mb.com.ph, May 26, 2010, 2:02pm

The three-day 3rd Pinoy Organic Festival will open Friday at the AANI Herbal Garden and Livelihood Center at the Quezon Memorial Circle, Quezon City. The event will end on Suinday, May 30.

The organic fest will be participated in by organic farming practitioners, advocates from the government, academe and the private sector. Various organic products will be exhibited for sale by growers and processors of various commodities.

Sen. Miguel Zubiri, one of the principal authors of the Philippine Organic Agriculture Law, will talk on the opportunities as well as the challenges of the new law on opening day. It is expected that organic agriculture will really get a big boost as a substantial budget is allocated for the law’s implementation.

Pablito Villegas will be the master of ceremonies during the opening of the organic festival. He is a trustee of the Organic Produce Trade Association, owner of Villegas Organic Farm, and convenor for Asia of the Intercontinental Network of Organic Farmers Organization.

There will be a public forum on organic agriculture in the morning of Saturday, May 29. Among those invited as guest panelist is Rep. Proceso J. Alcala of Quezon province who is a staunch advocate of natural farming . He has been financing the training of farmers and government agriculturists from the different towns in his district on organic farming.

He has also been sponsoring organic vegetable gardening in different elementary and high schools in his district. Helping him implement the contest are Armand and Teresa Saniano of the Earthkeepers. Teresa Saniano who has written a book on natural farming will also be a speaker in the afternoon of Sunday. She will discuss Integrated Organic Rice-based Farming Systems.

In their own farm, the Sanianos have demonstrated how rice, fish and vegetables can be produced together. Because they don’t use any pesticides, tilapia and hito can thrive in the rice fields. On the dikes which are more than a meter wide, they grow vegetables as well as green manure plants.

The Quizon Farm in Antipolo City will also display live turkeys as well as processed turkey meat products. Sporting the brand Herbest Turkey Products, these include whole frozen turkey, tenderloin, breast fillet, various sausages flavored with herbvs, meatball for spaghetti, burgers, bottled lechon, adobo flakes and turkey sisig.

The exhibits, the forums and seminars are open free to the public. The event organizer, in collaboration with the Department of Agriculture, is the Agri-Aqua Network International (AANI). Pol Rubia is AANI’s vice president and operations manager.

Source: Organic agri festival opens Friday