gives the green light, the first GM animal, a farmed fish known as AquAdvantage salmon, could one day join the ranks.

Developed by Canadian scientists, the fish (photo) is an Atlantic salmon with two tweaks  of its DNA: a growth-hormone gene from the large king salmon and genetic material from the eel-like ocean pout, to keep that growth hormone activated.  The fish which is female and sterile, should reach maximum size quickly in the land-based tanks where it could be raised. 

To keep feed a hungry planet, the GM technology could be used in other species, says spokesman Dave Conley: "Many of the benefits have been downplayed or ignored."

Still, the company was fined for environmental violations, and critics worry the fish could escape into the wild and create new problems.  The FDA has yet to approve it for human consumption.  If allowed, says Ocean Conservancy chief scientist George H Leonard, "it's imperative to be labelled, so consumers can vote with their wallet." 

AquaBounty salmon is the first genetically modified food animal to be approved for sale in Canada. (AquaBounty)

Nature's Early Warning - 12 Signs ^

Nature's Early Warning - 12 Signs

Cicada sings for rain.  Fruit laden kapok means poor harvest.  When earthworms crawl out of their holes, 

a flood is coming.  Are these true?

Dr. Abe V. Rotor

1. Animals can predict earthquake

Horses, reptiles, fowls and other animals perceive the minute tremors preceding a major shock. In explaining the principle of a tectonic earthquake, imagine a stick bent slowly to form an arch. As pressure continues to build up, minute fibers and strands begin to snap (tremors) until the stick suddenly breaks into two (shock). Our senses are not as sensitive as those of animals in perceiving such initial signal.

2. Dragonflies hover before a rain.

High relative humidity accompanies warm weather. Small insects are disturbed in their natural habitats and feeding. With their sensitive antennae they pick up the signal, which tells them to pack up and leave. Rain is usually preceded with high humidity and air temperature. This steamy condition progressively builds up into rain, and as the process continues, the ancient gene in these insects begins to work, as it has always been with their ancestors thousands, if not millions of years ago. Thus midges, hoppers, gnats, flies, and other insects flee to safer grounds on the instruction of this gene. It is during this mass evacuation that hordes of low flying dragonflies have their fill, snatching helpless preys in mid-air.

3. Fruit laden kapok means poor harvest

When you see plenty of dangling pods of cotton tree or kapok (Ceiba pentandra L), expect poor rice harvest. Kapok is sensitive to water stress. It does not have deep penetrating roots. Instead it has large spreading roots that depend largely on shallow water source. To compensate for lack of water in summer, the tree stores a lot water in its fleshy trunk and branches like how cactus does while water supply lasts. When the stored water is not sufficient to tide up with the long, hot summer months, a triggering mechanism controlled by hormone stimulates the tree’s physiology. The plant bears flowers and ultimately fruits and seeds, a trait universal to any organism facing stress. This is the key to the perpetuation of the species. In short, Nature has provided a means with which an organism’s ultimate biological function to reproduce is carried on. And the more progeny it produces the more is the chance of the species to continue on.

Stress stimulates reproduction. Wounding (cutting the bark, staggered and at close intervals with bolo) the trunk of a mango that refuses to bear fruits, stimulates it to flower. This is true with other orchard trees. Pruning follows the same principle. Botanists explain the phenomenon this way. “Food”, which is otherwise used for vegetative growth will now be diverted to the development of flowers and fruits. But geneticists have a further explanation. Again, a gene that controls this balance responds favorably to saving the species – even with the risk that the parent may die. In many cases this is also true in the animal kingdom, and among protists.

4. When earthworms crawl out of their holes, a flood is coming.

It was early morning at Kenting Park in southern Taiwan, my student and thesis advisee, Anthony Cheng, and I saw earthworms, bigger than the size of pencil crawling away from their burrows. He looked up the sky. “Is it going to rain?” I asked, noting the heavy overcast. “No, but we haven’t the monsoon yet.” It was already August.

By the way, earthworms are subterranean, eating on decomposing leaves, and converting them into humus, a very rich soil, called casting. That is why farmers and gardeners call the earthworm as Nature’s fertilizer factory. Tons and tons of castings are brought out from their burrows and deposited on the ground in small mounds.

Why do earthworms abandon their burrows before an impending heavy rain or flood? Earthworms drown when water fill their burrows, so that their recourse is to move out to higher grounds. Nature has equipped them with sensitive hairs around their body connected with a neural system that guides them find rich deposits of organic matter and water. In summer earthworms penetrate deep and wide. Then in monsoon as ground water rises, they burrow in higher areas, this time to keep away from too much water. Making use of this evolutionary tool - a kind of Noah’s sixth sense, so to speak - earthworms avoid getting entombed in their very burrows.

