Is sustainability just a fad?

People thought so 15 years ago. They thought that just like artisan, farm-to-table and curated – these terms are now being overused and abused by many – sustainability would go away along with climate change and green, eco-friendly and biodiversity.

Nope, sustainability is very much around and thanks to all our co-believers, even our “little store that could” is turning 15 years this September. Fifteen is a number that is significant for me, just like 4, 7 and 14. I always believed that if a concept or business passes the 4th year, it is meant to live longer, and so it will stay on beyond 7 years. The next hurdle is 7. Many things happen on the 7th year, then the 14th year if we are to believe the 7-14-21-28 rule. Every seven years, some things change. Think about the “seven-year” itch, 28 years as “Saturn return” or what astrologers believe is a turning point in one’s life. And every seven thereafter.

But for 15, it could also mean a business has leapt over the challenges and is ready to be an institution of sorts. So what did we do as we approached our difficult milestone years? We regrouped and checked our mission and vision and rewrote some where needed. And that is how we try to stay relevant despite the difficult times.

We also expanded our operations to include our family farms where we can teach people about sustainability as demonstrated by Nature. Jeannie has started a natural farm in Mount Banahaw while we also developed an herb garden in Amadeo, Cavite as well as a coffee farm planted to Liberica or Barako.

The pandemic changed the face of our business. From being in upscale malls, we chose to devote more efforts online and maintained a small footprint of a retail store in the Central Business District of Makati for the need of consumers to touch, smell and feel our products “in the flesh.” Otherwise, the pandemic taught almost everyone to order online and trust their favorite retailer, sight unseen. Thankfully our experience of having had retail outlets exposed our products to many new users, who then became majority of our online customers and who continue to be so until today.

We can best express sustainability with what we have been doing in communities we have adopted or trained over the years and even through the pandemic lockdowns. These communities continue to supply us with coffee, cacao products, jams and jellies, heirloom rice and a host of other provisions popular in our retail store. These community groups, like a group who makes our crab paste from Camarines Sur, continue to get orders from us despite the changes and challenges in the retail world.

Many a store has folded up due to lack of purpose or a higher mission than just trading. But we remain steadfast in our mission to be the retail space for our women producers and our community partners made over the years.

And that is what we think sustainability is. When you continue to provide opportunities beyond just pure commerce.

When the lockdowns happened, we were stuck in our homes and found safety in open spaces like our farms. And that is where we continued to work – developing different models for sustainable farming. One is a rain-fed model planted to sweet potato, kadyos (black eyed peas) and edible flowers. Another is an herb garden that displays biodynamic agriculture and how to use all natural infrastructure like bamboo and the like. Call it an experiment in what we can do with what is around us, without having to buy from outside. Is that not self-sufficiency? Is that not sustainability in the simplest of examples?

Next is our food supply and sustainability. People do not believe in “growing our own food” and still stick to the idea of mass production, large-scale agriculture using multinationals who provide seed, fertilizer and pesticides. We believe in the complete opposite – make your own seeds, make your own fertilizer and practice integrated pest management or control.

There is so much to learn from natural farming. Yet, our officials and business investors still only

support big multinationals and have no other solution but to scrap land reform and start consolidation.

The truth is, our farmers are old, jaded and ready to retire. We must start a completely new set of younger farmers who will practice more sustainable farming systems. Thank God that in coffee (which we are more familiar with) people are getting used to the idea of growing coffee organically. It is a practice in sustainable farming systems and protecting the coffee from pesticides and chemicals.

The group Naturland (www.natuland.de) organizes farmers into associations of believers in organic farming. At least there are international associations who continue to preach organic ways, even without discussion of the expensive process in certification. It is the process that must start, and certification will only be on an “as need” basis. But farmers at least start farming organically. That is more sustainable than the old way of slash, burn and feed it with fertilizers.

Give it some thought. For us to grow food sustainably, we must follow our ancestors and our

indigenous peoples. They grow heirloom rice that they harvest once a year, enough for their needs. They eat what the land gives them – camote, other root crops, berries and fruits, vegetables that grow from open pollinated varieties (OPV) which they can plant again and again. Is that not sustainable?

Then show me what economists preach. At a recent business forum these so-called economic

wizards preached the old solutions that have not worked for a century: mass production.

So, if we still think sustainability is a fad, think again. It is and will be the way to live until we leave this world. Practice a sustainable lifestyle. We’ve been at it for 15 years – and running.