The Encounter Between Yilan Xiaotiantian and Grandpa Chen

Farming for the Health of the Next Generation

Grandpa Chen Rongchang is 73 years old this year. When we asked him why he wanted to make the transition, Grandpa said he hopes his grandchildren can eat safe food. When Grandpa first learned to farm, pesticides and chemical fertilizers had not yet come to Shengou Village, so Grandpa lived through an era when crops could be grown without pesticides and chemical fertilizers. Around the 47th year of the Republic of China (1958), the government encouraged farmers to use pesticides and chemical fertilizers. Grandpa said that at the time the country was short of food, so using pesticides and chemical fertilizers to increase yields was entirely reasonable. But as time went on, having enough to eat was no longer a problem for the people of Taiwan, while quality had become a problem. So he began to think about whether he could reduce the use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers within a reasonable range.