5. Swarming of winged termites confirms the rainy season (habagat) has finally arrived.

They come by the armies, careless and suicidal, attracted by light and ending in a basin of water. That is how we catch gamu-gamu, or simut-simut in Ilocano, which we feed to chicken, or sauté into a rare delicacy. Where did the swarm come from? And why only at a specific time of the year?

Termites belong to a very ancient Order of insects, Isoptera, which means “same wings”. Yet when we examine termites after digging their nest called anthill (punso’), we find them wingless, naked, and small, except their large heads, and mandibles especially in the case of the soldiers. In the royal chamber lies a queen, enormously large, the size of the index finger. Her job throughout her long life is to lay thousands of eggs everyday and keep the colony intact through a scent she produces called pheromone.

It is the end of summer. After the first heavy rain usually in May, the anthill becomes extraordinarily busy. Inside, the once sterile males and females – formerly soldiers and workers - awaken to the dictates of hormones. They develop strong wings, and with their bodies filled up with fats, they are ready for the once-in-a-lifetime adventure - swarming. The nocturnal swarm soon takes place, and moves as one huge army guided by light – celestial or neon – before it splits into congregans, allowing intermingling with members from other anthills. Now the much-awaited nuptial flight begins. For hours the winged termites circle around lights, very much like the proverbial moth in Rizal’s writings. In the process, individuals, which survive the frenzy and onslaught by predators, find their mates, move together to a potential place, and finding it suitable to start a new colony, soon lose their wings. Here they live together for a very long time. Termites are the longest living insects, surpassing the life of the 17-year old locust or cicada.

6. May or June Beetle heralds the coming of the rainy season.

We call it salagubang, scientifically Leucopholis irrorata, a destructive pest of many field crops. Its larva, a white grub, which feeds on roots, remains in the ground until the first strong rain comes. Then it comes out as beetle. If the monsoon is early they come out in May, otherwise they are seen coming out in June.

But this year I have noticed that the emergence of this beetle was as early as in April. Why is this so? It is because of the unusual rainfall pattern this year. Practically there was no summer as you have probably experienced. It means then that the insect responds to meteorological signals that govern its biological clock. How this phenomenon works is not well understood, but definitely, it is a product of a long evolutionary process that enabled the species to survive up to this day.

Co-evolution with plants on which it thrives in both larval and adult stages gradually developed through time into a dynamic pattern, that while the host plants are at the receiving end, the insect’s feeding habit and life cycle are attuned to a tolerable level. Thus we usually find the insect in areas where this natural relationship exists. If you find the salagubang, and its relative, the salaguinto, in May, farmers are likely to start plowing their fields soon. Farmers are glad to see the beetle come out in May, or as early as April. It is because they can plant earlier which allows for a second crop of vegetables or legumes – or another rice crop.

7. Cicada sings for rain.

When you hear the shrilling song of cicada (kuliglig), it means the rains have finally arrived. From here we expect the rains to intensify throughout the southeast monsoon or habagat then tapers off in October. The cicada spends its immature or nymph stage in the ground feeding on roots of plants. There are species that complete their life cycle in one year (annual cicada which is most common), two years, and seventeen years (often called seventeen-year old locust). Whatever is the species, the emergence of cicada is at the onset of the rainy season, usually in April or May in most part of the country.

Rain softens the soil and signals the full-grown nymph to get out of its cell. It then climbs to the nearest tree and at some distance from the ground, it metamorphoses into an adult. It is the male cicada that “sings”, which is actually a continuous rapid high-pitched sound - tick-tack-tick-tack… produced by a pair of drums attached on its abdomen. Imagine the lid of a tin can pressed and released in rapid succession. On the other hand, the female cicada is totally mute and her response to a get near a Romeo whose song pleases her.

 8. Cockroaches come out of their abode and seek for shelter means that a strong rain, if not a typhoon, is coming. 

The biological clock of these creatures responds to invisible signals, which comprise decreased atmospheric pressure, high relative humidity and air temperature. Their sensitive antennae and tactile hairs covering their body pick these up these changes of the environment. Thus we find ants in exodus, they move as a colony carrying their eggs and young indoors. Cockroaches become unusually active, flying about in frenzy, in search for a new place. There is a common message, that is, to escape to safer ground, an archetype ingrained in their genes passed on to them by their ancestors through evolution.

