Philippine Coconut Industry Dying

The Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) has sold out to the chemical industry which may kill the entire coconut economy, one of the world’s largest  producers.

   Coconut oil is one of the healthiest oils in the world, and you may have noticed the price creeping up in the last few years. The coconut industry supports millions of Filipinos and because of a massive insect infestation that killed some 2 million trees, the industry is slowly dying. The irony is, the infestation is easy to stop using inexpensive organic measures, but the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) has sold out to the chemical industry, which may kill the entire coconut economy that the Philippines and much of the world depend on. In  2012, 40% of the total number of existing trees are too old to produce leaving the industry with 204 million productive trees. On November 8th, 2013 Typhoon Yolanda, one of the strongest tropical cyclones ever recorded, devastated the Philippines; the deadliest Philippine typhoon ever in cost of human lives and destroyed 33 million coconut trees, leaving the nation with a net of 169 million trees.  Yolanda and the infestation has cost the Philippines 20% or a one fifth of all the coconut trees.  The coconut pest was identified as Aspidiotus destructor rigidus (Reyne), a subspecies of Aspidiotus destructor by a team at the University of Philippines and the team said it was responsible for the massive infestation. They said that the pest originated from Mindanao; the second largest and southernmost major island in the Philippines.  The Aspidiotus destructor rigidus (Reyne), a subspecies of Aspidiotus destructor, called Coconut scale, is a common pest of coconuts and bananas. It can infect such things as avocado, breadfruit, mango, guava and papaya.  Coconut scale prefers the underside of leaves where it sucks plant juices and excretes toxins through their salivary glands. Severe infestations forms a continuous overlapping crust of thousands of scales per leaf, resulting in the leaf turning yellow, withering and dying. When the whole world learns Philippine coconut has been chemicalized, the entire multi-billion industry will collapse. Exporters of coconut-derived products will lose their international organic certificates. Why a chemical solution? According to  Inquirer report there is  an allocation of P700 million for the chemical solution program. That means big money for the expensive imported chemical that will create billions in sales, if even just 1 million trees are treated out of the existing 169 million. Further reported is that the deadly chemical is marketed by LEADS Agricultural Products, Inc., whose Chair and President is Fernando Maldeva, a UP frat brother of Dr. Rey Velasco, a PCA consultant. Velasco is the former Chancellor of UP Los Banos. President Aquino issued Executive Order No. 169 last June 05 establishing emergency measures to combat the invasive species. The Order specified the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) to lead the nationwide effort to manage and eventually eradicate this massive infestation that threatens our $2 billion coconut industry and the livelihood of our coconut farming families. However, the PCA had not pursued any viable option other than chemicals to treat the problem. The private sector was forced to take the initiative, finding successful organic solutions, which the PCA rejected. Why? Big bucks? PCA wants to save face and be blameless by acting as the ‘hero’ in giving its last-two-minutes chemical solution. The use of chemicals is not stated by the Executive Order (EO). It is enough that the PCA is empowered and has the legal means to use chemicals on the pretext of an emergency situation. It has been suggested that President Aquino should step in and promote organic methods to prevent further collapse of the industry. The demise of the Coconut Industry through the use of chemicals will be blamed on him. The lives of millions of marginal Filipinos are in his hand. If he does not act, it will also imply he has been bought out by Big Chemical and international interests.          Coconut oil treatments have been shown to be a powerful remedy for Alzheimer’s — and dozens of other life-threatening diseases. With the use of the coconut oil treatments, we can fight Alzheimer’s so simply, with just 4 teaspoons of coconut oil a day, it is an alternative fuel for your brain which your body makes when digesting coconut oil. When a person is uninformed they could believe that coconut oil was an artery clogging saturated fat, which could not be further from the truth. Coconut oil is one of the good fats and does not cause heart disease, and has many health benefits. Coconut oil, in one form or another, is used in hospital parenteral formulas to nourish seriously ill patients. It is an important ingredient in infant formulas and is recommended for people with digestive or nutritional problems. In fact if you want to protect yourself from heart disease you should be using coconut oil. Most people are still in the dark about Coconut oil. If you go to the average person on the street and ask them about coconut oil, chance are they