Agriculture Today Is The Biggest Media Challenge – How Can Journalists Cultivate Fertile Minds?


I see the new PH Agriculture under the leadership of Secretary of Agriculture William Dar/Manong Willie as the biggest challenge to Philippine journalism – many-layered, complicated. Simplifying: If farming is growing food, journalism is growing ideas in a fertile mind!

I thank God I’m running 80. Now, how could I have been blogging about PH Agriculture every single day since the middle of last year when I am essentially a work-at-homer? “There is no unfertile soil with a fertile mind.”

How do I cultivate my mind to stay fertile?
Easy – I read. And read. And read.
So I can be Good, Better, Best!

(Above, superimposed image of some books to read/review in my bedroom-workroom.)

In this digital age, as a journalist you must always collect enough background materials; save your files, then read them. Read, not memorize. (In Microsoft Word, turn on Track Changes – click Review, Track Changes – and write down your thoughts as you read. You go back to them when you begin to write your article.)

Guaranteed: Just reading will make that unfertile mind of yours a very fertile soil.

Actually, Salvador Cariaga of Philippine Organic Farms, the one who is sharing (on Facebook, above) about unfertile soils and fertile minds, is speaking about producing food and fighting poverty[1]. (Main image from same source)

Mr Cariaga’s group is into urban agriculture. They are into growing food and managing garbage at the same time – 2 noble ideas, enriching: garbage becomes organic fertilizer; environment becomes sound; our bodies become healthy.

There’s more. There is a MUD Farm in Cebu – Mactan Urban Demo Farm[2]:

It's a school without walls and classroom without ceiling. Sky is the limit. With God nothing is impossible. ¶ Even if you live in (a) concrete jungle, you can still grow your own food. You won't need a lot of space. Our MUD Farm is just 300 square meters, but it has pig farm, goat farm, chicken farm, fish farm, worm farm, and all the vegetables that a family can eat.

Urban. Unbelievable? You have to believe.

Now, what about our poor farmers in the rural areas? Unfortunately, MUD Farm ignores them:

We believe that we do not have to be poor. Our children don't have to be hungry. We live in a rich country. We can bloom where we are born and grow where we are planted. There is no unfertile soil with a fertile mind. There is no barren land, only (a) bare mind. MUD Farm is designed to inspire those who live in urban areas to grow their own food, the organic way.

Yes, Mr Cariaga misses his own point – “There is no unfertile soil with a fertile mind.” Unlike him, I will now also and equally urge those who live in rural areas to grow their own food the organic way.

And journalists? Your mind is barren only if you do not grow ideas in it. And the best thing to do to grow ideas is? Read, read, read. To be Good, Better, Best!@517





[1] https://www.facebook.com/groups/philippineorganicfarms/about/
[2] https://www.facebook.com/UrbanDemofarn/posts/1009174225771459

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