In one of the more secluded farms of La Trinidad, Benguet, Romeo Gamutlong sits inside a small, makeshift kubo, packing what’s left of his fresh cucumbers into old newspapers. This is how Iloisa catches him when we drop by to say hello, one sunny Friday morning.
Mang Romeo is a partner of Session Groceries, and has been a vegetable farmer in Benguet for over twenty years. In a small patch of land he rents from a nearby public university, Mang Romeo grows spinach, cucumber, romaine, and green ice lettuce. “Yan lang kasi ang kaya ng lupa,” he says.
Before partnering with Session Groceries, Mang Romeo sold his vegetables at the trading post in La Trinidad. Every morning, farmers like him would flock to the market, carrying sacks and truckloads of fruits and vegetables that traders would buy for mass distribution. Because the selling price normally depended on supply and demand, these products were bought by traders at cost, sometimes even less. This meant that farmers rarely ever made profit; the best they could do was break even.
