Netherlands Communication: Community Garden Occupation Action Protects Large Trees

A note before we begin

When I was in graduate school, I could never get used to the supermarket vegetables grown in greenhouses - colorful but tasteless. I often thought back to the produce my family received from neighbors, and to the vendors at the traditional market who spread their own homegrown vegetables on the ground, a riot of vivid color and fragrance. Curious whether other countries shared this same culture, I chose urban agriculture as the field site for my thesis. So, knowing no one at all, I started from a single email address and set off into an unfamiliar city, searching for the farmers and garden plots hidden in its corners.

Through snowball-style visits, I discovered that in the Dutch cities, where agriculture had long since become highly industrialized, a group of passionate citizens had emerged in recent years, trying to rediscover their connection to the land and their community through the practice of growing vegetables with their own hands. In every interview, the person I spoke with would always ask curiously: so in your hometown, do people also grow vegetables in the city? I said yes - in Taiwan, every corner of the city still preserves the habit left over from an agricultural society, of "growing vegetables for one's own amusement, and sharing them with relatives and friends." In the streets and alleys, mini vegetable plots can still be seen everywhere.

As a child, I would always receive vegetables grown by the neighbors, relatives and friends. We had not yet fully gotten used to buying vegetables at the supermarket, and many vendors at the traditional market supported a whole family on a small plot of land at the edge of the city. They said it was wonderful - it was only after we grew vegetables ourselves that we discovered what vegetables really look like outside their plastic wrapping.

In this series of stories, I have recorded what it looked like as I searched for real food in a city. People came together to grow vegetables for different reasons: to rediscover their knowledge of food, to reconnect with their neighbors, and to safeguard the safety of their community. This passion makes vegetables not merely a daily necessity to fill the stomach, but also a source of vitality that enriches the face of the city.

The community garden occupation that guarded the big trees