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AS the government sets aside billions to rejuvenate food growth amid
soaring food prices and worsening hunger, a lawmaker believes the
government should also find ways to augment in a big way the
budgetary support for state-run agricultural colleges, to enable
them to quickly develop a new generation of young and highly
productive farmers.
“We desperately need young blood to drive our
farms. Studies have shown that the average Filipino farmer is now 55
years old. Sadly, very few young Filipinos are now going into
farming,” laments Senator Loren Legarda, chairperson of the Senate
committee on economic affairs.
“If the trend continues, our farms will
continue to decline, and food production will deteriorate
irreversibly,” warned Legarda, who also chairs the Senate
committee on social justice and rural development.
The results of the latest Census of Agriculture
indicate that some 9,900 farms are being erased every year from the
country’s inventory of arable lands. Legarda blamed the problem on
the lack of new farmers and the indiscriminate conversion of
farmlands.
“We have a network of state-run agricultural
schools nationwide. Over the years, these colleges, except for the
University of the Philippines at Los Baños, have deteriorated due
to neglect. We should revitalize these schools by providing them
increased subsidy,” she said.
The senator also urged the Department of
Agriculture and the Commission on Higher Education to quickly draw
up special crash courses on modern farming systems and
entrepreneurship.
She likewise proposed a special program that
would spur graduates of agricultural schools to pursue farm-related
businesses: “We should encourage graduates of farming-related
courses as well as aspiring entrepreneurs to engage in agribusiness
by providing them access to low-cost capital and special
post-graduate training.”
Legarda proposed that a portion of the
P17-billion annual funding for the implementation of the Agriculture
and Fisheries Modernization Program through 2015, be used to
revitalize agricultural schools and to support young farmers. She
said the government could also tap the P6-billion Agricultural
Competitiveness Enhancement Fund.
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The corporate chieftains who regularly do lunch
and dinner at the Mandarin Oriental’s award winning Tivoli
restaurant will be keeping a wary eye on their waistlines over the
next few weeks as they network and seal deals over the exquisite
dishes of Michelin-star chefs as presented by guest chef Paul
Anthony Quarchioni whose enviable history spans first-hand
experiences with some of the world’s highest rated restaurants by
Michelin Guide and Gault Millau.
With over 21 years’ experience in the kitchen,
38-year old Chef Paul’s storied past comes into full flow as he
recreates dishes passed on to him by world-acclaimed masters of the
kitchen.
Chef Paul has worked with eight Michelin-star
restaurants in France and England, among them: Restaurant
L’Aubergade with Michel Trama; Hotel La Bretagne with Georges
Paineu; Restaurant La Tante Claire with Pierre Koffman; Oak Room
Restaurant at Le Meridien, Piccadilly with David Chambers and Alen
Moore; Restaurant La Cote St. Jacques with the Lorain brothers; La
Pres D’Eugene and La Ferme aux Grives with Michel Guerard, and
Restaurant Les Quatre Saisons with Jean Michel Lorain.
Food connoisseurs go by the Michelin Guide and
Gault Millau as a standard of rating for restaurants. While the
Michelin Guide lists thousands of eateries, it awards one to three
stars sparingly and only to establishments of outstanding quality.
Gault Millau, meanwhile, is famous for its ratings system in which
points are awarded from a scale of 1 to 20 based strictly on the
quality of food.
As Chef de Cuisine at the Le Normandie in The
Oriental Bangkok from 2000 to 2003, Chef Paul worked alongside
Michelin-starred chefs who presided over various promotions at the
luxurious restaurant. These included Anne-Sophie Pic; Fredy Girardet;
Joel Robuchon; the Pourcel brothers; Guy Martin; Pierre Gagnaire;
Marc Haeberlin and Allen Passard.
After his exemplary years at Le Normandie, the
British chef was promoted to Executive Sous Chef at The Oriental,
Bangkok, a move that brought him to the forefront of the hotel’s
banquets and outlets. Here, he made dinners for royalty, heads of
state and other dignitaries.
Until the end of October Chef Quarchioni will
also be presenting some of the most exquisite dishes from his past
affiliations with iconic Michelin-star chefs including Michel Guérard;
Jean-Georges Vorichten and Michel Lorain.
opinion@manilatimes.net
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