Have you heard the word “Agritourism”?

               Summer isn’t only for beach but it is the season when people want a new experience, an escape from the stress of traffic jams, office cubicles and school projects.  Visiting a farm, ranch or winery is one good idea for vacation and picking your own mango or strawberry or any fruits in a beautiful orchard and knowing how food is grown and that milk actually comes from a cow, not a carton is the best and unique experiences one can undergo.

               This is when the Agritourism comes in. Many of us Filipinos do not know yet or even heard this term, although this has been going on for several years in many of our provinces. Agritourism includes a wide variety of activities, including visiting a working farm or any agricultural place to enjoy, buying products direct from a farm, picking fruit, feeding animals or simply be educated or be involved in what is happening at that locale. Agritourism provides rural experiences to visitors with the goal of producing revenues for farmers and surrounding communities. These experiences typically include a wide range of attractions and activities that take place in agricultural areas. Essential factors of these rural experiences include open spaces, minimal levels of urban or industrial development, and opportunities for visitors to firsthand experience agricultural, pastoral, and natural environments.
           In simple terms, agritourism is the crossroads of tourism and agriculture, when the public visits working farms, ranches or wineries to buy and make their own products, enjoy entertainment, participate in activities, or shop in a country store.
          With diverse conditions on different islands, the Philippines is an ideal place for visiting multiple agritourism sites or focusing on a niche product. The public and private sector should work together to make the Philippines an attraction for the agritourism. 

“You don’t have to be rude, you know?”

               I check my facebook and twitter accounts almost every day and I bet students like me even kids raging from 8 years old and up do the same. And from what I've seen in our society these kids and students are highly vulnerable to the influence of our social media celebrities.  But what bothers me is that these celebrities do not care on how they sway these minors on certain issues and acts. 

             When the last time I did check my facebook account, the photo of Carlos Celdran with a sign board of vulgar words about the issue of the Philam Life Theater being renovated was all over my news feed. I think this isn't new to his followers or even to the new media. The first time I heard Carlos Celdran name was because on his blasphemous act with his Damaso Stunt on bashing the Catholic Church. I stand for everyone’s freedom of expression and new media is exactly that but there is always a thin line between voicing out you what you believe in and being boorish on certain issues. It saddens me that influential people can do such things, and what happened to our new public sphere being the land of intelligent discussion? I think Carlos Celdran must be aware of how many followers he has and how he influences each one of them. What if minors mimic his acts, thinking that it is okay because he is only being verbal on how he feels on certain issue?

           You don’t have to be rude and do absurd things to persuade or move people, why not show us your arguments and facts? We should all figure out or understand the issues first and don’t feed us with dim-witted acts.