The group’s university education taught them the drill: a major problem like poverty needed to be broken down into actionable pieces. They knew, early on in what would turn out to be a lifelong pursuit, that poverty was the root cause of many other social issues, and it was most prevalent and unspeakably severe among rural farmers and fisher folk. That segment constituted nearly half of the total population -- where each person had to survive on about 70 centavos a day – and the poor was weighed down by fatalistic traditions and a colonial mindset. What can one do to help them and where does one begin?

The group knew that one major reason for endemic poverty was that the driving forces of the economy were largely disconnected and dysfunctional. The people engaged in cultivation, production, processing, marketing, selling, distribution, and other upstream and downstream activities as well as the policies and systems that support these activities, were often moving in uncoordinated, disparate and often conflicting directions.

Strong linkages were the key to making the economy strong and sustainable, especially for its disadvantaged and widely dispersed sectors. Since agriculture had the most impact on the survival and well-being of the people, the linkages needed by the industry had to be strengthened, sustained and continually improved.

The group banked on their experience and resources to help small farmers, in a modest but consistent manner. Doc Bernie, Tony, Bien, and the rest of the group thought that their most critical contribution would be in teaching, demonstrating, communicating and at times advocating for more linkages in agriculture. This is probably the reason why, since many of them were in the hog industry, they chose the name Piglink and then iterated this onward to such sub-groups as Aqualink, Veggielink, Poultrylink, Croplink, Tradelink and Re-energylink.

As they further grew their field experience and exposure to the vagaries of business, this hardy band of brothers considered that what they offered to share with small farming and fishing families was actually wisdom. It was hard-earned, real-life wisdom diligently acquired over many years. The idea of sharing wisdom was articulated with increasing clarity by the group members as they interacted not only with farmers but also the government agencies, development groups and much later international research and donor organizations. Eventually, this wisdom formed the group’s unique linkage to partner organizations that were likewise working to help small farmers improve their lives.

Quietly and in their own personal spheres, they both kept doing whatever they could to help rural families improve their lives. This was the case for most of their group members. It called for some dedication on their part as the 70s and 80’s were very difficult years for the country and even for much of the world. Those decades were marked by political and social upheavals and conflict.

Bernie, Tony and their idealistic friends had to go through the challenges and setbacks, and the learnings and rewards, of nurturing a business. Looking back to those tumultuous years, it is understandable that the group took so much time before they could get organized. They simply were struggling to keep their businesses afloat or to seize opportunities in an increasingly competitive business environment.

In such an environment, the rural villages became even more marginalized and consigned to hardships. Ironically, while the poor got poorer, the rich had more opportunities to increase their wealth and tightened their grip on a lopsided proportion of the economy. As a result, many of the rural children gave up on the farms and chose to live in the cities even if it also meant for them an endless grind to get by.

Over the years, it was natural for Bernie, Tony and the other pioneers to turn to more friends to support projects to help small farmers improve their cultivation methods to raise their incomes. The early batch to join this effort included Danilo Venida, Rolando Dy, Dodo Montemayor, Bien Nito, Frankie Ortiz, and Rene Gayo.

The endemic poverty among farm families remained foremost in the group’s mind. As they were increasingly successful in their careers from the 80s and 90s, the group members thought more and more of “giving back” to the small farmers. Whenever they could, the group shared with the farmers modern farming methods and showed them the huge advantages in thinking as entrepreneurs rather than mere cultivators. The UA&P-based educators even pushed for setting up rural farm schools because they could see that the offspring of rural families were increasingly drawn to the relatively better incomes and the emotional “high” of working in the cities and overseas.

Tony thought it was useful to visualize the players in the task of helping farm communities improve their station in life. For the group to be able to help in a sustainable way, Tony explained that the job of the group was to enhance connections among four quadrants. First Quadrant or Q1 were the farmers, Q2 were suppliers, Q3 financing sector, and Q4 for market or customers. These had to be linked seamlessly to one another for the farmers to succeed.

Bien said, “We wanted a holistic approach to agriculture in general, even if we initially focused on small hog raisers. In fact, we avoided calling them as backyard piggeries but rather referred to them as small piggeries. There was a difference in outlook. You may be small now but you can become big. If you thought of your piggery as backyard, then it will remain as one.”

While the Piglink members were mostly in the hog business, some were in other crops, like Arsenio Barcelona was in vegetables and seeds, Philip Ong was in fisheries, Nars Intal was in improving plant and soil productivity. Some were helping coconut farmers to intercrop their trees with coffee or vegetables.

Iluminado “Dodo” Montemayor, unlike most of the agriculture-centric group, had taken up commerce in La Salle and was part of the finance and business development unit at UA&P. Since Dodo’s office was just in the university compound, he said it was easy for him to join the meetings regularly held by Doc Bernie and Tony’s group.

