Traditional Chinese medicinal herb fields welcome graduate students catching insects
Editor's note: After graduating from graduate school, the author of this article returned to his hometown to farm, choosing the field of Chinese medicinal herbs, which few people cultivate in Taiwan, China. At present, almost all Chinese medicinal herbs in Taiwan, China are imported from China, and local cultivation of Chinese medicinal herbs remains a minority. The author will share his experiences in cultivating Chinese medicinal herbs one after another. Contact information for the author is at the end of the article; interested friends may refer to it and get in touch.
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From biology graduate student, continuing to explore the field of farming
I still remember when I first got into graduate school in 2008, continuing my interest in biology, going out into the field to catch insects, and coming back to the lab to stay up all night doing experiments. During those days I often discussed the future with my professor and often thought about the development potential of biotechnology in Taiwan, China, and I also listened to many talks by big bosses about their experiences. Perhaps, as they said, if biotechnology wants to grow and develop in Taiwan, China, it still needs a long period of time, because the most profitable are pharmaceutical companies, but a drug from research and development to finished product, and then through testing to market launch, all require a large turnover of time and capital. This is also why many companies later transformed their products into health foods, lowering risk as well as capital and time, but also reducing the scale of growth. Nevertheless, later a market for food therapy also emerged.
At this time what I was thinking was, then what about me? In the future I could directly start with short-term work as a research assistant, laboratory technician, salesperson, and many others, but I still really like biology and do not want to become disconnected from it. After all, I have always been working hard because I like biology, and resources related to it are also easier to connect with and learn from. I really do like it, so what about going home to farm? After all, food is the most important thing, and everyone wants a healthy life!!
My old home is in a village in Ji'an, Hualien. My grandfather and grandmother farmed in their time, but as early as when I was a child no one in the family was farming exclusively anymore. But I want to farm, and this thought gradually replaced the other voices in my heart. But what about feasibility?
After being discharged from military service, I went to visit many seniors: a very impressive potato uncle, a betel leaf big brother, a tobacco old man, a taro and sweet potato uncle, and several big brothers and seniors involved in Chinese herbal medicines. This led me, who had originally planned to start with growing miscellaneous grain crops, to come into contact with and understand the cultivation of Salvia miltiorrhiza (red sage) and Angelica sinensis (Chinese angelica). Every day I reported to the fields to learn, and seeing the crops grow stronger day by day, my heart was gradually filled and fulfilled as well. It was a kind of joy, a kind of steadiness. Although I sweated through my back keeping the same schedule as the sun, although heaven often joked with sudden rain and sudden clear skies, and although during graduate school field trips I loved seeing insects, when they appeared in my own fields chewing on the crops, it was truly helpless. But the main reason I came home to farm was the hope of growing things I dare to eat myself, things that are truly good for the body rather than worse for it. I just hold this simple feeling and work hard at farming, bearing a bitter and sour mood, looking forward to a healthy harvest, and continuing to work hard!
Appendix:
The contact information for fresh-picked Hualien Salvia miltiorrhiza (red sage) and Angelica sinensis (Chinese angelica) is as follows:
Contact person: Huang Jiaming
Contact phone: 0972-226058