Summary

Most of the ideas raised above come from what I have done, thought about and seen at farm sites over these past years. Although I am not a formally trained professional and my years of experience are limited, what I have said consists of plainly obvious, simple truths that do not require much scholarship. And the things I mentioned - "food mileage," "human gravitational pull," "the food justice dilemma" - are in fact just simple truths dressed up to sound very learned.

In the past, our organic movement was both beautiful and profound, but in order to break through the dilemma, I argue that we should first simplify and lower the threshold of organic, using "no pesticides and no chemical fertilizers" to let Taiwan move quickly toward being an organic island. I believe that when the idea is not complicated, the method will be simple, and only simplicity has great power!

Back in my days at Nan'ao Natural Farm, there were quite a few labor-exchange volunteers, visitors and travelers, and I always told them with great passion the stories I had lived through, and told them about these discoveries and propositions of mine. I often feel that "directly finding a farmer to grow for you" is rather like the "golden light dead angle" in glove puppetry, or like the "time-space breach" shown in movies - both are about finding a breach of transformation in a system that seems to have no solution. In fact, "contract farming with commissioned cultivation" is also like foundry work in the semiconductor industry: the IC design company (the contract client, the consumer) proposes the circuit function it wants, and finds a foundry operator (the commissioned farmer) to produce it; this division of labor creates globally competitive strength.

Awakening from romance

Now, our organic farmers have protected nearly 1% of the land. We should be grateful; new farmers and hipster farmers, though few in number and small in land area (estimated at about 0.05% of the land), lead us to see the value of agriculture and life, and we should cherish them even more. But we must pay even more attention to our vast number of conventional farmers, because whether the grassroots farmers who hold 99% of the land can transition is where the hope of an organic island lies, since they are the true mainstay guarding the organic island. My argument that we must lower the threshold of organic cultivation is based on an awakening to this fact. Only by letting organic farming rapidly scale up at the grassroots level, and by using growth in volume to drive the growth of organic farming techniques, organic inputs and the organic industry, and thus achieve the popularization of organic food prices - because without volume to drive it, these virtuous cycles cannot get rolling - otherwise, how could there be hope for the food and health of Taiwan's common people, or for Taiwan's land? I do not know what other choice we have.

If we do not want to spend another 20 years waiting for 2%, we must first admit the problems we face

Of course, I believe there are still many ways to solve the organic dilemma, but the first step in solving a problem is to admit our problem first. Otherwise, we really will have to spend another 20 years waiting for the arrival of 2%.

This article takes "however consumers buy, that is how farmers will grow" as its foundation, and argues that through directly finding a farmer to grow for you, through "contract farming with commissioned cultivation" and "food communes," consumers can participate in and overturn agriculture, and through improving the efficiency of shortened distribution channels, organic food can become cheaper. Let consumers and farmers (especially the 99% of conventional farmers) join hands to transition to organic farming and together become the guardians of the land and food safety. The more pesticides and chemical fertilizers leave farmland, the closer we get to an organic island.

A consumer movement

Of course, I also know that changing an existing system is not easy, especially for a new proposition like this that seeks to skip the existing industry value chain; getting recognition from people in that value chain is even harder! In the end, the ones who can truly drive change are ultimately consumers, because only consumer awakening and demand can make existing food businesses adjust in pursuit of opportunity.

Finally, what I want to say is that we must all realize that farmers alone cannot achieve an organic island, organic businesses alone cannot achieve an organic island, and the government alone cannot either. What can truly achieve an organic island is only Taiwan's common people consuming organic food, and only that can lead us to the organic island. To achieve an organic island, all of us (farmers, scholars, government, media, businesses) are merely the promoters of this new way of consuming. This is why I added "a truly organic consumer movement" as a footnote to the subtitle of this piece, "directly finding a farmer to grow for you."

The land is our common mother; only healthy land can raise healthy people

We are all just hurried passers-by on Earth. If we want to leave our descendants an island capable of carrying health and happiness, we must stop many things that obviously should not be done. Healthy land represents not only healthy food, but also the harmony and happiness of body, mind and spirit of the people on this land.

The humanities have true value only when put into practice

We all know what is right, what should be done, and what should not be done, and we all have compassionate and noble intentions, but without practice they are all worthless.

True nobility can only be realized through every choice in life.

May our island step onto the road to becoming an organic island.