Organic vs reality

 

we are involved in the organic food industry here in the Philippines and this is correct.

But when other countries can produce rice cheaper using chemicals and three crops a year, we have filled the niche with gourmet organic food for the middle class

The problem? The government subsidizes this type of farming while ordinary farmers can't make a living so are selling their fields to the nearby solar farm organization, or (worse) digging up under the topsoil to pan for gold.

The farmers got their land where they worked for others including our family with land reform, but their kids are now educated and don't want to work hard and stay poor.

Since it is limited by law on how much land a single person can own, it means no big agri company is buying up the farm to plant using modern technology and displacing the small farmers to grow high yield crops for a profit.

and there is actually a shortage of farm workers: Many of our fields are farmed by people from Joy's village in the Visayas, for example. 

And many farm fields are being sold to people from Manila for second homes, or to Balikbayan, overseas workers who have returned home and want to live outside the cities and hire peple to work the farm land they have invested in for retirement income.

So although we support organic farming, the dirty little secret is that Clarkson is right: It is more expensive and lower yield. And indeed, a country that imposed organic farming on their farmers resulted in an economic crisis and famine.

future of farming?

 I can't find a link, but in season five episode 3 of Clarkson's farm is about the supermechines and high tech farming of the future.

When I fist visited the Philippines, the planting was with waterbuffalo and our staff took off to harvest their fields by hand. We supplied a small thresher to separate the seed from the stem, so that was a help.

But slowly the farmers who now own what was once Lolo's farthers farm, were gifted it by land reform, are now getting older and their kids don't want to work. So they are selling the land to returning overseas workers who rent it out to tenant farmer, often from poorer areas of the Philippines. And now many have sold or rented their fields to the company putting up a huge solar farm in our area.

Over the years, the water buffalo were replaced by handthreshers ((a small roto tiller) and in more recent years, we rent a huge harvester thresher to bring in the crop. We still plant by hand but give it some time and there are machines that do that.

We are organic, and with fertilizer prices going up (first the Ukraine war stopped potash exports and now the increased price of diesel and petroleum based fertilizer) the price of organic fertilizer, mainly from the local chicken and pig farms, is also going up.

So how do we make a profit? We barely make one: and it was made worse when one of the rice buyers absconded after buying it with a check that bounceed.

Sigh.

So yes we are still growing rice in our area, but what is also going on is looking for gold in the subsoil. Not much gold there, but hey when farmers earn less than ten dollars a day, every little bit helps.

I am not sure how many rice paddies are now no longer growing rice, but you have to remember that the Philippines imports food. Of course, the rich businessmen make oodles of money importing cheap rice so they benefit. This keeps the price of rice low which is good for the poor and working class in the cities, but is discouraging for local farmers.

So although I doubt we will ever go as mechanical as the European farm machines shown to Mr Clarkson, what worries me is that their prices will be another blow to local farmers. This happened a few years ago, when cheap imported onions from Europe undercut local farmers prices.

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update;

article about the farm they visited:

In episode three, Jeremy Clarkson and his team cross the border into the Netherlands and Belgium. There, they visit Rotterdam, among other places, where they take a look at the futuristic Floating Farm. A floating farm, in other words. We see Clarkson look skeptical at first, and then become amazed by technology he doesn't actually believe in.

can this increase rice yields?

 mainly a link to the article so I can read it later.

From Science Daily:

the rice of the green revolution requires lots and lots of fertilizer but the crops only utilize part of what is used. Could microdoses of Selenium increase the utilization of nitrogen and allow less fertilizer to be used?

professors of environmental processes and pollution control at Jiangnan University discovered, is that nanoscale selenium, an element crucial for plant and human health, when applied to the foliage and stems of the rice, reduced the negative environmental impacts of nitrogen fertilization by 41% and increased the economic benefits by 38.2% per ton of rice, relative to conventional practices.,,

Selenium stimulates the plant's photosynthesis, which increased by more than 40%. Increased photosynthesis means the plant absorbs more CO2, which it then turns into carbohydrates. Those carbohydrates flow down into the plant's roots, which causes them to grow.

