MANILA, Philippines - It’s hard to find anything remotely healthy along Taft, my current hood. I remember trying to save my dear money by looking for some of the cheapest chow around. Choices included a 7-Eleven meal in a bowl, siomai or burger steak rice peddled by an isaw vendor, or sisig from the carinderia in between campuses. With 100 bucks or less, these were the only dishes one could get, or variations of them. Meats were covered in gravy, rice unlimited. Cooking in dorms gives you even more limited options — it seems so much easier to crack open a can of corned beef than shop for anything else — zero thought, less hassle. However, it’s not as bad as you think. Now that organic has become a trendy label, we’re learning more about local produce and more accessible sustainable options.
Organic sounds expensive, like a food trend thrown at the kind of people who were responsible for the rise of cronuts, and bacon or salted caramel on everything. It seems pretentious and impossible. Who has the time to go to a local farm, source produce, and have it the next day? Who cares if the egg you’re eating comes from an industrial farm or from chickens running around freely in a field of green? It’s easy to remove yourself from the equation if you have no idea about what’s going on, and when what’s readily available seems to be the best and only choice.
After Yolanda hit, I attended a fundraising dinner where Kuya Jun, a humble but extremely passionate farmer from Mindoro, spoke about how important creating sustainable farms was. He shared some very striking messages: those who were devastated and stranded by the storm couldn’t find growing crops in the fields or on land that could temporarily sustain them. We have grown so out of touch with reality that even our fishermen eat noodles, not their own catch. We are so proud of our rice terraces yet import so much of those sacred grains, and have no native rice of our own. It is very easy to remove oneself from something that is happening provinces away, when we don’t realize how much of what we do and what we eat truly affects the system and the balance.
Thankfully, it has become a lot easier and less expensive to champion Filipino made-products. People like Bea Misa-Crisostomo of Ritual have taught us that local should be the norm, not the novelty. The shop she shares with her husband, found in the Collective, is just one of the many ways she has helped bring attention to local farmers and their produce. You can find everything from salt made in Pangasinan, to dark chocolate produced in Davao, to rums and beers brewed on our shores. Artisan goods have also begun to make a resurgence, with craftsmen flocking to bazaars and expos to showcase their wares, which they lovingly make themselves. Restaurants are in on it, too, with places like Green Pastures and Grace Park trying their best to achieve entirely farm-to-table menus.
Sometimes all it takes is a little nagging thought at the back of your head — take a minute to go to the grocery or nearby market and grab some local produce instead of reheating a processed meal with mystery meat. Look for the label that says “made in the Philippines,†instead of getting charmed by imported cookie butters or thousand-flavored Kit Kats. Going green is an awesome way to go.