will know very little, including health care professionals, doctors, nutritionists; they really don’t know much because they haven’t studied it. Most of the education doctors receive after graduating from medical school is provided by the pharmaceutical industry and, therefore, is very biased. They don’t hear about natural, nutritional approaches. Sometimes doctors have to be educated by their patients. The reason most people think of heart disease when anyone mentions coconut oil doesn’t have anything to do with science or facts, but everything to do with marketing and money. Back in the early and mid-1980s, people were given false information about cholesterol, which by the way is the most important hormone in your body. With the false information coming from the guy dressed in white lab coats, people were concerned that saturated fats could raise cholesterol levels. The soybean industry realized this was a perfect opportunity to make a profit. They reasoned that if they could convince people that all saturated fats were bad and caused heart disease, people would eat more vegetable oil. So the soybean industry spent millions in an anti-saturated fat and anti-tropical oils publicity campaign. Special interest groups such as the Center for Science in the Public Interest joined in and started producing alarming false news stories about the dangers of saturated fats. They invented the term “artery clogging fat” in reference to coconut oil. Because of the media frenzy, it didn’t take long before everyone believed coconut oil was an artery clogging fat. People are still duped by the soybean industry’s billion dollar attack on coconut oil. Many authors and media, too lazy to do their own research, still parrot the biased viewpoints produced by these groups. I’m trying to change this by providing accurate information so that people can learn the truth. The crash in the coconut industry taking place in the Philippines now, will be devastating to natural health enthusiasts. It’s an easy correlation to make that the fat you consume must be the fat that ends up around your waistline… right? Unfortunately, it’s not that simple. In fact, cutting all fat out of your diet would be quite detrimental to your health. As more and more people are realizing that the “no fat all carb” diet just isn’t cutting it, questions are arising as to what fat really does for us. Fat, like carbohydrates and protein, is an essential nutrient, which means that is does not naturally occur in the body, you must include it in your diet. Your body uses fats to carry and absorb fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E and K and it keeps our hair and skin healthy. The body burns fat as a quick and concentrated energy source and fat is responsible for mineral absorption. Fat serves even more functions than these, so it’s safe to say that fats are not only important, but also absolutely essential for good health. Does this mean that you should get on a cheeseburger, fried food and butter diet? Of course not! Your body does not process all fats the same. Good fats, verses Bad fats, were the buzzwords that came into play when the Big Food industry spent the billions on trying to convince you that fats were evil. Essential fatty acids (EFA’s) are fats that don’t naturally occur in our bodies and must be consumed through foods. Of these EFA’s, only two are known to be essential for human health (though others can be supportive to health): omega-3 (specifically alpha-linolenic acid) & omega-6 (linoleic acid). While we require both of these EFA’s, many of us are grossly imbalanced in them and must take Omega-3 and we suggest that you take Rejuvenis Omega-3 Krill oil on a daily basis. Oils like sunflower, safflower and corn oil, are extremely high in omega-6 and have very little, if any, omega-3. Because these oils are in such high demand, they are often times made with GMO, “genetically modified” produce as well.  Someone who eats a typical western diet of fried and processed foods is likely consuming well over the necessary amount of omega-6, which is connected to inflammatory diseases, like cardiovascular disease, obesity and type 2 diabetes, in high quantities. The ratio imbalance of the two types of EFA’s creates competition, and because the ratio is typically higher on the omega-6 side, encouraging disease. A diet with more balanced EFA ratios (more omega-3 with diet and Rejuvenis Omega-3 Krill oil ) and less omega 6 intake) is tied to less occurrences of inflam-matory disease. Consider trading your potentially toxic fish oil for the top rated Rejuvenis Omega-3 Krill oil   Coconut oil in its raw state is rich in lauric acid, a rare medium-chain fatty acid found in mother’s milk and tied to boosting metabolism. It also has less than 1% of omega-6, and has been tied to weight loss because of its richness in metabolism boosting medium-chain fatty acids. You can enjoy the true benefits of coconut oil in its organic, cold-pressed, extra virgin state; it should never be bleached, hydrogenated or refined. Interested in getting more healthy fats in your life? Sign up for the Aging Younger Healthy Lifestyle newsletter to the right of this blog for amazing information sent right to your inbox!