Bigger, healthier roots release a host of organic compounds that cultivate beneficial microbes in the soil, and it's these microbes that then work symbiotically with the rice roots to pull more nitrogen and ammonium out of the soil and into the plant, increasing its NUE from 30 to 48.3%, decreasing the amount of nitrous oxide and ammonia release to the atmosphere by 18.8-45.6%.

 

With more nutrients coming in, the rice itself produces a higher yield, with a more nutritious grain: levels of protein, certain critical amino acids, and selenium also jumped. On top of all of this, Xing, Wang and their colleagues found that their nano-selenium applications allowed farmers to reduce their nitrogen applications by 30%.

Since rice cultivation accounts for 15-20% of the global nitrogen use, this new technique holds real promise for helping to meet the triple threat of growing population, climate change, and the rising economic and environmental costs of agriculture.

not my area of expertise: I will have to ask Kuya about this, since he is the plant expert of our rice business. 

podcast of the week

his interviews are about grass roots questions:

.....

and this interview is from a reporter who used to write for the Pittsburgh press so she knows Pennsylvania working class:

RICE: let's hear it for the drones

 we grow organic brown rice, which is healthier, but more expensive since a lot of the weeding by hand (instead of using herbicides) and other methods cost more.

But what about the poor who live in cities?

the dirty little secret is that you need cheap rice or other foods (often grown with chemical herbicides and fertilizers) to keep the price down. 

A lot of NGOs pushed organic ideas on Africa, and even influenced countries like Zimbabwe to refuse cheap American grain during their famine because it might contain GM or other modern changes, so the excuse was they were worried about the health of their people: The people of course were dying of infectious diseases because they were malnourished, but never mind. The green ideas in the NGOs and even those associated with churches (yes I am talking to you Pope Francis) triumphed over the need to feed the poor.

but the good news is that China doesn't worry about people getting diabetes or cancer at age 55: They remember starvation is always a danger and are willing to grow hefty crops using modern techniques.

And luckily for Africa, China is there buying farm land and encouraging farmers in these countries to learn how  to grow abundant food to prevent famine.

introducing hybrid rice and modern techniques to increase the yield: including the use of drones to apply pesticides.

Hmmm... we don't use drones yet on our fields, but the IRRI is introducing drone technology here in the Philippines.

Drones serve various agricultural purposes, including irrigation planning, crop health monitoring, damage assessment, soil health analysis, and fertilizer and pesticide application

Right now, this is done by walking through the fields and analyzing if additional minerals or fertilizer is needed. 

and walking through the fields monitoring the crop if problems occur during the rice growing season: weeds, blight, insect infestation, etc.

We still have small farmers with small rice crops, but as the farmers age and sell their land (because their kids prefer other easier jobs) then mechanized farming will start, so that is where the drones come in.

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and of course drones can apply  pesticides, herbicides, fertilizer, etc. to fields at a lower price than a farmer doing it by hand.

Increased efficiency and speed, reducing manual labor Precise application, leading to reduced waste and damage to crops Accessibility to difficult or remote terrain Ability to cover larger areas in a shorter period of time Real-time monitoring and data collection for better decision making.

 

nutrition diseases in history

 Beriberi killed many. Blame white polished rice.

the cheap imported rice was polished, so the poor who ate it often suffered from it here in Manila, especially leading to infant mortality NEJM 1913.

we sell organic brown rice, but the way 

the Philippines stopped the BeriBeri epidemic of the early 1900s was because a Pharmacist recognized the problem and found a cure: :

Going bananas

 Bananas grow here in the Philippines and we have several banana trees in our garden. One tree next to our wall had a big bunch almost ripe, and sure enough someone harvested it last night. Oh well.

Archeology magazine article on the history of fruit note that the banana was first domesticated in New Guinea.

from the History Guy:

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UCSC article here:

From New Guinea, the Kuk domesticated variety appears to have spread to the Philippines, and then radiated widely across the tropics. Researchers find it difficult to trace the diffusion of the banana after its arrival in the Philippine islands, and in many cases, it appears the banana was introduced into areas only to be reintroduced, and in a sense, rediscovered, hundreds or thousands of years later.

