Is the tangerine sweet? Friendship is the sweetest! The "Five Cool Mountain Farmers Group" sworn brotherhood, with farmers, scholars, and shareholders supporting and connecting with each other.
Under the warm winter sun in Dongshan, Tainan, the tangerines have turned red. Zheng Wenfu greets his visitors with a smile, and behind him is an orchard laden with ponkan tangerines; after a whole year of hard work, this moment of harvest at year's end is what he has been waiting for. It is hard to imagine that at this time last year, his face was full of worry.
"Do you feel that if we keep doing it this way, is there a future?" Last year, Zheng Wenfu, who tried reducing pesticide use and moving toward organic farming, asked anxiously when he saw pests running rampant and poor yields. Listening to his concerns were Chen Peijun, project manager of Cheng Kung University's "Humanities Innovation and Social Practice Project," and postdoctoral researcher Zhong Yiting. They visited frequently, constantly encouraged the farmers, accompanied them in figuring out the ins and outs of friendly cultivation, and helped arrange fruit tree adoption. A group of "shareholders" came from various places to this remote mountain orchard, giving Zheng Wenfu economic and spiritual support.
"What touches me most is that people take the bus here from Taipei, and with that money they could buy as much as they want at the vegetable market." This is worlds apart from his experience selling at the Yujing fruit and vegetable market, where he told customers: these tangerines are very safe and tested, and the customer coldly replied: Don't try to fool me! They look so ugly, and you say they're organic. It's all fake.
Chen Peijun said that fruit in this transition period does not meet organic standards and cannot enter organic sales channels, and when sent to the general market, it is disliked for not looking pretty. Farmers are also not yet proficient in organic cultivation techniques, must bear many risks, and face livelihood pressure, often trapped in worry.
In this lonely and painful transition process, what is needed most is someone to walk alongside them. With the support of this Ministry of Science and Technology project at Cheng Kung University, the "Wuku Mountain Farmers Group" in the Dadongyuan area of Tainan emerged in response.
What ripens is not only the tangerines, but also the unquantifiable human warmth
"Organic farming is not something farmers are willing to do just because you give them money; otherwise government subsidies would be enough," said Zhong Yiting. "In fact, it is the many invisible emotional exchanges behind it that are the reason they are willing to take that step, and that cannot be quantified or calculated."
Chen Peijun, who drives up the mountain every week, has also built family-like bonds with the mountain farmers. "Because I see that these farmers really put their hearts into it, it gives me the motivation to keep wanting to come." When the farmers feel lonely and down, she comforts them by their side, and when the farmers start taking home-delivery orders themselves, she also feels a sense of accomplishment.
When the tangerines turn from green to red, people also grow familiar with one another. On this hillside, so-called "community-supported agriculture" is not just a sociology term, not just a Ministry of Science and Technology project, but a concrete practice of a group of people baking their ideals together and guarding their homeland.