Proclaiming The Gospel, Proclaiming “The New Thinking For Agriculture”

“We Don’t Need Nice Homilies[1]” is one of the latest preachings of Roman Catholic laity proselytizer Scott Hahn. From Ohio, he is urging priests to preach boldly, especially considering these lockdown times, imploring them:

There is a need today for strong proclamation of the Gospel – and nowhere is this more true than in the need for strong preaching and teaching. But priests today are pressured to make homilies light, short, and uncontroversial.

And I find myself, a “convert” from “safe” or non-controversial journalism in agriculture to boldly proclaiming a “new gospel” as it were, which Secretary of Agriculture William Dar calls “The New Thinking for Agriculture” with its accompanying “8 Paradigms” that are contributory to its execution. The paradigms are: (1) Modernization, (2) Industrialization, (3) Promotion of exports, (4) Consolidation of small- and medium-sized farms, (5) Infrastructure development, (6) Higher budget & investment, (7) Legislative support, and (8) Roadmap development.

Even without so much explanation, the “8 Paradigms” for “The New Thinking for Agriculture” are not that difficult to discern. Lazy Juans, Philippine journalists and columnists in agriculture have not picked them up and explained to their readers whether they agree with them or not.

Even Jesus Christ needed disciples to win the people over to the side of The Good!

As intimated by the image above, in both Religion and Agriculture, what is called for today is Critical Thinking – in Agriculture about Sustainability and in Catholicism about being true to the gospel for the Good, Better, Best!

And I equate sustainability of PH Agriculture with farmer sustainability – his earning a decent income according to his labors, and his poverty not taken advantage of by loan sharks and greedy merchants.

“The Road To Emmaus” is Mr Hahn’s continuing broadcasts to the Catholic faithful; the title tells of the first appearance of Jesus to his disciples after his Resurrection – I think we Catholics/Christians should all be travelling to Emmaus and Christ will surely meet us there! We need Christ’s disciples to show us the way!

Meanwhile, the Filipino farmer is the Lazy Juan not thinking about uneconomic farming: borrowing cash from a usurer, over-applying fertilizers and farm chemicals, and selling to merchants who cheat him. Farmers need economic advisers to show him the way!

Our PH Messiah in this case is personified by the Secretary of Agriculture, who has so far shown that his gospel, as it were, is for a richer agriculture for Every Juan.

All things considered, the most “advanced” municipality in farming in the Philippines right now is the town of Mina in Iloilo. And so, “The majority of the farmers in Mina (have been) able to access various interventions from the (DA), ranging from certified and hybrid seeds to fertilizer, machinery, extension services, and market linkages” (see my essay, “MMFFA Showing Good Way To Farmer Association – It Could Be Better[2]!” 14 November 2020, BraveNewWorld@PH).

All 22 barangay associations in Mina are united. That is how you contribute to the realization of the new PH Agriculture: Link to start; then think together.@517


[1]https://stpaulcenter.com/audio/the-road-to-emmaus/bonus-episode-we-dont-need-nice-homilies/

[2]https://bravenewworldph.blogspot.com/2020/11/mmffa-showing-good-way-to-farmer.html

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