Adding to the confusing tangle of banana proliferation is the parallel development of hybrid fruits.

Human ingenuity manipulated the seedless, and thus asexual, forms of domesticated bananas into hybrids by careful techniques of culling and planting that fused and refined different domesticated varieties.  hey are usually spread via plants. The bad news: it makes them more vulnerable to various blights/diseases. 

Treehugger has an article on why the Cavandish banana replaced the Gros Michel version most commonly eaten in the USA in the 1950s.

the plantain’s major importance as a crop during the ancient and early modern world, whether on large-scale or small-scale farms, was a major staple for local consumption. Even in the case of Japanese production, where banana plants were cultivated for use in textiles and not as a foodstuff, the banana was grown for local markets. By the 1800s, and especially into the early twentieth century, shifts in modes of production and consumption moved the banana from a local to a global commodity.

 of course, in many countries the non sweet version are eaten. Healthline discusses the difference between these non sweet varieties, called Plantains, and what we call bananas.

and yes, banana plants are used in traditional Filipino textiles.

Banana textiles? Yup.

Yum: MSG (or let's hear it for seaweed)

MSG is a flavor enhancer: so where did it come from? Seaweed...

from Wikipedia:

MSG is found naturally in some foods including tomatoes and cheese in this glutamic acid form. MSG is used in cooking as a flavor enhancer with a savory taste that intensifies the umami flavor of food, as naturally occurring glutamate does in foods such as stews and meat soups.  MSG was first prepared in 1908 by Japanese biochemist Kikunae Ikeda, who tried to isolate and duplicate the savory taste of kombu, an edible seaweed used as a broth (dashi) for Japanese cuisine.

MSG balances, blends, and rounds the perception of other tastes.

awhile back, there was a bit of hysteria about "Chinese Restaurant syndrome", which is dizzyness and headache occurred after eating Chinese food that contains MSG as a flavor enhancer.

which is now seen as a racist term of course.

The etymology is traced to a 1968 letter that appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine claiming that Chinese food brought forth ailments. The letter was uncovered to be a hoax, but the myth remains. The US Food and Drug Administration has long approved MSG for consumption, and studies have failed to show that the chemical causes the alleged "syndrome".

the chemical is found in a lot of foods and the letter that started the hysteria was probably a hoax or joke.

but MSG as an additive is now commonly used in western foods too.

This fermented MSG is now used to flavor lots of different foods like stews or chicken stock. It’s so widely used because it taps into our fifth basic taste: umami (pronounced oo-maa-mee). Umami is less well known than the other tastes like saltiness or sweetness, but it’s everywhere – it’s the complex, savory taste you find in mushrooms or Parmesan cheese.

It makes food taste better, and is widely used all over Asia as Mikey Bustos notes:

stories below the fold

there is a saying Only Nixon can go to China 

So only Trumpieboy can make nice with the ex terrorists who are running Syria (and maybe make peace in exchange for a Trump Tower?

Devloping..

I will say this:

For all my criticisms of Trump this week, if there is ONE man who can somehow make Syria change from a pariah regime to a functioning country, it's him.

I really want to be hopeful this is the start of something new. Not holding my breath, but still. pic.twitter.com/CntE37uDIj

— 𝗡𝗶𝗼𝗵 𝗕𝗲𝗿𝗴 ♛ ✡︎ (@NiohBerg) May 14, 2025

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RFK Jr wants to ban herbicides, which some think are associated with health problems.

The problem? herbicides increase the ability to grow cheap abundant food... so if this is done, the result will not be just healthier food but starvation of people who can't afford to buy food.

We grow organic rice, so my idea is to encourage organic food for the growing middle class, while allowing cheap chemical grown food for the poor people who prefer to take the risk of disease at age 70 than dying of infection from malnutirtion at age 30 or their kids dying at age three.

