The
popular images of Batanes are those of breathtaking verdant landscapes and blue
waters, alternately agitated and calm. These northernmost Philippine islands
have long been part of a traveler’s must-go-and-experience list. But Batanes is more than just a weekend
getaway.
“A Delicate Balance: Batanes Food,
Ecology and Community” reveals why. A project of The Museo ng Kaalamang Katutubo
(MusKKat), this handsome book explores how food, ecology, nature, and tradition,
have shaped the Ivatan way of life in the last 4,000 years. It also explains too that the Ivatan and the
Itbayat, people of the Batanes, knew well how to husband resources through aeons,
without depleting or otherwise compromising nature.
