The 7th Negros Island Organic Farmers Festival will open with Agrarian Reform Sec. Virgilio de los Reyes and Department of Agriculture Assistant Secretary Salvador Salacup at the provincial Capitol grounds at Gatuslao Street in Bacolod City this morning.

DA Sec. Proceso Alcala who is on travel abroad, will be represented by Salacup, Dina Genzola, of the Office of the Provincial Agriculturist, said yesterday.

The festival theme is “Celebrating Gains of Organic Agriculture, Mainstreaming Opportunities through Fair Trade.”

It will be attended by Governors Alfredo Marañon Jr. (Negros Occidental) and Roel Degamo (Negros Oriental), Vice Governor Genraro Alvarez, and DA VI regional director Larry Nacionales.

Board Members Miller Serondo (Neg. Occ.) and Arnulfo Teves (Neg. Or.) committee chairmen on Agriculture of their provinces will talk on the gains of Negros Island experience in organic agriculture.

Salacup will also launch today the Fairtrade-Negros and the National Year of Rice 2013.

The Food Research and Writing Workshop and the exhibit on traditional farming equipment at Negros Museum and a talk on organic agriculture experience by Jose Felizardo, farmer-member of Negros 9, will also be held at the Governor’s Hall.

In the afternoon, a forum on fair trade with the World Fair Trade Organization and Fairtrade Labeling Organization will be held also at the Governor’s Hall, followed by a talk on Food Safety and Quality by Luz Lizada of Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions and the book launching of “Memories of Philippine Kitchen” at the Negros Museum.

A thanksgiving mass will be held and officiated by Fr. Armando Onion at the Capitol Grounds before the opening program.

Tomorrow there will be a series of forums on cassava production, slow food and cooking demonstrations, organic food processing and herb utilization, food writing consultations, chef market basket and tasting, lifestyle of wellness, and contests like the larongpinoy, song writing, organic quest.

On Saturday, there will be a symposium on organic feed mix production, grass-fed sheep production, large scale production of organic vegetable in greenhouse condition, complementary medicine, food research and writing presentation.

The speakers are Jerome Pornan, regional cassava coordinator of DA 6, RomyDorotan and Amy Besa, owners of Purple Yam Restaurant in New York, Dr. Michelle Palma of Remnant Institute of Alternative Medicine, Dr. Albert Jo;

Dr. Cesar Sevilla, director of Institute of Animal Science at the University of the Philippines Los Baños College-Laguna, Dr. Saturnino Dayanan of the Office of the Provincial Agriculturist Negros Occidental, Roland Costales, owner of Costales Organic Farm in Laguna, and Dr. Susana Balingit, chairperson of the De La Salle Health Institute.

The forums will be held at the Governors’ Hall and the Negros Museum. *LTG

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