“I was never part of the operations of what later became Foodlink because I knew little of agri-business. But if I had any worthwhile contribution to the group, I think it was my familiarity with what good communication can do for the group, or any other people, to get what they wanted. He had seen that in his dealings with business executives, government officials, and even ordinary employees.

“For me, I didn’t mind at all if I appeared dumb or ignorant to some people, so long as I got them to do what I wanted, that’s okay. They can get all the credit. They can go around telling people it was their idea. I didn’t care at all. What was important is that I got my objective,” Dodo recalled.

“This is true then and up to now, especially if you’re talking to people who occupy high positions, whether in public office or in business. If you have an idea, discuss it with the principal players before any meeting, and let them present it to the others. Let them get the credit for it once the idea is adopted.”

Dodo said good communication among them is part of the reason why Foodlink members had stayed together as a group for many years, and why FAC gradually earned the trust and support of government agencies and development organizations.

Good communication which created good relationships was probably also in Bien’s mind when he acknowledged how Frankie Ortiz played a big role in enabling the group to reach out to small farmers. So did Rene Gayo, Butch Mauricio and later Nars Intal whose firm was promoting mostly organic supplements to enrich the soil and improve crop yields.

Bien said the group offered many ways to assist farmers. “We even talked of insurance for small hog raisers. When we are able to link them to big corporate buyers, what the small farmers may lose in their animals or in their fields for various reasons, maybe disease or natural disasters or outdated practices, the company partners will replace.”

Tony sees that the pioneers of Piglink came in two batches. He called the early pioneers as Part One and those who came sometime later, Part Two. But for Tony, these were actually terms of endearment as everyone brought unique value to the organization. His International Farms Corporation (INFARMCO) offices in Mandaluyong became the informal headquarters of the group in its long years of gestation before it formalized into an advocacy co-operative and a couple of years more for it to recruit full-time management.

“In the beginning, we were meeting at UA&P, sometimes in the Board Room or a vacant classroom, sometimes the canteen, sometimes outside on the campus benches, where things were quite noisy and distracting. But we persisted. And then, feeling we were imposing too much on UA&P, we began meeting in restaurants, at somebody’s office, until more and more, Tony had to set aside a fixed space at INFARMCO.”

For his own recollections, Bien said, “My early involvement was in CRC’s social development unit. I was a working student, so at first it was like an internship for me in 1984 until 1987. I was with CRC and then with UA&P from 1990 to 2017, when I retired.

“Bernie thought the old farmers did not easily accept new farming methods, and he had to focus on the younger generation. So he set up the Dagatan Farm School in Lipa, Batangas. For the group, it was more of a personal apostolate, a way of either ‘giving back’ for whatever blessings we enjoyed or maybe ‘paying forward’ so that we could mentor the next generation in learning from what we had learned mostly in the hard way.”

Gradually, in a loose or unstructured manner that took considerable time, Foodlink evolved its organization and objectives around more or less these ideas: “to provide the members a venue where they can share their resources and experiences, expertise and capabilities to give farmers’ groups access to systems, technologies, and business management best practices, and to link them to inputs, supplies, funding sources and markets.”

“FAC may have taken a long time to mature but what kept it going and sustained the energy of the members, even grow the list, was one undeniable attribute. All the members have a commitment to help small farmers improve their lot. This has been there consistently over the years,” Bien said.

Butch offered his belief that this commitment prevailed over any issues the group had encountered. He said, “There was, for instance, the expectation for the members to pay their fees voluntarily and to share in the expenses, but this was never a big issue. Tony or some other leader of the group would dip into their pockets for merienda money, offer office space or a venue for meetings, and in many silent ways lend their support.”

UA&P’s growing recognition as a topnotch business and liberal arts university gave Foodlink a higher visibility and reputation for expertise and integrity. The Foodlink leaders were seen as serious in their commitment to help small farmers.

Another boost came when Bernie published a series of books that, among other topics, talked about successful social enterprises and outreach groups including Foodlink. Moreover, Fermin Diaz, who had joined the group bringing the clout of his publications and media contacts, helped in informing key audiences about Foodlink.

As the group gained more recognition, especially after it registered as a pioneering Advocacy Co-operative with the Co-operative Development Authority in November 2012, the group now known as Foodlink Advocacy Co-operative (FAC) became a channel for local agencies and international organizations to use their resources more effectively in helping farmers. This reputation for experience-based expertise, or what may be called wisdom, would be one end of the bridge to the insights of international development bodies; and together both parties would realize that if they worked together, the same bridge would link them to the support most relevant to farmers, and become the link to the agencies that are mandated to help the agriculture sector grow.

