Mindanao Farmers Start Off the Year with Natural Farming Systems Technology

The vast inputs and numerous chemicals that go into industrial agriculture pose a threat to food security, poisoning the land and leaving small-scale farmers disenfranchised. The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Philippines recognizes these truths, and works hard with its rural farmers to pursue organic, all-natural ways to provide food for all.

Our farmers in Mindanao started the year right as advocates of sustainability and organic farming. Come see what they’ve been up to, and how the Sustainable Farm to Table program has helped change their lives.

The full article can be accessed here.

These Sack Gardens Are Reshaping How We Think About Farming

When you think of farming, you think of vast stretches of farmland, with row after row of crop growing side-by-side for whole acres. Such vast plots come with high demands of and, and for your average city-goer, such a resource might not be available.

This little low-tech innovation might just change all that.

In a future of food insecurity, where ever larger populations live in ever-growing cities or on smaller and smaller plots of land, agricultural innovations may be just the thing we need to make sure everyone has enough to eat. Come and see how these sack gardens are reshaping the way we think about farming.

Read more about these sack gardens here.

The Night Fishermen of the Philippines

Midway through July of 2019 I took to the seas of Lagonoy Gulf, Bicol, with fishermen Joel Bongkingki and Edgardo de Vera. I’d prepared for a two-to-three hour trip at the cusp of sunset, so of course I was surprised to learn that we’d be out fishing from six in the evening right until the sun rose the next day at seven.

Through brisk breeze and biting cold I sat on the deck of a boat good for two (we were three) with not a single inch of talent for fishing in my entire body. I sat, wrapped up in a heavy jacket and a fleece hat, as these two seasoned sailors toiled through the moonless, starry night. As they worked they told me about the difficulties of life at sea and the dangers they now face in a world whose fisheries are in decline.

The two of them were proud, proud – but weary. I can only hope that my words and pictures do justice to their work.

Read the full story, The Night Fishermen of the Philippines, here.

Farming is Life

In rural communities across the country, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Philippines promotes small-scale agriculture in the name of conservation. From farm to table, seed to serving plate, WWF-Philippines has helped farmers take back the market with clean, green, local produce. As these communities slough off the dual chains of poverty and food insecurity, they take their futures into their own hands as stewards of good nutrition and environmental protection.

Man is as much a part of nature as all other living things. Protecting the environment means caring for the needs of the smallest human communities as well.

Learn more about the Sustainable Farm to Table project here.