This is what we do in the Philippines, where the government encourages organic farming but allows the import of cheap rice to keep the price down (subsidized rice for the poor is 20 peso/kg, but regular rice is 60 peso/kg).

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Lots of stuff out there saying there is a link between "the vaccine" and infertility.

But my question: Is this only with the mRNA vaccines? The vaccines that used older technologies like the AZ and Sputnik vaccine? How about the Sinovax (that didn't work very well) that used traditional vaccine techology?

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Trumpieboy allowing the white South African farmers to enter the USA as refugees is being spun in many ways.

However, the Zulus who run that government entered South Africa about the same time as the ancestors of the Boers. And as Zimbabwe showed, the result will be economic collapse.

Not mentioned: Is this revenge against the Boers, or are they going to revenge against the other white tribe (i.e. those who entered the country in the last 150 years from the UK)? How about revenge against the descendents of the Indian immigrants who run most of the low end stores etc? What about against the non Zulu Tribes?

I have an African blog so will probably look into this later today.

However, by making the Boer refugees legal, it is showing the racism of both sides of the immigration kerfuffle. 

If the Boers are in danger, well, so are the Haitians and Afghans and Somalis (but not the Venezuelans, who can flee to other countries nearby like Brazil and Colombia). 

But when the refugee loving NGOs refuse to help resettle them it shows their prejudice too.

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are all vote counting machines problematic? The Philippines got rid of their Smartmatic machines due to problems but now are having problems with the Korean built Miru machines.

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The same reporters who insisted that Biden had no mental deterioration are now selling books about how they were fooled by his staff. DUH.

the irony? If Biden had said he would not run for reelection, there would have been a primary held to chose the next candidate, and Kamela Harris (or maybe Hillary) might have gotten the nomination and then won the election.

Sigh.

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the tariff war with China is a big story but since I have no expertise I will just leave the discussion to others.

The outcome of the tariff war between the U.S. and China, I agree, will define this era. That means we had better win it. https://t.co/9dSUpe7rMD

— Gordon G. Chang (@GordonGChang) May 14, 2025

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How to grow rice: It ain't easy

 we are rice farmers, but a lot of the rice land, including the terraces in the mountains, were built slowly, with irrigation and enriching the soil with weed debris, ash from burning, etc.

Science has an article on how Indonesia's attempt to make huge areas of former swamps and forests into productive rice land may be doomed.

the problem seems to be that these soils are thin and acidic.

this can be treated but much of the rice land in use has been lovingly improved over hundreds of years by irrigation, weed control, manure and rotting organic matter for fertilizer, and sometimes adding minerals like lime to sweeten the soil

IRRI book on soil problems for you to download.

it instructs about caring for the soil in a way to limit chemicals and discusses the wet /dry method of growing rice.

one way to improve acidic soil is to use lime in the fertilizer.

but opening new areas for rice cultivation requires soil analysis and working with local farmers on the best way to improve the soil. You need to find a type of rice that will grow with the climate, and you need to decide if you want wet or dry or wet/dry method of irrigation. And of course, you need the government to dig you irrigation canals, and government assistance to keep you going in the bad years: because it may take years until the fields are evolved from brush into productive land.

China did this two thousand years ago, so it's not impossible.

when I read Science article I interpreted the problem as being too ambitious: sort of let's destroy the forest and just import farmers from another area to plant rice and voila, instant crop.

No. It's more complicated than that. 

The article goes into previous mega plans that failed; much of the failure is from magical thinking, but when the authors keep mentioning that the indigenous need the forest, as if hunter gathering lifestyle would feed the growing population, it shows another bias: the love of the primitive in NGOs who are supposed to help farmers to  modernize. 

the love of the primitive. Nice in theory but hell in reality.

I remember a nice happy film about a village in the Visayas where the happy happy people assured the film makers they loved their traditional rice growing style. 

Two problems with that film however. 

One: In Filipino culture, one tends to tell the questioner what he wants to hear, not the truth.

