Adlawon Vacation Farms – Atty. Danilo and Dr. Peluche Ortiz

Dear Atty. Danilo and Dr. Peluche Ortiz:

Greetings from the Normandy Chair for Peace.

“We will have peace on earth when we have peace with the Earth.”

We write to congratulate and express our gratitude for your dedicated efforts to make peace with the Earth. Your place – the Adlawon Vacation Farms – is very beautiful. More important, it is a shining example of sustainable farming. It is a significant source of right livelihood and happy occupation for your workers and your community.

The decades-long work that you have done for your farm is truly impressive. What makes it even more
extraordinary is that all this work was done not for the purpose of money-making. Rather, it was all a noble effort to give and share with the surrounding community. These people would have been impoverished farmers. You came and shared with them your heart and your management skills and gave them meaningful livelihood opportunities.

The composting facility that you have put up, the output of which you use to grow your organic vegetables, is a good example of healthy farming. It also prevents rotting organic matter from releasing methane, a very potent heat-trapping gas, into the already fast-heating atmosphere.

We were informed that you are adopting the ideas of rainwater catchments and of the Sloping Agricultural Land Technology (SALT), also known as contour farming. Your ancestors were the pioneers of this technology. Two thousand years ago, without using concrete, they used their understanding and connection with the Earth to build the Banaue Rice Terraces.

These are very important initiatives. Soil and Water will be the top challenges the world will face in the near future. Your imple- mentation of the SALT ideas will be a good example for other farms. These initiatives are most important to conserve life-giving soil and water.

What makes your farm impressive is the happy attitude and inner motivation of your workers, many of whom are females. And you employ quite a lot of them, at your own expense even if you hardly break-even with the operating costs.

We were also very impressed by the information on the number of birds flying around your farm. You may request bird experts from the Department of Environment and the Wild Bird Club of the Philippines to assist you identify them.

We thank you for being a shining exemplar. On behalf of grateful people around the world, and from our inmost heart of hearts…

Thank you, Merci Beaucoup, and Daghang Salamat.

Perhaps without your even aspiring for it, your work implements many of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.