December 29, 2005: Headlines: COS - Philipines: Small Business: Organic Food: Agriculture: Philippine Daily Inquirer: Philippines RPCV Mary Hensley founded Eighth Wonder, a US-based distributor for organic rice
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December 29, 2005: Headlines: COS - Philipines: Small Business: Organic Food: Agriculture: Philippine Daily Inquirer: Philippines RPCV Mary Hensley founded Eighth Wonder, a US-based distributor for organic rice
Philippines RPCV Mary Hensley founded Eighth Wonder, a US-based distributor for organic rice
American interest in indigenous rice produced by the centuries-old terraces in Ifugao and farms in Kalinga has been rekindled by test results that indicate that Ifugao "tinawon" and Kalinga "unoy" contain richer fiber than any other rice variety produced today, according to a nongovernment organization working to revive the terraces. Mary Hensley, Eighth Wonder's founder, was assigned in Kalinga between 1976 and 1978, and "understands the culture of the region."
Philippines RPCV Mary Hensley founded Eighth Wonder, a US-based distributor for organic rice
Study affirms hybrid rice threat to Ifugao rice
First posted 11:51pm (Mla time) Dec 29, 2005
By Vincent Cabreza
Inquirer
Editor's Note: Published on Page A16 of the December 30, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
BAGUIO CITY-American interest in indigenous rice produced by the centuries-old terraces in Ifugao and farms in Kalinga has been rekindled by test results that indicate that Ifugao "tinawon" and Kalinga "unoy" contain richer fiber than any other rice variety produced today, according to a nongovernment organization working to revive the terraces.
Revitalize Indigenous Cordilleran Entrepreneurs (Rice) Inc. said US laboratory findings from Montana in the last quarter of 2005 validated criticisms that the GMA (Ginintuang Masagani Ani) hybrid rice has become a threat to the indigenous crop.
Victoria Garcia, Rice executive director, said beginning January 2006, organic industry players will try to dissuade Kalinga farmers from participating in the government's hybrid rice project should it displace homegrown rice.
She said Eighth Wonder, a US-based distributor financed by a former US Peace Corps volunteer, has become a "very real market" for "tinawon" and "unoy," which it retails to US organic markets.
Mary Hensley, Eighth Wonder's founder, was assigned in Kalinga between 1976 and 1978, and "understands the culture of the region," Garcia said.
She said the Cereals Organics Inc. of Canada has also signified interest in "tinawon" and "unoy" because of their 12-percent fiber and 4-percent iron content.
Kalinga bested local records by harvesting 21,600 tons of hybrid rice (7.2 tons per hectare) in 2003, months after Ms Arroyo introduced to reporters here Prof. Yuan Long Ping, a Chinese scientist whom she described as the father of hybrid rice.
Hybrid rice is Ms Arroyo's poverty-alleviation solution to farming communities in the country.
Rice's Cordillera "heirloom rice project," which was offered to the World Bank recently, attributed the region's poverty to the absence of commercial opportunities for the organic rice that these communities have developed for centuries.
Rice, in a report, said three of 10 families in the mountain region live in poverty.
"In year 2000, about 31 percent (85,426 families) in the Cordillera were living below the poverty line of P13,176.27 ($244) ... Based on these estimates, the province of Ifugao posted the highest poverty incidence in the region at 55.6 percent [making it one of the] four Cordillera provinces belonging to the poorest 44 provinces of the country," Rice said.
But Garcia said Rice's chief objective is to introduce "culturally-appropriate economic enterprise," which hybrid rice will not nurture.
She said the project has confirmed the "steady degradation caused by factors both natural and manmade," and noted that the "lack of economic opportunity for the indigenous population is forcing the younger generation to leave."
Rice cites the study of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, which observes that 25 percent of these terrace farms have since been abandoned.
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Story Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Philipines; Small Business; Organic Food; Agriculture
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