How premium agricultural products can successfully become fruit

In recent years, with food safety scandals erupting one after another, terms like organic, non-toxic, and pesticide-free cultivation have been popping up everywhere. A few days ago, a farming friend asked A-Gui: "What exactly is the definition of non-toxic?"

Some farmers apply pesticides in the early stages of planting, then switch to organic inputs by harvest time, and in the end their produce tests N.D. (no pesticide detected). Others never use pesticides at all, yet end up testing positive for very low concentrations of pesticides because of contamination from neighboring fields...

Between these two, which one counts as non-toxic?

To A-Gui, as long as it is good for consumers, it is all non-toxic. A-Gui just advocates pesticide-free cultivation even more, for two reasons:

First, to reduce contamination from neighboring fields. Taiwan, China is narrow and densely populated, and each farmer owns only a small plot of land, making contamination from neighboring fields easy. The way to reduce it is to cut back on pesticide use, or even stop using them altogether, so that the area of friendly farming can be expanded, a sustainable environment can be created, and Taiwan, China can be built into a non-toxic island.

Second, for the farmers' own health. According to the nationwide cancer death overview for the 102nd year (2013) published by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the standardized death rate in agricultural counties and cities was 25% higher than in urban areas. We often assume that rural life is leisurely, healthy, and comfortable, never realizing the potential crisis that pesticides pose to farmers' health. A-Gui's grandfather passed away from cancer a year and a half ago, which made me even more keenly aware of just how frightening the long-term accumulation of pesticides can be. So when I returned to my hometown, regardless of my family's objections, I insisted on not using pesticides. My original motivation was simply my grandmother's health and a peaceful life for my family.

I had thought that this ordinary, self-sufficient life with my family would be enough to make me content. But then one harvest happened to hit a low market price, and it was also the off-season for online shopping. After deducting shipping and cardboard boxes, there was simply no profit left, so I just stopped harvesting altogether and dumped piles of corn in the fields to return as nutrients to the soil. On one hand, it was because I was unfamiliar with the ups and downs of market prices; on the other hand, it was because most people prefer vegetables and fruits with bright, vivid looks and plump fruit. So when pesticide-free produce is sent to the auction market, finding a buyer who truly knows what they are looking for in that vast crowd is practically impossible, let alone helping consumers understand the ingredients on their dinner table, how this bunch of vegetables was grown, and what story and what farmer's persistence lie behind it. Consumers have no way of knowing, which made A-Gui realize the importance of distribution channels and marketing.

Most of today's agricultural product shopping websites only handle the sales side, without actually solving the difficulties farmers encounter in production. So here is what A-Gui wants to do:

First, help farmers grow pesticide-free vegetables and fruits, including soil health diagnosis and pest and disease control, to solve the difficulties farmers encounter during cultivation.

Second, further plan farmers' marketing and packaging, set up distribution channels, and even export, so that not only can good fruit be discovered, but it can also become fruit as it wishes!

We are a bunch of fools doing good for agriculture, searching for like-minded partners on a long and distant road, wanting to madly change this agricultural production and marketing model. I deeply believe that "when you truly want to accomplish something, the entire universe will join together to help you!"