AMONG the artifacts or finds that the Ateneo Department of Sociology and Anthropology’s Mindoro Archaeology Project has uncovered, together with stone tools, shell middens, obsidian and bones of coral fish and pelagic fishes, are traces of ube residue in the stone tools.
They date from 40,000 years ago from people who came from the Asian mainland on boats and were AMH (anatomically modern humans). Their traces are found on Ilin island, off Occidental Mindoro.
Apparently, climate change is not just a phenomenon of today, but it was present in the past. From the Last Glacier Age to the Holocene, which is our current era, there were marked drops in temperature, followed by droughts, floods and typhoons. To survive these disruptive events, early people depended on what nature had. Ube (Dioscorea alata) was one gift of nature that provided subsistence for survival. It was the carbohydrate part of their diet, together with coral fish and pelagic fishes, terrestrial fauna whose bones are found in the shell middens, proof that people lived there.
Ube in the present day is an iconic yam that yields a distinct violet color when prepared for eating. It is thought to be endemic to the Philippines though other Southeast Asian countries like Vietnam and India in South Asia also have it. But in the Philippines, it has a festive note to it because it has now become savory, meaning something like a dessert or postprandial indulgence in the form of ice cream, cake, cookies, sweetmeats and jams.
Our ancestors ate it to survive harsh weather and to live another day. It was what gave them the resilience to get over the harsh environment of climate change. This is said because the Ilin stratigraphy clearly shows marked differences in weather that must have affected living conditions with some seasons harsher than others.
Claude Tayag, the food historian, states that ube as a savory, meaning as a dessert, etc., is of recent vintage, maybe the middle part of the 20th century. Before that, it was eaten like any yam, boiled or roasted, without any additives. It is older than rice in our diet.
Interestingly, it has become an icon of Philippine agriculture. In the United States, there are vendors in flea markets selling ube products. In places like Germany, Filipinos have ube festivals. Our consul general in Germany, Maria Yvette Banzon Abalos, described how the Filipino community has been organizing ube festivals yearly starting in Bonn in 2022, Bavaria in 2023 and Wiesbaden in 2024, and for this year Stuttgart. These ube festivals are not only community socials for Filipinos but attract a good number of Germans who are into organic food and find ube the ultimate organic yam.
With all of the above regarding ube, it seems that we are not producing enough ube for the demand that is present. With the abandonment of farming by young people and the desultory ube production, there is not enough to meet demand. Vietnam, meanwhile, produces ube and exports it. While the consul general in Germany says they do not get enough supply for their needs from here.
Aside from stimulating production, perhaps ube should be processed into whatever food items it can have. In other words, add value to the product rather than export it raw. We should be exporting cookies, cakes, ice creams, candies made of ube to get a better return on investment.
Meanwhile, the Department of Agriculture should encourage the planting of ube. So far, the world knows ube as a Filipino product. Let us develop it this way as there is a market in and out of this country that would welcome it.