For Danny Venida, one more turning point early on in FAC’s development came when they worked with Buklod Unlad Multi-purpose Cooperative of Taysan, Batangas. The co-op was guided by the late Frankie Ortiz, a recognized hog industry specialist who brought together Tony Chua and Buklod Unlad. In 2006, Buklod Unlad had turned full-blast in the hog production supply chain – swine breeding, farrowing, growing, and finishing – and had its own feed mill and was integrating forward to meat processing. When it started in 1991, Buklod Unlad only had 44 members and a capitalization of Php 37,500. By 2013, it had about 2000 members and over Php 150 million in resources.

Working with Buklod Unlad gave Foodlink the process template for its future role in supporting rural co-operatives in their agricultural supply chains.

Another turning point in the recollection of the core group of FAC, also around 2013 while it was working with Buklod Unlad, was an assignment INFARMCO Foundation got from the Dept. of Agrarian Reform (DAR) to help what eventually became more than 100 co-ops formed by Agrarian Reform Beneficiary Organizations (ARBOs). These were composed of former tenants of big farms covered by land reform who became landowners but most of whom lacked the knowhow, capital, equipment and other inputs needed to make their farms at least self-sufficient.

However, as these farms were located in distant places, INFARMCO Foundation head Butch Mauricio said he had less and less time to manage Foodlink. This task was eventually passed on to a project manager of the Foundation, but things didn’t work out well for FAC and the project manager gave it up.

CRC and then UA&P were early champions of corporate philanthropy, until it eventually morphed into other philosophies such as strategic philanthropy, then CSR and further on to its latter-day permutations such as shared values and social enterprise. However, Tony, who led INFARMCO, and other group members who headed their own profitable agribusinesses, saw that CSR did not make much of a difference for the vast majority of farmers. For some other observers, CSR was in too many instances only a way to dress up the company image, appease consciences and gain from the tax credits that CSR brought.

Bien Nito said, “In the early days, we talked about forming a foundation or association, but gradually the most preferred was really co-operatives. A co-operative was most appropriate for what we wanted to do because a co-op is democratic, one member one vote, and the majority’s decision was implemented. A co-op encouraged or expected participation of all members. The members had to be interested to learn and to share what they knew.”

At the start of the 1990s when the country was recovering from a nearly bankrupt economy, the group saw the virtues of co-operatives as a one-member one-vote entity that levelled or democratized power among the farmers. Co-ops allowed innovative leadership to flourish but prevented dominance by one person or a small group of members. Co-operatives were also efficient conduits for support flowing to poor families from government and developmental bodies.

Some in the group had initially considered setting up either an association – most of them were eager to share their successes in their various agri-businesses with organized groups of small farmers – or a foundation which could pave the way to get support or grants from government and international development bodies.

But at a certain period, both the sectors of co-operatives and foundations were rocked by a series of mismanagement and fiduciary scandals which resulted in the thinning of fund support from local banks and donor organizations. To weed out crooks hiding in the fold of co-operatives, the government imposed a Php1 million minimum capitalization and other regulatory restrictions.

Nevertheless, Philip said co-operatives as a business format could argue its case from a track record of successes. There were many large and highly profitable co-operatives, including the older organizations such as the University of Sto. Tomas and the Far Eastern University Employees Cooperatives, the ACDI Multi-purpose Cooperative of Lipa City and the relatively young Lamac Cooperative of Cebu. Still, there were countless other co-ops which had fallen on the wayside.

Before the time of social enterprises, Rene Gayo and others favored co-operatives as the more suitable format for a group that linked various players in agribusiness. Through these linkages, co-operatives gave farmers a better chance to succeed instead of remaining as fragmented owners of small-scale farms.

Under RA 9520, the Co-operative Development Authority set up new forms of co-ops, including advocacy co-operatives which the group thought was most appropriate for its purposes. When Foodlink listed with CDA as an advocacy co-operative, maybe one of the handful that applied for inclusion in the then nebulous category, it assumed a new formal name: Foodlink Advocacy Co-operative (FAC).

In a sense, from a history of informality and improvisation, this new co-op category comes at a fortuitous time and signaled that FAC was moving toward a clearer definition of its role where it was most qualified to help the poor.

Philip Nocom, who had known some of the pioneers for years but came on board only in 2018 following a long and profitable career in information technology and agriculture, shared the motivation of the other group members to share one’s blessings with the less fortunate. Philip said that it was a timely move but actually there may have been little option for the group other than to list up as an advocacy co-operative with CDA in 2012.

As a pioneer advocacy co-operative, one of only half a dozen at the time which had registered with the CDA as such, FAC seeks to promote the principles and practices of co-operativism and connect other co-operatives with all groups that advocate the growth and development of the co-operatives infrastructure in the country.

