Here is a transcription of a talk by Nick Perlas in 2006 at the University of the Philippines College of Agriculture. …download here

In an hour session he was able to describe the ails of agriculture and the root of the problem, and gave the essential elements that the academe should consider if it were to seriously meet the challenges and achieve deep sustainability. Deep spirituality in agriculture rides into the relatively new science of quantum physics. It also requires honoring the different aspects of a human being and actualizing human potential and life’s deep purpose. It endeavors  to develop multiple intelligence. It calls for a genuine appreciation and holistic view of indigenous knowledge, and to develop deep connection to nature, especially to its invisible aspects and patterns. These are the elements of Sustainable Agriculture that the University committed to 10 years before the talk of Nick Perlas (i.e., in 1996, it is now the 16th year since that time). But people have short memory. Programs change with change of guards. Materialist and reductionist perspective still pervade the consciousness. The fulfillment of the ego (also referred to as the small “i” or the “ordinary self”, as opposed to the big “I” or the “spirit self”) and lure of materialism make it doubly hard to reach the goal of Sustainable Agriculture. Deep spirituality is scientific and essential, and requires putting human beings in the center of change. Are people ready to accept that to change the world we must change ourselves first? In 1999 I  presented a professorial chair lecture and wrote a resource material on the subject of alternative education and seed as elements to further sustainable agriculture. The paper may be read here….

Earlier (1989) I also wrote an assessment of the university’s seed program given the framework of sustainable agriculture. https://www.grain.org/article/entries/512-a-university-seed-programme-for-sustainable-ag. Could deep quantum change come from the academe, or from the outside? Let us recall that to create a circle we can either draw it from the center (using a compass) or from the periphery (through infinite number of lines tangential to the limits set for a circle). In our current time, it is the outside world pushing institutions to change…