Observing World Earth Day

http://www.flickr.com/photos/73645804@N00/440672445

April 22 is World Earth Day.  This day was launched in 1970 by Sen. Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin, USA to remind each one of us the many things that our planet has provided us: clean air and environment and pure water, and the responsibility that is upon us to make sure that the future generations will experience the same quality of air, environment and water.  To date, this day is being observed in more than 175 countries.

The Philippines started joining other nations in observing Earth Day since 2008.  This year, however, it will be celebrated tomorrow, April 25 as April 22 coincides with Good Friday, a major holiday in the Philippines.  The government has scheduled tree and mangrove-planting to mark the occasion.

Aside from tree planting, we can repay Mother Earth for the things that it has provided us by starting to practice Waste Segregation, recycling and substituting non-biodegradable things with biodegradable alternatives.  Let's start going Green.

Related articles

• Earth Day (minimonosexpress.wordpress.com)
• Earth Day 2011 (socyberty.com)

DIY: Portuguese Sardines

One of businesses that a new entrepreneur can venture into is the making of Portuguese and Spanish sardines.  It doesn't require a big capital to start with and it is fairly easy to do.  For this article, I will be presenting how to make Portuguese sardines. I chose this because I have already mastered making this kind of sardines and I don't like the taste of the sardines with tomato sauce for the Spanish variety.  By the way, let me thank my good friend, Timmie Bernaldez, my co-parent at Ateneo de Manila University for teaching me how make sardines.

For 9 bottles of sardines, make ready the following:

2 kilos of either tawilis or tamban
brine solution
1 medium size carrot
pickle slices
laurel leaves
peppercorn
siling labuyo or bird's eye pepper
olive oil
salt
pressure cooker
9 240-ml glass bottles

Procedure:

1.  Buy tawilis or tamban that are 5 1/2 inches long.  Cut the head and the tail of the fish.  If the fish is shorter than 5 1/2 inches, the finished product will not look good as there will be a space at the top.  Your customer may think you have shortchanged him.  Hehehe.

2.  Sterilize the bottles for twenty minutes.  Wipe the bottles dry.

3.  Gut the fish and wash it very well making sure that no part of the internal organs and entrails is left.  Put the fish in the brine solution for thirty minutes.  With a colander, separate the fish from the brine solution.  Put the fish in a basin big enough to accomodate the fish.

4.  Put two thin slices of carrot shaped like a flower, two pickle slices, two laurel leaves,  and two pieces of bird's eye peppers inside the bottle.  Arrange them around the bottle.  Put seven to nine pieces of the fish arranging them alternately.  

5.  Pour olive oil up to the neck of the bottle.  Add five pieces of peppercorn and a dash of salt.  Cover the bottle tightly and invert to make sure the salt and peppercorns are absorbed up to the bottom of the bottle.

6.  Put the bottles with the fish inside a pressure cooker.  Add water to the pressure cooker up to the level of the neck of the bottle.  Cook for one and a half hours after it starts to "whistles" or rocks.  Cooking time starts when the pressure cooker rocks.

7.  Turn off the fire after reaching desired time.  Let cool for at least fifteen minutes before opening the pressure cooker.  Remove the bottles from the pressure cooker.

Note:  The sardines will be ready for sale after two weeks from the date of cooking.  By that time the sardines have already absorbed all the flavors of the spices.  Store on shelves at room temperature.

Try this recipe on your family first before venturing into business.  It is in trying that you would be able to learn from the initial mistakes that will be committed.  When you have gained enough confidence with the good reviews from your family (they are the worst critics),  by all means start your dream business.  With this article I hope I have been instrumental in your plunge to business. Good luck. 

Coconut: The Tree of Life

Image via Wikipedia

For us Filipinos, the coconut is regarded as the tree of life simply because nothing is wasted even up to end of its fruit-bearing years.  The coconut is a fruit and it belongs to the Arecaceae palm family and can grow up to six meters tall.  The husk or coir can be made into rope, doormats, twines and padding materials for furniture and orchids.  The shell, on the other hand, could be used for handicraft items like piggy banks, cups and other decors.   

Who has not tasted the juice and meat of a young coconut or buko juice?  We Filipinos are very lucky that we can have our fill of this heavenly drink anytime of the year.  Every summer time while spending the Holy Week in Sorsogon, my family and I do not fail to eat/drink this to quench our thirst.  My aunt's ever reliable godson, Modesto, gets the young coconut early afternoon just in time for merienda.  Aside from the buko juice, the meat of the coconut can be manufactured into coconut oil, VCO or virgin coconut oil, and used in the manufacture of soaps and cosmetics. Vinegar, biodiesel, the lowly walis-tingting, coconut lumber and lately the coco sugar are other by products of coconut.  Maybe in the future more products will be produced out of this wonderful fruit.

That is the good news.  Now for the bad news.  The bad news is the low coconut output.  Despite the many uses of coconut notably biodiesel and coco sugar, our farmers are not replacing old coconut trees.  Old coconut trees become coco lumber and if not replaced, there will not be enough supply to cater to the big demand.  Take for example the Renewable Energy Act which mandates the blending of a certain percentage of alternative fuel from coconut, corn et al to diesel and gasoline.  It has not fully implemented first and foremost because of lack of supply.  Supply problem just negates the advantages of using alternative renewable fuel.  With full implementation, the Philippines could slowly wean from its dependence on imported fuel thus saving the government a lot of dollars.  Coco sugar, on the other hand, is touted to be good for diabetics because of its low level of glycemic index. 

