How did Yilan's Super Grandma build the Sanxing Organic Village?
Xingjian Village in Sanxing Township, Yilan, produces "Xingjian Rice" and is one of the most famous organic communities in the country, but the beginning of "organic" here can be traced back to an accidental shopping experience by former village chief Chang Mei. One day she stood in front of a shelf comparing the prices of white rice from various brands. "Rice grown with conventional farming methods is 25 per jin, but organic rice can actually sell for 84 per jin. It is all just rice, so how can the difference be so big?"
That 3-fold price gap reminded her of the dark, weathered, honest faces in the fields of her hometown. The old farmers in her home village lived under the blazing sun every day; no matter the wind, sun, or rain, they had to get up and work before sunrise, toiling all year round yet barely able to fill their stomachs. To improve work efficiency, many also had to use large amounts of pesticides, which harmed their health. "If our Xingjian Village also switched to growing organic rice, under the 'health' trend, might it be possible for the rice to sell at a good price and let our neighbors live better lives?"
After serving as village chief for 20 years, she had a wild idea: "Turn 'Xingjian Village' into an 'organic village,' so that not only can we make money, but everyone can also eat healthily!" Once the idea took hold, Chang Mei went home and began urging her farming neighbors to change their rice-growing methods so that everyone could grow organic rice without pesticides.
But at the time, this avant-garde idea was unthinkable to the old farmers who had been spraying pesticides for half a century. "It won't work! How can crops grow without spraying pesticides?" Besides the doubts, her passion also offended the pesticide stores. Fearing that the full adoption of non-toxic farming methods in Xingjian Village would affect profits, the pesticide stores stirred up farmers everywhere to "oppose organic," making Chang Mei's promotion work even more difficult.
Chang Mei promoting organic agriculture together with farming friends in Xingjian Village, Yilan
Persuading old farmers to come over, finding children to help lobby
However, Chang Mei's refusing-to-give-up attitude deeply moved the younger generation in the village. Among them, the two sons of the village's 77-year-old farmer "Uncle A-Tu" even went to great lengths to help persuade their father to give up pesticides on their own. "Those are toxic. Once they are sprayed, we do not dare eat it!" Under this semi-forced pressure, Uncle A-Tu finally "surrendered" and resolved to fight for the organic camp.
With partners in place, Chang Mei became even more proactive in seeking outside resources. Although she was 63, she often took the initiative to learn courses on agricultural product certification, community building, and product marketing, which gave her the chance to obtain project manpower through the government's "Diversified Employment Subsidy Program" to help farmers who only knew how to grow but not how to sell.
"Writing the proposal was really hard, like studying and taking exams when I was a child," she said. She had never written an application before, and every night she stayed busy until 1 a.m. The proposal was written and crossed out, crossed out and revised again, going through 5 or 6 rounds of struggle. In the end, even the staff at the employment service station were moved and made a special trip to Chang Mei's home, guiding her step by step in exhaustive detail on how to write the proposal, and finally it was approved. Counting it all up, over the whole year Chang Mei and her partners secured more than 2 million yuan in funding for Xingjian Village.
"Buy Directly from Farmers" charity assistance sells out 100,000 jin of rice
The funds were in place and the rice harvest came in, but in September of last year, Xingjian Village faced the problem of unsold products. This group of diligent farmers had changed their entire farming method, only to find that nearly 100,000 jin of rice had piled up into a whole mountain. How to sell it? They had no idea at all.
Chang Mei was unwilling to give up. She took the initiative to petition Yilan County Magistrate Lin Tsung-hsien and secured corporate adoption. Later, with the help of "Mai-mai-shi," the head of the "Buy Directly from Farmers" writers' group, she vigorously promoted group buying through the internet to support the old farmers, and the cooperative's phone line, once ignored by everyone, suddenly became busy. "The phone would not stop ringing," Chang Mei said. Before the Chinese New Year had even arrived, 50,000 jin of organic rice had already sold out completely!
"Farming is hard, but seeing the smiles of the next generation makes all the hardship worthwhile," Chang Mei said in summary of every farmer who earnestly and diligently grows organic crops. This super grandma of Sanxing, Yilan, not only fully embodies the true meaning of "live and learn," but also shows us by personal example that as long as you irrigate your ideals with the power of action, the land beneath anyone's feet can grow into a field of dreams.
After reading the story of the super grandma of Xingjian Village, can you also feel these farmers' efforts for this land? Let us all cheer on these passionate farmers, and let the land we live on become sweeter and sweeter!
What is Taiwan Good Field Movement?http://tw.topic.
Yilan Xingjian Organic Dream Village
Yilan Xingjian Rice, building an organic dream village