Penalosa Farms in Negros Occidental - Organic Lunch, Very Educational Workshop and Tour near Bacolod!

When I go to the provinces in the Philippines, I see endless farmland and I'm reminded that if no one wants to go into farming, then we'd all starve. Transforming the farmers' mindset from barely surviving into thriving agripreneurs - this is one of the goals of MS Penalosa. I think it includes encouraging a city-bred person like me to not discount farming as a viable business idea. I learned a little bit more about the language of the soil, the language of plants, the language of the animal and the art of war against pests and diseases at Peñalosa Farms in Negros Occidental (read about Part 1 of this visit here). I was constantly reminded of the 4 Ls of Mr. Penalosa while we're there - Live (you're alive and there is life around you), Learn (that farming is constantly a work in progress), Love (love what nature is giving us, love pigs, there is income in sh*t) and Laugh (to have fun, smile and never take yourself seriously). Haha. ;P

AgriTecture at Penalosa Farms in Negros Occidental - Integrated Organic Farming and Swine Business near Bacolod

When I think about organic farming, I can't help but look back on the one-of-my-many unique experiences in Negros (I feel like I really learned a lot about organic agri thanks to ATI-DAR last year and the desire to eat healthy slash growing my own food is kinda rubbing on me hehe). As I said before, they said that the whole island has the most organic farms in the Philippines and it is vying to be the organic capital of Southeast Asia. The Agricultural Training Institute of the Philippine Department of Agriculture (ATI-DAR) took us to Bacolod on this trip and we made our way by car to the Penalosa Farms. Mr. Penalosa's style of telling us about the organic journey was to let us discover it by ourselves and literally had us interacting with every plant, animal and material in his farm. It felt like I was back in school during our brief stay LOL. He made us understand the intricacies of integrated farming, that everything is intertwined and that one should really understand the different kinds of plants (and everything's special place in the cycle) before we even start having grandoise notions of having our own farm. It was fun and definitely not as easy as Farmville but doable and can be replicated :) 

What to Do in Negros - My May's Organic Garden Bacolod Stay and Tour, Review and Awesome Farm Technologies by RU Foundry

I never thought I'd make it to Bacolod this year. I didn't have time to do my research so I was left with thoughts of only chicken inasal and pastries - from what I've heard and read before of Bacolod haha. I thought this would be like my Iloilo trip since it's just an hour or two away by boat.. Bacolod is also just Bacolod City for me (now it's Negros Occidental haha). Who knew that the whole Negros (Oriental and Occidental, where Bacolod is) is vying to be the organic bowl of Southeast Asia? I'd like to thank the ATI (Agricultural Training Institute) of the Philippine Department of Agriculture for showing me a different side of Negros. After all, the Philippines is primarily an agricultural country. The learnings I got to take home from this spontaneous trip definitely beat going here on my own for the first time =) We stayed at May's Organic Garden - an organic farm with accommodations, a training community for farmers and home to RU Foundry's many innovative technologies and heavy-duty farm equipment (proudly made in Negros).