The Vegetable King's Life Without Regrets: Devoting a Lifetime to Vegetable Growing
"I'm not afraid of hardship and I never give in. Once I set my sights on something, I must make something of it."
In 1966, Chen Mingli was born into a poor family. All six members of the household relied solely on the work points his father earned to get by.
He still remembers the bitter moments from his primary school days: "To buy a Xinhua Dictionary, my father borrowed money from the east end of the village to the west end, and still couldn't scrape the money together." In 1983, because the family was poor, Chen Mingli dropped out of school after only a year and a half of junior high and returned home, crying about it all night.
The suffering of poverty gave him a powerful desire to escape poverty and become prosperous. In 1985, he began trying to grow vegetables in arched sheds. Through countless days and nights of painstaking exploration, he ran experiments over and over on his family's contracted land, and when he failed, he started again from scratch. Long-term practice gradually turned him into a "self-taught expert" in greenhouse vegetable growing.
In 1987, the 32 arched sheds of tomatoes and 9 arched sheds of cucumbers Chen Mingli grew enjoyed a bountiful harvest, with gross income that year of more than 5,000 yuan.
In 1991, Chen Mingli, then only 25 years old, built a winter-warm greenhouse on his private plot, a first for Laiwu.
In 1993, Chen Mingli became a widely known "Vegetable King" and the first household in Caojiazhuang Village, where per capita income was only a few hundred yuan at the time, to reach the ten-thousand-yuan mark. With his stubborn refusal to give in, Chen Mingli said: "Once I've set my mind on a path, no matter how hard it is, I will stick with it to the end."
Loving Agriculture, Working for Farmers——
Letting farmer friends enjoy a "science and technology package" and leading everyone onto the road to prosperity
Seeing farmer friends lacking technology and information and still struggling in poverty made Chen Mingli sad at heart. In March 1998, Chen Mingli raised funds himself to establish an agricultural science and technology service station.
To convince people, Chen Mingli ran experiments in his own greenhouse; he set up a science and technology library and an agricultural science and technology screening room, organizing sessions at any time to study the latest agricultural science and technology; he set up a soil and fertilizer testing laboratory to test soil for farmers free of charge and provide a basis for formula fertilization; he installed a science and technology service telephone at home, and responded to every request for on-site guidance, ready to come whenever called.
Over the years, Chen Mingli promoted 44 improved varieties of high-quality and high-yield corn, wheat, cotton, and soybeans, covering a cumulative 218,000 mu, and promoted more than 80 improved vegetable varieties such as cucumbers and tomatoes, covering a cumulative 126,000 mu; he established a plant hospital to comprehensively prevent and control crop diseases and insect pests, with a plant protection area of more than 120,000 mu, extending its reach to more than 200,000 people across several townships.
In 2007, just after the national Law on Farmers' Professional Cooperatives was promulgated, Chen Mingli joined with 20 greenhouse vegetable growers in Gaozhuang Subdistrict, Laicheng District, to establish the Laiwu Mingli Characteristic Vegetable Growing Professional Cooperative, the city's first vegetable professional cooperative.
To better demonstrate and drive development, in 2009 Chen Mingli transferred 53 mu of land from Weijiawa and Caojiazhuang at a price of 1,000 yuan per mu, and invested more than 1.56 million yuan to establish one high-standard vegetable growing demonstration base.
The cooperative has become an "engine" for local farmers to increase income and prosper. Today, in addition to owning more than 300 mu of its own base, the cooperative has also absorbed 217 members. The cooperative has paid dividends every year since 2008, continuing for 8 years now, and the amount of dividends has grown from 20,000 yuan at the start to more than 360,000 yuan, with members increasing their income by more than 10,000 yuan per mu compared with ordinary farming households.
Strictly Honoring Integrity——
"Selling vegetables also requires conscience. I will never let a single unsafe vegetable reach the dining table."
In Chen Mingli's eyes, vegetable growers deal not only in technique but in a matter of conscience. They must have integrity and must not pass off inferior goods as good ones, for otherwise they harm people.
On the cooperative base of Chen Mingli, you can pick a cucumber at random and eat it without even washing it. Chen Mingli's demands for vegetable quality and safety had reached a harsh level.
Once, 6 members secretly used herbicides to save time and labor. After the situation was verified, Chen Mingli resolutely refused to purchase the celery from these 6 members. Compared with members who followed the rules, these 6 members earned more than 6,000 yuan less per mu, and they even had a big quarrel with the cooperative over it. Even so, Chen Mingli never wavered.
In recent years, vegetable trademarks of the cooperative such as "Lulai Mingli" and "Yingqin" have gained wide recognition. In 2015, "Lulai Mingli" was rated as a famous trademark of Shandong Province. It has successively certified 9 pollution-free vegetable varieties, 14 green vegetable varieties, and 1 national geographical indication certification. The certified area of the pollution-free vegetable base is more than 10,000 mu, and the certified area of the green vegetable base is 3,600 mu. The base has been rated as a "Laiwu Safe Vegetable Base" for many consecutive years.
Fighting Disease——
"If heaven could let me live 5 more years, I would certainly build Mingli into a nationally known cooperative."
In 2014, after years of toil and irregular living, Chen Mingli developed stomach cancer. But after only two days in the hospital, Chen Mingli insisted on being discharged to go to Shanghai to attend an international vegetable expo. Faced with attempts to dissuade him, Chen Mingli insisted: "I know my illness is not good, but the opportunity is rare. If I don't come this time, I may never have another chance." In the end, he drove himself, hauling a truckload of vegetables to Shanghai for the expo.
That same month, Chen Mingli went to Jinan to attend a national agricultural forum. After the meeting ended, Chen Mingli went to the Provincial Hospital for a gastroscopy, and the results were not optimistic at all. The doctor said: "His stomach is already full of tumors, and the entire stomach must be removed." His family signed the consent form in tears, and the surgery lasted more than 6 hours.
Chen Mingli stayed in the hospital for 9 days and then insisted on being discharged again, because his base was always on his mind. His vegetables were his life.
Due to the reaction to chemotherapy, Chen Mingli often vomited until he was utterly exhausted, and his weight plummeted from 85 kg before the illness to 45 kg. Enduring tremendous physical pain, he never gave up on the cooperative and never gave up on this land he loved so dearly. He often went to the base at around 5 in the morning and did not return home until 8 or 9 at night. At the base, he often clutched his stomach, doubled over in pain, and the members could not help wiping away tears when they saw him.
In two years, he went through two major surgeries and six rounds of chemotherapy. But during this period, as long as he was not hospitalized, he still acted like a normal person, day and night at the base, observing the growth of the vegetables, holding meetings for the staff, and arranging all kinds of affairs at the base. After falling ill, he seemed to be racing against time, always afraid that things would not be finished and always afraid that time would not be enough. "Dad, stop worrying about your vegetables and rest well to recover. I beg you." His daughter Chen Xiurong urged him more than once.
"Daughter, I made it through countless hardships to get where we are today. I haven't done enough yet. If heaven could let me live 5 more years, I would certainly build Mingli into a nationally known cooperative." Chen Mingli said, gripping his daughter's hand.
In October 2016, Chen Mingli's life entered its final countdown. He talked with the members and made final arrangements. "Whether I am here or not, you must farm the land well and manage the vegetables well. That would be the greatest help you could give me." The members left with tears in their eyes.
On October 17, Chen Mingli passed away after treatment failed, at the age of 50. In the final moments of his life, his last wish was still to go back to the base to take a look, to take a photo in front of every greenhouse, and to keep this land forever in his mind...