The naked farmers

WGastronomicE have been inspired by the recent visit of the students from the University of Sciences based in Italy. They were here to know more about our organic farming and the use of endemic ingredients in our food. They were able to meet personally Governor Alfredo Marañon Jr. who is serious in making his province the organic capital of the Philippines. The students were also able to have a vivid talk with Chin Chin Uy, the proprietor of Fresh Start Organics in Silay, about organic farming and the preparation of organic food. Chin Chin is preparing a document on indigenous farming.

He requested me to be involved because of my personal and various experiences from the “naked farmers”. Who were the naked farmers? They were our ancestors who were the guardians of the soil and the protectors of nature. They were animistic in their farming beliefs, and their farming strategy and procedure were based on sound judgment and reliable instinct.

Someone out there who is a schooled agriculturist may claim that what our ancestor did had no scientific basis. After the “direct appropriation stage” in our economy, our ancestors learned to settle in a community where they could domesticate animals and plant seeds and cuttings they gathered from the forest. In the time of our ancestors, only men were considered major players in farming and they only knew organic farming. The women were simply assisting them and did minor roles.

Our farmer ancestors were “naked farmers”. Most of their farms were located near the bank of the river. Before doing a routine work, they would have their early naked swimming (a warm-up exercise for good health and “to wash away” negative energy from the body).

They were animistic and believed that they could easily communicate with the spirits of nature with a clean body.

My grandfather would look up to high heavens for ball of clouds (altostratus, rain likely) before planting camote cuttings. Planting should be done at sunset especially before the rain.

He would do the first planting (“panudlak”) while naked. It was the ancestors’ belief that in planting camote cuttings only those with big penis and testicles be allowed to do the “panudlak” so that the edible roots of the camotes would be huge. SSBacolod as well in the very near future.

With these higher fare matrix, surely, the commuters would have to tighten their belts and take lesser taxi rides as result. Unfortunately, though, this adjustment will only be short-lived, for a few weeks to a few months, showing that the taxi cab service is elastic (sensitive to increases in price) in the short-run.

But once the commuters feel that it is not worth it to walk far for lesser fare, the demand for taxi cabs would return to “normal”. The energy of the person is more costly than the taxi ride. This just proves that the indeed this service has become inelastic (insensitive to price change), and is now considered a necessity.

What about the many requirements before the taxi meters are calibrated? Aside from assuring the comfort and security of the commuter, I can’t think of any economic theory that would push the government to make the producer/supplier spend more, before they get incentive of higher revenues. This may even result to break-even or loss on the part of the operator. Anyway, that’s for another time.

The taxi operators side (supplier side) will be analyzed in next week’s edition of this column. Happy riding!