By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga
Negros Occidental Governor Alfredo Marañon, Jr., who led the opening of the 13th Negros Island Organic Farmers’ Festival at the Provincial Capitol yesterday, credited the annual event for starting the “organic movement.”
“I hope the organic movement, which we started 13 years ago, is very successful,” he declared. “The many sickness we have now [are] caused by the food we eat, which [contain] many chemicals.”
He also lauded the “originators” of the festival, Negros Island Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development Foundation Executive Director Edgardo Uychiat and Richard Hughes.
Marañon said the two convinced the provincial government to launch the movement, adding, Hughes travels from Australia every year to “help and develop the organic movement.”
The governor added, the festival “uplifts the lives of our farmers as well as our fellow Negrenses.”/DGB, WDJ