248 Agricultural Market responds to commentary reports on upstream and downstream news
Text / 248 Farming Market
Whose original intention? What original intention? A response to the NewsMarket commentary report
Regarding the NewsMarket article of 10/30"Farmers' markets moving into department stores becomes a trend: original intention no longer? Expanding the market?", which gave rise to many misunderstandings and questions about 248 Farming Market, we respond and explain here.
The original intention of holding a farmers' market was to promote direct face-to-face communication between producers (farmers) and consumers, to promote Taiwan's locally grown, safe and non-toxic, environmentally friendly agricultural products, and to hope to create an alternative production-and-marketing platform friendly to small farmers.
As early as 2008, when 248 Farming Market was founded, even though some criticized bringing farmers to the metropolitan area every week to exhibit and promote as a waste of effort and money that only added to farmers' burdens and hardship, we insisted on letting small farmers come out to meet and understand one another with consumers, and thereby trust, buy and support them. Five years on, we still firmly believe in earnestly seeking more ways of direct interaction between production and consumption along this path.
At present, the 7 farmers' markets for which the 248 team is responsible are located in Greater Taipei and Hsinchu, set up in cooperation with Pacific Construction, Zhongzi Culture, Global Mall and the New Taipei City Government, and we thank these organizations here as well for their long-term support. At the markets, the vast majority are producers who come to promote, and there are also dedicated staff of association organizations that fit the market's philosophy, and of course assistance from part-time student workers; as for the proportion, all of this can be investigated and examined. We believe we have not departed from the original idea of letting producers appear in person to communicate.
Second, in 2010 we opened our first directly operated store, Tianmu Farming Garden, because we recognized that although the farmers' market held one to two days a week saw steadily growing sales, its substantive help to farmers was still limited. According to actual interviews with market farmers at the time, weekly sales at the farmers' market accounted for only 5%-10% of an individual farm's monthly output. In other words, farmers still faced the pressure of sales channels, and while juggling production it was impossible for them to add more time participating in the market. So we looked for storefront premises, hoping in the spirit of a direct-sales outlet to train full-time staff to sell, on a fixed and regular basis, the agricultural products of farmers at the farmers' market and of more farmers practicing friendly cultivation, and to use 70% of sales revenue as the farmer's production and marketing profit, with the remaining 30% covering the market team's management and marketing costs, personnel, rent and other expenses. With such ideas and philosophy, we hoped to help farmers with more stable and broader channel sales, and so in 2011 we entered department stores; currently all 4 directly operated store counters have developed with this philosophy, and we have likewise not gone against the idea of creating an alternative production-and-marketing channel to actually help friendly farmers sell.
After the NewsMarket report was published, many misunderstandings and doubts arose. We still hold farmers' markets at fixed weekly times, while daily-open storefronts and department store counters provide convenient locations for consumers to shop. The report mentioned farmers' markets entering department stores and questioned a loss of original intention; we do not agree, and believe this is a misunderstanding that confuses farmers' markets with store counters, which even led some friends to mistakenly think we no longer hold markets. We feel helpless about this and therefore clarify accordingly.
Next, the report stated:
248Farming Market: What's wrong with letting conventional farmers profit too
"If conventional farmers can profit at the same time, why not sell?" said Li Jiancheng. Although the market mainly encourages friendly farming methods, "conventional farmers also deserve help. If I encountered a situation like that of Bamboo Dragonfly Market, I would not feel used, and would still go and set up a counter."
This made consumers and friends mistakenly think that 248 Farming Market also sells produce from conventional farming (using pesticides, chemical fertilizers, etc.). We explain here as well. To reconstruct what the reporter asked that day: if a department store also had other counters selling conventional produce, would you oppose it and not set up a counter? Li Jiancheng's response originally meant: we would not be affected, because what we pursue is a market of shared prosperity; we promote friendly farming, while other stalls selling conventional produce also need to survive, and there is no question of being used.
The positioning and standard of 248 Farming Market is to let in farmers who meet the philosophy of safety, non-toxicity and environmental friendliness, farmers who have been approved through the team's on-site visits and checks but who have no pesticide residue testing or organic certification. Therefore, at the markets and store locations there is no promotion or sale of conventional produce.
With the above explanations and clarifications, we still hope everyone will understand and support us from the standpoint of making Taiwan's agriculture better, rural areas more vibrant and farmers happier. And NewsMarket, as an emerging media outlet that everyone looks forward to, unlike ordinary mainstream media, we hope will investigate and report more deeply, more attentively and with more context, working together for a better tomorrow.
We too are learning and exploring how to forge another path and another possibility for agriculture. Friends are welcome to offer criticism and guidance and to communicate and brainstorm together; as for pointless gossip, we no longer have the energy to respond one by one.
248 Farming Market
Link to the NewsMarket report:https://www.newsmarket.com.tw/blog/41302/#comment-8771
248 Farming Market blog:www.248.com.tw
Related early articles:
http://www.248.com.tw/?p=977 The founding of Tianmu Farming Garden
http://www.248.com.tw/?p=498 Reflections on the market's anniversary, series one to five
More articles can be searched on the blog; we will gradually reorganize and republish the website articles