Why do I oppose disaster relief subsidies?

Every typhoon season, the question I hear most often is: have you applied for the disaster relief subsidy yet?

And then I have to patiently explain, over and over: we are fake farmers, not recognized by the government. We have been growing vegetables for five years, but we do not have farmer status. The government only recognizes landowners who own land as farmers, regardless of whether they actually farm.

Although we could ask the landowner to help apply for the subsidy, I know quite a few landowners (not ours) who, after applying for the subsidy, split the money with the farmer. The farmer is the one who suffered the loss, yet the landowner also pockets a share of the subsidy.

Worse still, some farmers or landowners are so close to the farmers' association that when disaster relief funds come around, they even tell farmers or landowners who had no disaster at all to hurry up and apply. You ask me how this can happen? Doesn't applying for a subsidy require relevant photos as proof, documents as proof, and even government officials coming on site to confirm there was crop damage?

But shady dealings in Taiwan, China are hardly news. At least among the farming friends we know, this happens: the review can be simplified in every way, those who were not affected are treated as affected households, and farmers (or landowners) who suffered no disaster can still collect the subsidy, yet they collect it with full confidence, as if it were only right, because free money is not to be refused.

Note: I am sorry, I must correct myself. I misunderstood this point. The farmers' association is not responsible for issuing disaster payments; at the time, because farmers' association staff were present in the situations our farming friends encountered, I misunderstood. But it is indeed the case that our farming friend received the subsidy even though he had no crop loss.

Actually, call me sour grapes if you like, but frankly I am opposed to the subsidy policy (this article will probably make other farmers curse me out).

If you have the patience, please keep reading for my reasons...

My reason for opposing disaster subsidies is this: normally, what farmers earn is their own, but when disaster strikes, the government is expected to pay. Government money is everyone's money. By what right should everyone subsidize farmers or landowners (even though those subsidies are truly out of proportion to crop losses, and farmers' losses are far greater)?

But agriculture is a special industry, because it is tied to everyone's belly. Without food, a nation perishes. Fine, so the government does need to treat agriculture specially (though from this angle, it is also strange that Taiwan, China has never reclaimed food self-sufficiency, always letting production stay at just over 30%, with farmland left abandoned in heaps, and letting food prices in Taiwan, China keep rising with international prices).

Having the will to build a sound agricultural mechanism, so that farmers' efforts can earn a reasonable income, is the only sustainable path. The government should spend money more wisely on guiding farmers' cultivation (types, quantities), sales, balancing the ratio of domestic production and imports, and cleaning up the shady dealings in the trading markets, so that farmers' hard work pays off, rather than treating the symptom instead of the disease.

Many traditional old farmers only know how to grow, not how to sell. After a lifetime of hard work, they are forced to be gamblers, betting that what they plant this time will pay off. They are forced to let others decide how much their sweat is worth.

I often say that if a noodle shop owner wants to open a shop, he can still calculate the cost and how much a bowl of noodles should sell for, but farmers cannot. Farmers work hard to grow crops and cannot decide how much their land rent + fertilizer + field pest control + sweat + time is worth.

Because when vegetables are plentiful, prices are low, and when vegetables are scarce, prices are high. Farmers do not know whether others are growing what they are growing now, or in what quantity.

So after a whole year of farming, deducting costs (not counting time and labor), a small profit is luck, and a big profit means God has blessed you. But more often than not, after settling up for the whole year, losing money is also within expectations.

So farmers' income is normally unstable and their efforts unequal, and once disaster and crop loss hit, they can only rely on the government's meager subsidy.

Then you get farmers weeping and begging the president for help, for a subsidy, quick.

Over time, farmers get used to the government being responsible for them during disasters, while the general public grows more and more resentful of farmers: why should your losses be paid for with my money?

A subsidy is like an anti-inflammatory drug. It can only relieve a little of the pain of the illness, but it cannot cure this troublesome disease.

Refuse to be gamblers any longer, and cultivate your own loyal customers

Not being gambler farmers is an awareness we only gained in our third year of farming. We began to want to defend our own hard work, so we started selling our own produce directly, bypassing the fruit and vegetable market and facing customers directly.

But after selling our own produce directly, we found the problem of vegetable prices still was not solved.

Although we are not organic, we use little or no pesticide. Our vegetable quantities are small and the vegetables do not look good, but customers are still used to buying big, beautiful vegetables.

Even if the harvest is poor and we have only a few bunches of vegetables to sell, when vegetables outside are cheap, we still sell at the same price. Customers even say that since you grow the vegetables yourselves, you should sell them cheaper than outside.

And when vegetable prices outside are high, customers say that since you grew them yourselves, you should not sell so expensive. Price increases are the work of vegetable profiteers; homegrown produce must not go up.

Fine, no matter what, homegrown produce just has to sell cheap, even cheaper than what is sold in the market, and that is the only acceptable way.

I am furious!

In order to grow safe vegetables, after three years of vegetable farming, we are in debt so deep that we do not know where the next meal is coming from. Selling through the fruit and vegetable market means gambling with it, and selling on our own means selling cheaper than the fruit and vegetable market. Customers demand big and cheap and no pesticide. Is there any justice? We might as well go drink the northwest wind.

I cannot let customers keep leading the vegetable price around by the nose. We must let our vegetables keep the dignity they deserve, and earn a reasonable income for our family.

So I began to set a stable, uniform price for the vegetables in the garden. No matter how low or how sky-high the vegetable prices outside go, it has nothing to do with me.

Why should safe, non-toxic vegetables follow the prices of the fruit and vegetable market!

I had to cut that link.

So I set the price of a plate of greens at 20-30 yuan; if something is harder to grow or takes longer, I sell it a bit more expensive.

This kind of pricing of course upsets many customers, but it does not matter. I am deliberately weeding out customers.

If you want to buy big, cheap, pesticide-free vegetables, do not come to me.

And so, now in our fifth year, we finally no longer have to let others decide how much our sweat is worth.

We have also cultivated many loyal customers.

There should be a sound mechanism, rather than letting farmers keep growing nothing but bitterness....

Saying all this is actually to echo the subsidy issue mentioned earlier.

The government should cultivate farmers' self-reliance, establish a sound mechanism, so that farmers are no longer just growing bitterness, so that farmers do not need to live on government subsidies, so that farmers can support a family and still have the capacity to give back to society. That is the only acceptable way.

Finally,

Typhoon Tembin's return strike is already approaching, and the sound of rain is growing louder.

I sincerely wish all the farmland in Taiwan, China a safe passage through, and that all farmers can carve out their own piece of sky.

Peace

May God stretch out His right hand to cover Taiwan, China

 

 

Fool's Garden. Xixi. 101.0827 Mon