The Festival featured the advocacy of making organic food more affordable

Organic farmers, sellers and advocates converged in an organic food fair and festival this Sunday at the Quezon City Memorial Circle. The Quezon City government led by Vice Mayor Joy Belmonte supported the event, which aimed to make the public aware of the benefits of organic food and work towards making it affordable.

Belmonte herself heads the project Joy of Urban Farming which started since 2010 promoting the benefits of organic planting in the cities.

The Organic Fiesta was a celebration of organic harvests and products by advocates who believe that healthy organic food should not be costly. However, various challenges ranging from prevalent chemical farming, the influx of inorganic products, lack of government support and an expensive certification process contribute to the costliness of producing and distributing organic crops.

Through a signature campaign, the event also gathered support for legislation seeking means to improve the participatory guarantee system towards making organic food more affordable.

The Organic Fiesta also featured the launching of ‘Green Works’, a book on a study made by research group IBON in cooperation with partners MASIPAG, SIBAT and Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP). The launch followed a sharing session where planters and sellers discused their organic advocacy.

Aside from Manila-based sellers, participating groups hailed from various provinces including the Cordilleras, Pangasinan,
Tarlac, Bulacan, Quezon, Bicol and Marinduque.

Everyone was treated to a festive community lunch of unpolished red rice, tortang talong, ensaladang pako, tomatoes and onions in alamang and ginataang sinaing na tulingang binalot sa alagaw.