On October 4, 2025, editors Alyssa Paredes and Marvin Joseph F. Montefrio held their virtual book launch of Halo Halo Ecologies: The Emergent Environments behind Filipino Food, with Mama Sita’s Foundation and University of Hawaii Press.
Alyssa and Marvin were joined by their co-authors Ma. Katrina Beatrice David Jacinto, Orven Mallari, Anthony D. Medrano, Dana Collins, Adrian De Leon, Nicolo Paolo P. Ludovice, Inigo Acosta, Jose Kervin Cesar B. Calabias, Jessie Varquez, Maria Carinnes Alejandria, Anacorita O. Abasolo, Ezekiel Sales, Cla D. Ruzol, Thea Kersti C. Tandog, Mary Jill Ira A. Banta, and Tami Alvarez. Also in attendance as their panel were Ms. Felice Sta. Maria, Chef Giney Villar, and Mr. Paolo Paculan to share their comments and insights on Halo Halo Ecologies, with Dr. Pia Arboleda moderating the entire session.
Halo Halo Ecologies is a multi-layered gastro-ecological discourse book on Filipino food. The editors used halo-halo, the beloved Filipino dessert, as a metaphor to contextualize cultural identity, complex foodscapes, and Philippine ecosystems. As such, paving way for timely efforts to set a new, but foundational standard in Philippine, Filipino/Filipinx, and food studies.
The contributors attempt to reframe readers’ perspectives—challenging one to “reimagine what, how, and why we eat.” The book underscores the adverse impacts of food that touch upon livelihoods, environments, public works, technoscience, culture, socio-politics, and more. These tackle how typical fast food meals and sari-sari stores relate to scavenging practices of Manila informal settlers and agroecological practices of Indigenous Lumad schools; how fruit and vegetable farmers suffer the repercussion from agrochemical effects; how communities wage efforts against increasing threats to landscapes and coastal areas; how Filipinos are entrapped in cycles of debt and poverty; and how the diaspora has continually faced the invisibilized ecologies.
Ms. Felice Sta. Maria commended the contributors’ efforts in emphasizing food’s inextricably link to culture, politics, and ecologies. She highlights the need for more critical and nuanced approaches to culinary writing—stating that “literary terms and political terms together along with ecological terms can add clarity to today’s food writers’ opinions.” As such, the anthology urges readers to rethink food systems as tools not only for nourishment but also liberation.
Chef Giney Villar highlighted that “society instills their resistance to social disposability…no one is disposable,” demonstrating Filipinos’ spirit of bayanihan. She applauds the book’s reimagined formats and languages that can inspire diverse people to explore the anthology in different forms for widespread awareness whether comics, podcasts, curricula, etc. Ultimately, she asks that while “food is a conveyor of culture, what kind of culture are we fostering?”
Mr. Paolo Paculan drew parallels between Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere and Halo-Halo Ecologies, describing Noli as a “time capsule” that reveals life at the margins. Alike, Halo-Halo Ecologies empowers marginalized communities—representing the unheard voices, restoring their stories and emphasizing the Philippines’ ongoing social and ecological challenges.
Halo-Halo Ecologies: The Emergent Environments behind Filipino Food sheds light on the complex cultural, ecological, and social issues of Filipino food. It hopes to inspire readers to contribute, in their own way, to food systems that are more sustainable and just. To support this mission, the anthology is available in print edition through Amazon and the University of Hawaii Press.
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