THE world is indeed getting organic. Consumers are supporting the movement from their pockets. The recent 9th Negros Island Organic Farmers Festival is the proof of the pudding in the eating of organically-produced food.

The NIOFF, with the theme One Negros, One Green Economy, has gathered 216 exhibitors compared to 2013 where only 156 joined. The five-day event grossed P3.18 million. Last year, the organic farming festival earned P2.556 million.

Ramon Uy Jr., president of Organik na Negros! Organic Producers and Retailers Association (Onopra), said that after the reported P3.18 million earnings, more people are still coming to buy their products even during its official last day on November 23, 2014.

As vice president of Onopra, allow me to express our collective thanks to the organic food producers and processors, upland farmers, indigenous peoples, cooperatives, local government units, non-government organizations, and peoples organizations who took part in the 9th NIOFF.

I took part in the preparations for the event. My task was to invite resource persons from the UNs Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the Mountain Partnership.

In behalf of the NIOFF organizers, let me express our collective thanks to the Rome-based MP Secretariat colleagues Rosa Laura, Romeo Thomas Hofer, Sara Manuelli, and Antonella Sorrentino. Also to FAOs Dr. Eulito Bautista who dropped other prior commitments to be with us in Bacolod for the NIOFF. Let us have more of this cooperation in developing the Negrense green, especially its mountain, economy.

Likewise, I express our collective thanks to the Non-Timber Forest Product-Exchange Programme Philippines. Drs. Ramon Razal and Erwin Diloy, and to anthropologist Mara Teresa Miks de Guia-Padilla for sharing with us your expertise.

The 9th NIOFF showed that Negros Islands emerging economy can make profits, people and the environment come together, not necessarily in opposition to one another. Negrenses can face the Asean Economic Community when we become a link to the regional economic integration in 2015.

We will face it building the green economy. As the FAO noted, global temperatures rise and weather patterns become more erratic, the intersection between climate change and agriculture is crucial to understanding the role agriculture plays in contributing to and mitigating global warming.

Carbon sequestration, lower-input of fossil fuel dependent resources, and use of renewable energy all present opportunities for organic agriculture to lead the way in reducing energy consumption and mitigating the negative effects of energy emissions.

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