BAGUIO CITY – The City Council approved a resolution strongly encouraging all sectors in the city to actively be involved in urban farming to help in the realization of environmental and food security programs beneficial to the present and future generation of residents.
The resolution authored by Councilor Leandro B. Yangot, Jr. states urban gardening ensures the sustainable production of safe organic food for the city’s populace considering the rapidly increasing demand for organically-produced agricultural crops as people have started to shift to healthy lifestyle.
The resolution added that urban farming also helps urban centers like Baguio City in the eventual realization of zero waste management as plastic containers, tires, tin cans and other biodegradable trash can be used as containers in the practice of urban gardening with the application of the principle of reduce, reuse and recycle in proper waste management.
“Urban farming aggressively promotes health and wellness as the stakeholders regularly exercise and consume safe food, especially during the present time that most people have become health conscious,” Yangot stressed.
According to him, if all the city’s 128 barangays, business establishments, schools and other organizations actively participate in any of the forms of community gardening, specifically ground and rooftop farming, mushroom production, aquaponics and hydroponics, the city will be eventually transformed into a safer and healthier place to live.
On the other hand, the outgoing local legislator disclosed urban farming can be used to effectively and efficiently combat climate change as the presence of more plants will translate to the effective and efficient absorption of carbon dioxide and monoxide and gives back more oxygen that contribute in keeping the air fresh in the city year-round.
Yangot earlier claimed the presence of appropriately-arranged urban gardens in the barangays will make the urban gardens an added tourist attraction because many nature lovers and environmentalists will be enticed to visit the city and take a look at the existing urban gardens.
He said that even as a private citizen, he will continue to practice urban farming in his residence and set the example for other residents in the city’s barangays wanting to embrace urban gardening to emulate.
Earlier, the local government institutionalized the annual celebration of Urban Farmer’s month every May and appropriate funds to bankroll the activities lined up for the said celebration to contribute in efforts to promote the practice of urban gardening in the city.
Councilor Yangot has been named as the father of urban agriculture in the city for having initiated the passage of numerous legislations in the local legislative body related to the aggressive promotion of urban gardening and organic agriculture in the country’s undisputed Summer Capital.
One of the successful urban gardens in the city include the strawberry farm in Sto. Tomas School Area and the flower farms in barangay Happy Hallow spearheaded by Samuel Lang-ay and Agnes Maslian, respectively./ Dexter A. See