Two: Our relatives are from that area and people are always asking us if we can hire them to work on our farms in Luzon. That area is poor. Poor is nice to visit, but hell on the locals, who see their malnourished kids die of infections, and who are old and arthritic by age 50. Obviously the film makers didn't ask any of these people about how they like their traditional lifestyle.

Indeed, this is why ten percent of the Philippine population work overseas, either as permanent migrants, temporary workers, or as sailors in international shipping.

 we have two rice businesses here in Luzon: 

One on the fields once owned by our family but distributed to local farmers under land reform. We grow rice on the small plots we own, and subcontract with these farmers to grow rice organically and buy it from them and distribute it to the supermarkets in Manila.

And because of this expertise, Joy, who has business background, was asked to start a coop to work with farmers in nearby Bulacan to grow organic rice and vegetables.

well, anyway, it is late an I am too lazy to go into details of how to make thin acidic soil into productive rice land, so I asked Grok how to do this

 

grok answer to how to change acidic soil into productive rice land:

Converting acidic soil into suitable land for rice growing involves adjusting the soil's pH and improving its fertility and structure. Rice typically thrives in slightly acidic to neutral soils (pH 5.5–7.0), though some varieties can tolerate more acidic conditions. If your soil is highly acidic (below pH 5.5), you'll need to take steps to neutralize it and create a favorable environment. Here's a step-by-step guide:

1. Test the Soil

• Why: Determine the current pH and nutrient levels of your soil.
• How: Use a soil testing kit (available at garden stores) or send a sample to a local agricultural extension service.
• Goal: Aim for a pH range of 5.5–7.0, ideal for most rice varieties.

2. Raise the Soil pH (if too acidic)

• Liming: Apply agricultural lime (calcium carbonate) or dolomite lime (calcium magnesium carbonate) to neutralize acidity.
  • Amount: Depends on soil type and current pH. For example:
    • Sandy soil: 2–3 tons/ha to raise pH by 1 unit.
    • Clay soil: 4–5 tons/ha to raise pH by 1 unit.
  • Application: Spread evenly over the soil and incorporate it 15–20 cm deep using a plow or tiller. Do this 2–3 months before planting to allow the lime to react with the soil.
• Recheck: Test the pH again after a few weeks to ensure it’s in the target range.

3. Improve Soil Fertility

• Organic Matter: Add compost, manure, or green manure (e.g., decomposed rice straw or legumes) to boost nutrients and improve soil structure.
  • Rice needs nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, which organic matter can supply.
• Fertilizers: Based on your soil test, apply:
  • Nitrogen (e.g., urea) for growth.
  • Phosphorus (e.g., superphosphate) for root development.
  • Potassium (e.g., potassium chloride) for overall health.
  • Typical rates: 100–150 kg/ha nitrogen, 40–60 kg/ha phosphorus, 40–60 kg/ha potassium (adjust based on soil needs).

4. Prepare the Land for Rice

• Water Management: Rice grows best in flooded or waterlogged conditions (paddy fields). Ensure your land has access to water and can retain it.
  • Build bunds (small walls) around the field to hold water.
  • Level the land to ensure even water distribution.
• Tilling: Plow the soil when moist to break up clumps and create a muddy, puddled texture ideal for rice transplanting or sowing.

5. Choose the Right Rice Variety

• Some rice varieties tolerate acidic soils better than others (e.g., upland rice for drier, acidic conditions vs. lowland rice for paddies). Consult local agricultural experts for varieties suited to your region.

6. Maintain the Soil

• Flooding: Keeping the field flooded can naturally suppress soil acidity over time by limiting oxygen and altering chemical reactions.
• Monitor: Regularly check pH and nutrient levels, especially after each growing season, and amend as needed.

Tips

• Work with local farmers or agricultural advisors—they’ll know what works best in your area.
• Avoid over-liming, as a pH above 7.5 can lock up nutrients like iron and zinc, which rice needs.

With these steps, your acidic soil can be transformed into productive rice-growing land over one or two seasons, depending on how acidic it starts out. Let me know if you need specifics for your location or soil type!