9. Mosquitoes bite more aggressively before rain.

True. Like any organism preparing for reproduction, the female mosquito must be able to obtain blood to enhance egg fertility. Failure to do so may cause eggs to become sterile, a finding which can be applied in controlling this ferocious vampire which has caused human death more than all casualties of wars combined. Note: Only the female mosquito feeds on blood, the male depends on plant sap and exudates.

10. The kingfisher (salaksak) is an emissary of death.

The kingfisher’s throaty voice is a call of death, so the old folks say. Well, when ponds and rivers dry up because of drought, this fish eater will scour for alternative food outside its niche, poaching around farms and homes.

12. When the leaves of Samanea acacia fold it’s time to go home - before it gets dark.

It is time to fetch the carabao from the pasture and to start walking home before it gets dark. The fowls prepare to roast in their tree abode. The stew leaves a trail, as the western sky dims in the setting sun. By now the leaves of acacia (Samanea saman) have completely folded toward each other at the midrib, and the base of the midrib itself is bent on its attachment. This is also true with the leaves of sampaloc, ipil-ipil, kakawate - and more so with makahiya.

These plants, among others, belong to the legume family and are equipped with a special organ – pulvinus – that controls the erection and folding of the leaves. The principle is like a balloon. When turgid the leaves are erect; when flaccid, the leaves fold. The pulvinus is controlled by osmosis, that is, the intake and release of water in the cells.

Reference of time among old folks is built through observation of the natural environment and a lifestyle where the amenities of modern living are absent. This triggers our biological clock, and while it may not be accurate, brings people to a natural sense of time and quaint living.

Nature’s mysterious ways are discreet and take place when all is still and quiet. But anyone of us who stirs to the nuptial flight of winged termites and ants, to the restlessness of catfish before an impending earthquake, the dangling of numerous pods of kapok which signals the coming of El Nino, earthworms abandoning their underground homes to escape flood, the emergence of “April beetle”, - is indeed endowed with a special intelligence – naturalism. If however, no bird sings when the spring has come, either we have slept too long, or we have failed to prepare for its coming.

Acknowledgement: Internet photos, except that of kapok tree. ~

Early Agricultural and Industrial Artifacts

Early Agricultural and Industrial Artifacts 
In recognition of the role of the Grains Museum of the National Food Authority, Cabanatuan City

Dr Abe V Rotor

   

This artifact is an indigenous pinawa (brown rice) hand mill. Grains Museum, Cabanatuan City. (AVR Photo)

Wooden sugarcane crusher, drawn by carabao on a circular path. The cane is fed between the rollers and repeated to extract the most juice which accumulate in a receptacle, usually an earthen jar or burnay.  The juice is cooked in large kettles and made into basi wine, vinegar, or directly cooked until it become red sugar, either powdered or in blocks. The wooden roller has been replaced by mechanized iron crushers.  (AVR Photo)  
  

Sleds for transport on rice paddy made of wood and bamboo; native hats and raincoats made of leaves of anahaw and buri palms. (Grains Museum, NFA Cabanatuan City) AVR Photo

Multi-purpose stone grinder for coffee, grain and bean, a universal tool on the farm and home, also for local industries, which is still used today in remote places, and in preserving ethnicity. (Internet photo).

Primitive tools and equipment as early as in prehistoric times. These have evolved into the scythes, mallet and stone grinder we may be familiar with. {Internet photo)

 Regional designs of palay hand harvester or rakem, (Ilk); headgear for the farm made of woven bamboo.  

 Multipurpose bullcart of a travelling merchant of native merchandise for the farm and home, Philippine version of the gypsy in medieval Europe. 

 

 Farming the terraces in the Cordillera still depends of native methods and tools.

 Traditional way of stripping fibers of abaca is still a common practice in Bicol and other abaca producing provinces.

Indigo Vats

Fermenting tanks in the manufacture of añil or azul during the Spanish era. The product is derived from a plant, indigo (Indigofera tinctoria) which was extensively cultivated in the Ilocos Region.  Añil was exported to Europe through the Galleon Trade which operated for two centuries (17th and 17th century). San Vicente, Ilocos Sur. (AVR Photo) 

------------------------

"When the Nobel Peace Prize Committee designated me the recipient of the 1970 award for my contribution to the 'green revolution,' they were in effect, I believe, selecting an individual to symbolize the vital role of agriculture and food production in a world that is hungry, both for bread and for peace."  - Norman Borlaug