Chen Wei-pin, a Farmer's Son: The Journey of Rediscovering Rural Life

Q:Which specific event (or events), issue, or person made you truly start caring about agriculture?

Although I could be considered a farmer's son, my attention to agriculture actually began after I started working at the Youth Platform Foundation. The foundation was established about a year ago, and the various activities it holds invite young friends to join us in caring about two major issues - the environment and social justice - and to work for a better social environment. Among these, the "Go Local Action Experience Day," which I was responsible for carrying out, is a program related to "action."

In the process, we visited some rural villages together with young friends. After actually coming into contact with rural areas, talking with farmers, and getting close to the land, we began to understand issues such as fallow land, land expropriation, and farmland pollution, and only then truly felt the various difficulties facing Taiwan's agriculture, involving both environmental and social problems. The importance and possibilities of agriculture actually far exceeded my original simple and naive imagination. Food is the first necessity of the people, and agriculture is the foundation of a nation; all issues are closely tied to us. Through Go Local, we actually walked into rural villages, which inspired our concern for Taiwan's agriculture.

Q: How do you use your strongest professional skills and abilities to express your concern for agriculture, rural areas, and farmers, and to take concrete action?

After visiting rural villages in various places, I found that with differences in region, climate, and cultural environment, each rural village has its own unique character and style, and farming patterns also differ. Each time after visiting farming friends and learning about local characteristics and issues of concern, we carefully tailor exclusive activity content for each rural village, inviting young friends to visit the countryside with us. Through different experiential activities, we create actual connections with rural areas and express our care and support for them.

Q: Please describe actions you have taken or are currently taking.

Taiwan's traditional staple food is rice, yet many people "eat rice without knowing the price of rice," and have no way to understand the feeling behind "who knows that every grain on the plate is the fruit of hard toil." So starting in March this year, we cooperated with farmers in Sanchongpu, Zhudong Township, Hsinchu County, using the "rice-duck symbiosis" ecological farming method and contract farming to launch the four-month "Cloud Farmer's Complete Strategy for Rice Cultivation" series of activities.

We participated in the entire process, from seedling transplanting, fertilizing, and weeding to harvesting and other important stages. Using traditional manual methods for transplanting rice seedlings, cutting rice, and threshing, besides letting young friends experience an experimental farm like a real-life version of "Happy Farm," it also let them truly feel the hardships of farmers. To match the agricultural season, from the initial planning concept to promotion and holding, there was less than one month, only two staff members, and a limited budget, which made preparation for the activities even more difficult. Fortunately, with the support of many friendly groups and local farming friends, we were able to overcome one by one the difficulties of manpower, time, and technology. The activities were held as scheduled and the goals were successfully achieved.

Q: How does your action plan inspire more people to participate? How can it continue?

As introduced on the Go Local website: "Go Local is a new concept of play promoted by the Youth Platform Foundation, emphasizing a 'participatory journey' - retaining the entertainment and exploratory flavor of travel itself while also injecting friendly exchange with local forces. Through on-site visits and observation, personal participation, hands-on work, and dialogue, we understand our land, get to know fellow residents in various places, and leave behind unique, irreplaceable memories and emotional connections."

Through contract farming, the land, farmers, and participants develop a continuing relationship, creating irreplaceable connections. Because of unique memories and deep emotional connections with the land and residents, none of it will remain mere passing impressions. We begin to care more consciously about the lives of this group of "friends" and the future of this "homeland," continually returning to rural areas to tend "our" crops and give back to our friends and the land.

As shown by the activities, every participant, although sore from the unfamiliar farm work, called it deeply satisfying; in their personal blogs, articles, and photos, they began to show concern for agricultural issues. They also recommended the Go Local activities to relatives and friends, giving more people the chance to rediscover and explore this land. We believe such connections will inspire more people to care and participate, and provide stronger motivation to keep going.

Q: How do you interact with farming friends, rural villages, and farmers? What is the greatest feedback that participating young friends have given you?

In modern agriculture, farmers often need to know astronomy above and geography below, hydrology, biology, chemistry…… far from our simple imagination of traditional agriculture as pesticides and fertilizers, rising at sunrise and resting at sunset. Every time we enter a rural village, we go with the mindset of learning and meeting new friends. In the process of contact with farmers, I deeply felt the farming friends' simple characters and deep affection for agriculture. The young friends who participated in Go Local activities were all able to gain a further understanding of rural areas, and they affirmed the ideas of the Youth Platform, were willing to speak up for farmers, became good friends with us and farming families, and returned to the countryside from time to time. This made us feel that our efforts had achieved something, and that was the greatest moving reward and feedback.

Q: How can your actions continue to create deeper connections with and support for rural areas?

As mentioned above, I believe deep connections come from understanding in thought and connection in emotion. Through face-to-face dialogue, hands-on practical experience, and contract farming, what is communicated is not only an exchange of information or an expenditure of labor: because a "relationship" is created and one is willing to contribute more of one's own strength, perhaps more people can have further connections with rural areas.

Q: How do you build a symbiotic and mutually supportive relationship with agricultural producers in your own "living circle"?

Starting from the Go Local Cloud Farmer series, when we visited rural villages, we found that the existing production and marketing situation is not friendly to Taiwan's agriculture. Therefore, in addition to the contract farming of the activities, we began selecting and encouraging participants to buy agricultural products directly from farmers, which allows for safer eating and also avoids exploitation at each layer.

Q: Regarding agriculture and the farming life, is there a person, a passage, a book, or a film that once inspired you?

Since I began engaging with rural areas, Brother A-Deng of Sanchongpu, Zhudong Township, Hsinchu County, is the modern farmer who has inspired me the most. A-Deng was once successful in business, but resolutely gave up a glamorous success, transforming in an instant from a major boss who had moved through the textile world into an unknown small farmer. Drawing on childhood farming experience, he encountered several setbacks, reflected on his own path and also the future path of rural areas, and turned to choosing pesticide-free cultivation and ecological farming methods. After several years of poor harvests, constant experimentation, mistakes, and continued challenges, he finally won the honor of champion rice. In A-Deng's farm workshop (actually a former factory), what we felt was enthusiasm and generosity toward friends, skill in farming and continuous learning, and respect for and cherishing of the land. Here, I saw the abundance, confidence, and hope of rural areas.

Q: For other young friends who want to support agriculture, please give them some practical advice, reference methods, and keys to action.

Let go of existing imaginings about rural areas, listen and learn, and feel it for yourself.

Q: Based on your experience and understanding, what is your vision and expectation for the future of Taiwan's agriculture?

When more and more people understand the importance and various possibilities of agriculture, realize what conventional agriculture is, what food miles mean, and what the food self-sufficiency rate signifies…… and personally feel the irreplaceability of agriculture, in which knowledge and wisdom are countless, we will learn how to support local agriculture and learn from farmers and the land.

It can be seen that Taiwanese society (especially national resources) pays quite little attention to the agricultural production chain. From the production end to the marketing end, state power has never systematically supported it (though it has done quite a lot of damage). Therefore, civil society has no choice but to stand on its own and take over the role of farmers' associations itself. Of course, private forces cannot be as large as the state, so cooperation among many groups is needed to carry out what farmers' associations should originally do. In a sense, I think NewsMarket represents exactly this kind of force. And I personally hope that through NewsMarket, more social forces concerned about agriculture can be attracted to invest together in the agricultural industry.

Further Reading   Youth Supporting Agriculture Series
01  He Hsin-chieh: Typhoon Morakot Disaster Areas, Rural Reconstruction, and Me