OFFBEAT MAIL

Benguet, one of the coolest places the Philippines can ever bestow, does not only attract visitors because of its variety of tourist attractions like the famour Banaue Rice Terraces and the thousand years-old mummies in caves. Likewise, tourists are drawn to come to Benguet, via Baguio City, the country's summer capital, because of its thousands of cut flower varities that abound all year round. And business has never been so good as it is today, when imported cut flower species from other countries have been propagated and are now mushrooming all over the province and the nearby places on commercial scale. What makes Benguet ideal for cut flower farming is attributed to two important factors: fertile soil and the cool atmosphere that abound. This is not to mention the high elevation that keeps the ground moist all the time. No wonder that Benguet has not slackened as a primary source of cut flower export in the country. According to Teresita L. Rosario of the University of the Phi...

The biggest beef recall initiated by the U. S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has sent quivers, not only to the spines of millions of consumers, but the big retailers across the country as well. This after animal humane society and federal inspectors have expressed apprehensions over the way ambulatory cattles were being treated before they were brought to the slaughter house for meat processing and packing. Humane Society officials estimated that the recalled beef meat could run to the tune of a billion pounds. But USDA officials argued that estimate of the total volume could not be figured out at this time considering that meat supplies to Hallmark/Westland Meat Company came from many sources and distributors all over the country. As this developed, food safety inspectors are in a limbo as to how much of the recalled beef went into the various outlets in the domestic markets such as schools and restaurants. Another concern that bothered most of the food inspectors were the laborato...