Bow to Land Farmers' Market: Love farmers, cherish the soil, keep moving forward!
Finally, the 2011 Bow to Land Farmers' Market will draw to a close on 12/18. Unlike the event-style, carnival-like experience of the past two years, starting in September 2011 Bow to Land has tried to create a more stable production-and-sales platform, holding a farmers' market on the third Sunday of every month on the Palmetto Avenue (Pukui Dao) at National Taiwan University.
This year's four markets all ran into Taipei's gloomy, rainy weather, but these producers from all over Taiwan, China, bringing beautiful and eco-friendly products, the social groups and young students working hard to make this society better, and all the consumers who support green consumption, still smiled amid Bow to Land, hoping that every act of "purchasing" could carry social meaning - so that consumers can understand under what kind of eco-friendly conditions the agricultural products here are grown; and so that this force of friendly consumption can become a stable source of support for producers to carry on farming.
Beyond the market itself, the Bow to Land forums also gave urban consumers a different imagination of agriculture. In September, A-Bao from the Yilan Friendly Farming Small Farmers' Alliance stressed to everyone the importance of using local ingredients; in October, Elizabeth, a promoter of American community-supported agriculture, told everyone about the various possibilities that community-supported agriculture brings; in November, Wu Tzu-yu, founder of Rainforest Coffee, filled in our imagination from the production end to the sales end; and in December (12/18 3:00pm), young friends from the National Taiwan University Guyu Club and the Taiwan Rural Front are expected to share with everyone why they take part in social movements, and the distance between land, farming and us, during which there are many values worth defending together.
After this brief review of the four markets, the more important thing here is to share a piece of good news with everyone: after half a year of trying, Bow to Land has decided to keep going. Starting in February 2012, on the third Sunday of every month, we will continue to meet you on the Palmetto Avenue at National Taiwan University! Besides the farming friends everyone has come to know over the past half year, Bow to Land will also begin in January to expand recruitment of new farmer stalls and friendly-group stalls, and the recruitment information will be posted on the Bow to Land blog at that time, in the hope that more farming friends who likewise persist in eco-friendly farming for this land can join the ranks of Bow to Land,
and we also hope that all friends who love farmers and cherish the soil will continue, on the third Sunday of every month, to bow together in salute to the land and learn from farmers.
For complete and up-to-date information, please see the Bow to Land Farmers' Market blog at http://bowtoland.blogspot.com ,
or search Facebook for Bow to Land Farmers' Market
Organizer: Haoran Foundation
Co-organizers: Taiwan Rural Front, National Taiwan University Guyu Club
Special thanks: all the friends and farming friends who helped with preparations and joined the stalls,
and all of you who support eco-friendly farming and green consumption
Bow to Land Farmers' Market location: Palmetto Avenue at National Taiwan University. On the brick path between the Xinsheng South Road side gate of the NTU main campus (No. 1, Section 4, Roosevelt Road, Da'an District, Taipei City), the Agriculture Exhibition Hall and the tennis courts, opposite the McDonald's on Xinsheng South Road.