This new role continues to be internalized throughout the FAC organization. The group members agreed that listing up as an advocacy co-operative was appropriate because they really had no tangible product and no material assets to speak of, nothing they could take to the bank for credit or capitalization of projects they wanted to do with farmers. “Our unique capital was in the tons of experience and valuable insights the members had earned from working on the ground for many years,” Philip said.

As it turned out, such insights were the ideal complement to the financial and technical assistance and technology transfers that government and development bodies, local and foreign, had been giving to farmers. “In a sense, FAC’s relevant insights from ‘grounded’ or real-life experience provided the missing link in winning the acceptance and application of farmers of modern farming practices”.

“This insight borne of experience also formed the link between FAC and its foreign and local partners that made more effective their reaching out to small farmers. The clear identification and the articulation of such a strategic link was crystallized when the FAC Board put together and worked with a full-time professional management,” he said.

Dodo’s low-key approach of forming good relationships with others served FAC in good stead. He would always remind the group members, many of whom have become quite successful, to let other people outside of FAC to take the limelight. “In meetings, never interrupt or put somebody down even if you do not agree with his ideas. Be generous with your praise, and find something positive in what people say, even though that’s not always easy,” he said.

“If you have a big project or great idea, be sure to discuss it with the key people before the meeting. This will give you a sense of whether your idea will have the support of the majority. You may even ask other people to present the idea, and let them own it. Don’t present an idea that is half-baked or does not have the support of influential people. As they say in Tagalog, lutuin mo muna bago ihain (Cook it before you serve it).”

Danny and Butch said that one reason for this is the failure to present or “re-project” agriculture as a much bigger occupation than just the cultivation of land or “getting one’s hands and feet dirty.”

Educators and government officials, as well as private businesses, are facing the thinning ranks of young people expected to manage the farms and run the processing plants. They need to give a bigger definition to agriculture and even to the grander, broader term, “agribusiness,” which began to be popularized only in the 70s.

Butch pointed out many potentially lucrative careers in agribusiness -- from production, processing, the marketing of farm inputs such as feeds, seeds, machinery, modern technologies, and farm credit, and the various upstream and downstream activities all the way to value adding, packaging, logistics, branding and selling to local and export markets. The Philippine market has become quite big, he said.

Danny said presenting this bigger and more realistic picture will make agriculture attractive to young people. “FAC can contribute to this re-presentation of agriculture as a career.”

As the economic landscape was changing, FAC was positioned to do more as it had earned the confidence and support of the Departments of Agriculture, Agrarian Reform, Environment, Science and Technology, other government office and their attached agencies.

The entire agricultural training needs to shift farmers’ mindset from being simply cultivators or growers to being entrepreneurs. They have to see the entire value chain, and stop operating from silos. “We need to think about inclusive and sustainable agriculture, which will align us with the UN Social Development Goals,” Danny said.

In modest ways, FAC provided an extension of training to farmers, who would benefit more if they formed themselves into co-operatives. A national federation was set up by the late Senator Agapito “Butz” Aquino and former Agriculture Secretary Senen Bacani, among others, which functions like a national stabilization fund for co-operatives under the Philippine Cooperative Center. A fairly recent law, RA 1136 which seeks to strengthen CDA, was signed for implementation by President Rodrigo Duterte.

Bien cites some of the outstanding co-ops which are always invited to the national co-operatives conference. As in the conference held in 2017, the perennially popular speaker was from Lamac Cooperative of Cebu. This multi-purpose co-op began with hardly any capital in the late 90s by some 70 farmers led by a rural midwife at a remote highland village of Cebu. After two decades, Lamac had grown to more than 140,000 members in 90 branches all over the Visayas and Mindanao. It operated vacation resorts, low-cost housing projects, vegetable farms supplying big fast food chains, credit and remittance centers, and other businesses catering to farmers, store and stall owners, and ordinary employees.

Philip cited examples of successful co-operatives with tons of money. But FAC is different because its unique wealth is given out to small farmers. “Surprisingly, the wealth is not lessened but instead grows,” said Philip.

“The wealth actually springs from the insights the group has gained over years of experience in various fields of agriculture, and these insights are willingly shared with small farmers. This sharing, this mentoring and literal support in many ways, may appear to be simple and easy. But every farmer or every farming community is different, as they may have different concerns and different experiences with government agencies, private companies and other organizations.

“What keeps Foodlink going,” Philip said, “is the commitment of every member. It is like an individual expression of CSR, or maybe just a personal sense of responsibility. You can see passion at work here. Members are essentially volunteers. They want to give back the blessings they received. They want to pass on what they had gotten in life to others who could use that wisdom to succeed in their own lives.”