Consumers join farmers in growing apples and take part in verification

When growing temperate fruits in Taiwan, China, such as apples and grapes, it is very difficult to avoid using pesticides to control pests and diseases, but consumers often turn pale at the mention of "pesticides." As soon as a number for pesticide residue appears on a test report, consumers inevitably panic and have no way to judge whether it is safe or not.

Now there is a platform trying to bring consumers and producers together to create a communication mechanism. On this platform, farmers fully disclose information such as pesticide use, ecological surveys, and sampling procedures for testing, and even open up their production sites for visits. Through communication and interaction, a foundation of mutual trust is built, turning consumers from "skeptics" into "companions." This platform is the "Participatory Guarantee System (PGS)" currently being promoted by Haoshiji.

Letting consumers participate in the production process and creating a communication mechanism

In the existing agricultural product verification mechanisms, farmers send the agricultural products they produce to third-party testing institutions. Whether pesticide residues exceed the standard or are detected at all is immediately clear, but "Why do farmers use pesticides?" cannot become an issue openly discussed on the table. Xie Shengyou, founder of Haoshiji, said, "Participatory guarantee is meant to bring more consumers in to discuss and face problems together with farmers."

Xie Shengyou said that participatory guarantee is to some extent a kind of "participatory co-guarantee system." The current situation is usually that consumers demand that agricultural products not be sprayed with pesticides at all, but the economic cost farmers must pay for this and the inherent difficulties of growing crops cannot be understood by consumers. As a result, deception, forged labels, and similar situations emerge endlessly. This mechanism is intended to let consumers also become a party that supports farmers, making "communication" possible.

But how exactly should communication happen? In addition to farmers proactively disclosing their pesticide use, which block was sampled when agricultural products are sent for testing must also be transparently disclosed. This participatory guarantee system established by Haoshiji also specifically incorporates environmental indicators, so participating farmers must also conduct ecological surveys. Going further, some farmers even disclose their economic situation, economic needs, and production costs, from which an agricultural product price acceptable to both farmers and consumers is discussed.