Media Power Revolution Now!

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Why are Filipinos celebrating a failed People Power Revolution (EDSA Revolution)? 25 Feb 1986, it’s been 38 years and it’s essentially the same story – some people get rich or richer and millions remain poor or poorer!

Media, wake up!

By “media” I mean Facebook, YouTube, blog, Manila papers, even letters to the Editor.
(Media cube from pngwing.com)

Since I am an agriculturist – BSA, UP Los Baños 1965 – my favorite topic is the poor farmer failed by EDSA.

I now quote Robyn O’Brien: “We pay the doctor to make us better when we should really be paying the farmer to keep us healthy.” (Farmer quote from bing.com). I see that Ms Robyn “is on Forbes Impact 50 List for her work at the intersection of agriculture and climate” (Robyn O’Brien, robynobrien.com). American or not, she is an intelligent media lady.

We media people in agriculture do not have to aspire to be as good as Ms Robyn, but we should be literally mediating for the millions of our farmers who have remained poor.

It’s the fault of technology!

Our farmers insist on cultivating rice only – monocropping. Our farmers insist on applying chemical fertilizers and chemical pesticides only – chemical agriculture. And no, those farmers do not attribute their poverty to their poor agriculture! And they continue to be victims of severe droughts and severe typhoons. The media have not made them conscious that their agriculture generates greenhouse gases (GHGs) that generate Climate Change!

Pertinently, what have the media people of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) based at UP Los Baños in Laguna, and the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) based in Muñoz, Nueva Ecija, been doing in terms of Regenerative Agriculture? Next to zero!

And so with this my call for a Media Power Revolution in the Philippines, I am challenging the media people of both IRRI and PhilRice to build their own knowledge banks of Regenerative Agriculture and spread the wisdom!

Let me help the IRRI and PhilRice media people by sharing with them my RA list (alphabetically arranged):

#1, Compost application
#2, Cover cropping
#3, Crop rotation
#4, Farm crops + tree crops (simultaneous)
#5, Green manuring
#6, Intercropping
#7, Multiple cropping
#8, No-till farming
#9, Ratooning
#10, “Three Sisters” cropping (corn + beans + squash)
#11, Trap cropping
#12, Trash mulching.

I know. The media people in the Philippines, whether in the media companies themselves or in government and private enterprises dealing with agriculture, have not graduated from Truth Journalism, which is what gave Rappler’s CEO Maria Ressa the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021.

And Truth shall set you free – from wider social relevance?

I wish I could win the Nobel Peace Prize myself but not via Truth Journalism, which cannot even pass the Rotary 4-Way Test:
“1. Is it the truth? 2. Is it fair to all concerned? 3. Will it build goodwill and better friendships? 4. Will it be beneficial to all concerned?”

With Truth Journalism, Truth hurts, not helps!

What we need is media practicing THINK! Journalism; see my essay, “THiNK First!” (06 Feb 2024, THiNK Journalism, blogspot.com).@517

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