To answer the declining coconut output and be at the forefront as a major coconut producer, the Philippine Coconut Authority, the government agency mandated to develop the coconut and palm oil industry, has launched the National Coconut Productivity Program in 2008.  It has three major projects of which replanting is one.  It will take at least five years before a new tree starts being productive so it is imperative that replanting be done the soonest possible time.  It helps that new varieties are available that yield more fruits than the coconut of old.  The Tacunan variety is a dwarf coconut that is ideal for coconut sugar production.  

The future of growing coconuts looks bright.  People in developed countries are in perpetual search for sources of alternative energy and healthy food.  We cannot go wrong if we take a serious look at the tree of life.

Related articles

• Benefits of Coconut Oil (healthymj.wordpress.com)

Green Wednesday

It's a Green Wednesday as far as the Philippines is concerned.  Starting September 29, 2010, the country's major retailers have designated Wednesday as the Reusable Bag Day that is covered by a Memorandum of Agreement between them and the Department of Environment and National Resources (DENR).  Every Wednesday thereafter, the malls and supermarkets will not allow the customers to put what they have purchased in plastic bags for free.  They will be charged a fee for every bag used and  are encouraged instead to use reusable canvass bags to replace the plastic bags.  This move is to drive home the point that we really have to take recycling and minimizing garbage seriously.  

For customers to make a change in their behavior, incentives are being given if reusable bags are used.  For Shopwise customers of which I am one, the reward points are doubled if reusable bags are used and are ten times more when done on Wednesdays.  The bags are also displayed conspicuously near the check out counter so they won't miss them while waiting for their turn to pay.

From the data gathered by the DENR from its actual field work, it was noted that almost 50% of garbage is made up of plastic bags which ended up at the waterways.  Typhoon Ondoy is a painful reminder of the waterways that were clogged by so much plastic bags.  

Showing that we care for the environment doesn't exact so much from us.  It starts with simple things like practicing recycling, waste segregation and loving our children.

Is It About Time We Consider Using the Incinerator?

July 10, 2000 will forever be etched in the hearts of the people of Payatas.  On that fateful day, an avalanche of garbage buried 218 people and left 300 families homeless, mostly scavengers, who make a living out of the garbage dumped in Payatas. Payatas is a dumpsite located in the 2nd District of Quezon City and is a few kilometers away from where I live.  It has an approximate land area of 2,818 hectares, 18.4% of it is home to people living in informal settlements.  Ten years after the Payatas tragedy, Metro Manila is still mired in trash.  Despite the tragedy, both local and national governments were not able to institute changes and legislation to solve the burgeoning garbage problem except for the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000 which was signed into law six months after the tragedy.

Though we have become experts in segregating our solid waste as biodegradable, recyclable and non-biodegradable, Metro Manila is still beset with problems on where to dispose its garbage given that its population is growing by leaps and bounds.  It is obvious that waste segregation is not enough though it has given livelihood to the people living at the dumpsite's vicinity either as scavengers, scrap dealers and junk yard owners.  It is ironic that what provided food on the table to these people could also be the one which claimed the lives of some of their loved ones.

One of the waste reduction processes available to man since the 1800s is incineration.  Incineration involves the combustion of organic substances contained in garbage.  Waste is put into a furnace called an incinerator.  What is an incinerator? From Wikipedia, an incinerator is a furnace for burning waste.  It is used to burn trash and other types of waste until it is reduced to ash.  It is made of heavy, well-insulated materials so that heat cannot escape otherwise the waste will not be burned completely or rapidly.  

Arguments against incineration ranged from the heavy soot and foul odor that are emitted during the process to the minute particles, dioxin and furan, that are released to the environment.  Dioxins and furans are regarded to be highly toxic and can cause reproductive problems, damage the immune systems and can also cause cancer.  Greenpeace, a non-governmental organization which focuses on environmentalism and peace through direct action, lobbying and research, has been successful in banning the use of incinerators in the Philippines through the Clean Air Act in June, 1999.  The Philippines is the first country to ban incinerators.

These arguments could be true of the old incinerators. A few days while I was researching on the topic of incinerators,  I came across Blackhole Incinerator of Nika Engineers which addressed all these arguments.  It busted the myths that incinerators emit dioxin and furan and leave behind toxic residue (ash).  Because of new developments in technology and air pollution control devices, there is a drastic reduction in dioxin and furan and ash residue is sterile and can be disposed in a normal landfill.  Aside from these, incineration reduces the volume of garbage by 90-95% thereby prolonging the life of landfills.  Also, incinerators require only a small area compared to landfills which have to be huge.

Since technology has already answered the concerns on the use of incinerators, isn't it the right thing to do for lawmakers to take a second look at the Clean Air Act and amend it where necessary?  Was the passing of this act into law instrumental for the Payatas tragedy?  (The Clean Air Act was signed by then Pres. Joseph Estrada a good eleven months before tragedy struck.)  Just asking.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incineration#Arguments_against_incineration
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-an-incinerator.htm
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs225/en/
http://www.ehow.com/facts_6888654_history-incinerators.html
http://deevio.tripod.com/mixednuts/land.html