My first actual lesson on the plight of vegetable farmers in Benguet was in the summer of 1973. A fresh college graduate, I was torn between going to the hills and starting out a family under a martial-law regime. Needing time to think things over and badly needing cash, I grabbed the first job offered. It carried a gofer’s euphemistic title “field survey representa­tive” for the University of the Philippines College of Agricul­ture.

My task was to find and interview a list of Benguet farmers, using a questionnaire form issued by the college, which contracted out the task to the Bureau of Agricultural Economics office here in Baguio. I don’t know if that office still exists. I did find all the farmers on my list. It took me the whole 30 days I was contracted and eventually paid for to finish, the last among several “representatives.”

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