Ramon “Chin-Chin” Uy Jr. is a sustainable-food entrepreneur based on Negros Island in the Philippines, which recently hosted the global “good food” movement Slow Food’s first-ever regional conference in Asia and the Pacific. Held in Bacolod City, in Negros Occidental province, from Nov. 19-23, 2025, the gathering brought together farmers, chefs, food artisans and policymakers from across the region to discuss agroecology, biodiversity and climate-resilient food systems. Uy has also been named “Slow Food councilor” for Southeast Asia, after having spent nearly two decades working with organic farmers and the provincial government to advance a vision of Negros as an “organic island” — a sustainable food hub where people can access healthy, locally grown produce at fair prices without relying on imported, oil-based chemical fertilizers that undermine environmental health, farmer livelihoods and food security. That vision now encompasses an estimated 20,000 hectares (nearly 50,000 acres) of organic farmland across Negros, involving roughly 20,000 small-scale farmers and farming households, with Bacolod serving as a key urban hub linking producers, markets and institutions. Uy’s work in sustainable food systems began in 2005, when he and his wife started a composting business that converted organic waste into fertilizer. At the time, chemical inputs were inexpensive and widely used, but a subsequent spike in global oil prices exposed the vulnerability of conventional agriculture to fossil fuel dependence. That experience prompted Uy to establish an organic farm in 2006, both to demonstrate the viability of organic inputs and to build direct relationships between farmers, chefs…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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