The farm has gone a long way from being a source of embarrassment to being a status symbol. “Gone are the days when people do not want to be associated with the farm,” declares Vice Gov. Julius Caesar Herrera, a certified farm owner and advocate of the green revolution. Herrera, who chairs the Sangguniang Panlalawigan (SP) agriculture committee, knows whereof he speaks. A tarpaulin showing him in a farmer's attire is an unmistakable sign is that what you see is what you get. The characterization is that he is a farmer through and through. A lawyer who has become a hopeless fanatic of backyard gardening, the vice-governor does not waste any opportunity to push for the greening of Bohol . The vice-governor is one of the leading lights of the mango growers' organization in the province in addition to other agricultural ventures..

Herrera does not hesitate to declare that he grows his own backyard garden planted to vegetables. “How I wish that we would no longer import vegetables and fruits from Mindanao and Cebu ,” he noted. The vice-governor said Bohol only grows about 37 percent of the vegetables that it consumes which explains the steep prices of vegetables. He expressed his disappointment over this low production considering that there are still many idle and unproductive lands where people can plant vegetables. “This is the reason why I have initiated and campaigned for the passing of ordinances in the barangay levels that virtually made it a crime to buy and sell kamunggay,” the vice-governor said. Herrera lamented that people in the villages who have time to spare refuse to make use of their idle lands.

He always brings up the move of US First Lady Michelle Obama to uproot the roses planted in the White House garden and replace it with vegetables. “If the First Lady of the world's most powerful nation can find time to plant vegetables, how much more for us who have many idle lots and leisure time?” he added. The economic crisis and the rising cost of commodities including vegetables have made farming and even backyard gardening a very attractive proposition. “The time when people are ashamed to admit that they work on their farms is past. Today, there is a measure of pride whenever people talk about their farms,” he added. Herrera therefore does not mind being photographed while tilling his backyard garden, something unthinkable for men who walk the corridors of power in older times.

“I do not want to advocate something that I do not engage in,” he explained. The vice-governor said that he decided to make agriculture the centerpiece of his platform due to his love for the soil and after noting that a big chunk of the budget of many families are spent for vegetables which they otherwise could have planted. “I have decided to make it my personal advocacy to rally our people to the benefits of planting,” he added. While his critics chide him for this, Herrera said he does not mind making the same speech over and over again if this is what it takes for people to wake up. “For many years, people were used to the idea that planting and tilling the soil were only for those who live in the rural areas,” he noted. The vice-governor said it will take many years before people will make planting a habit and agriculture a way of life. Herrera, however, is determined to press on until the green revolution that he is advocating will become a reality.  The vice-governor finds comfort in the thought that while it is a long way to go before backyard gardening is reinvented into a province-wide fad, his farm gives him something to brag about this early. Farming has never been this glamorous.