The vegetable basket revolution is here, we're taking over the vegetable supply
Text by Chang Ya-yun, Section Chief, Promotion Section, Planning Department
Originally published in Green Claims monthly, January 2015, issue 136.
In 1993, a group of mothers opened the prelude to green consumption. Starting with a bag of rice, they expressed their care for small farmers and the land; starting with a basket of vegetables, they recovered long-lost true feelings and true flavors; starting with a block of tofu, they advocated the non-GMO movement; starting with unbleached recycled toilet paper, they promised to preserve Taiwan, China's good mountains and good waters. The mothers hoped to infuse consumption with environmental awareness and protective action.
The joint buying initiated by the Homemakers United Foundation could be called a pioneer of many social issues in Taiwan, China, including concepts such as green consumption, community-supported agriculture, the non-GMO movement, fair trade, social enterprise, and worker self-managed businesses. Tracing the trajectory of related movements, these ideas had long been woven into the fabric of joint buying.
What Were Homemakers Thinking About Twenty Years Ago
Leafing through Life Advocates' Claims, the publication from when the joint buying movement had just begun, Weng Hsiu-ling, one of the founders of the joint buying movement, had already written "What Is a Citizens' Business" in the third issue in June 1993. The article mentioned that in the United States in the 1960s and 1970s, the civil rights movement, anti-war movement, and women's liberation movement surged. As the movements gradually waned, many elite young people and women from society did not join the general industrial society, but instead created another form of labor called worker self-managed businesses (workers’ collective).
The characteristics of this kind of business are: 1. It is not for profit. 2. Members themselves contribute capital, labor, and management, with no employer-employee relationship. 3. It engages in undertakings that have positive benefits for society. This kind of business can be seen as a continuation of social movements. It adds economic capacity to civic movements beyond social power, and allows movement participants to pursue their ideals and aspirations without the pressure of making a living. - Weng Hsiu-ling
The concept and spirit of labor self-managed "citizens' business" inspired and encouraged this group of joint buying movement pioneers, and they brought it into their daily actions. Whether it was Weng Hsiu-ling's focus on the consumer movement and women's economy, Lin Pi-hsia's determination to promote environmentally friendly agriculture and cleaning products, Hsieh Li-fen's passion for agriculture that led her into community guidance at Wanbao, or Weng Mei-chuan's support for women and the disadvantaged with mental disabilities, the things these homemakers wanted to do intersected and extended into one another.
"Don't you think joint buying is like the iron hoop on a wooden barrel, with Weng Hsiu-ling, Lin Pi-hsia, Weng Mei-chuan, and Hsieh Li-fen as the staves, bound together by joint buying, and the ideals of these homemakers all realized here?" Huang Li-li annotated the early pioneers in this way.
As a movement, it must have ideological support behind it. The ideals above were not necessarily achieved smoothly in the same time and space, but the pioneers of joint buying truly drew these spirits into their thinking over the course of the movement and practiced them through action in daily life.
Writing the Path of Homemakers' Social Movement
In 2002, the second year after the Homemakers United Foundation had just transformed into a cooperative, Lai Ching-sung wrote Seeing the World from the Kitchen, introducing the journey of our Japanese sister organization, the Seikatsu Club Consumers' Co-operative, from the kitchen to the world, and also included a special chapter reviewing the first decade of the Homemakers United Foundation in Taiwan, China. Inspired by the joint buying experience of the Seikatsu Club, learning by doing and learning from mistakes, the Homemakers United Foundation also gradually accumulated a locally rooted approach to joint buying in Taiwan, China. After the second decade, what changes have taken place in the Homemakers United Cooperative?
In present-day Taiwan, China, food safety problems repeatedly break out, the documentary Beyond Beauty: Taiwan from Above has drawn much attention to environmental issues, and after the March 18 student movement, citizen power has risen - all of these highlight that self-aware citizen participation is the key to solving social problems. In contrast to the Homemakers United Foundation's self-help relief in food, it revealed early on the needs of life advocates and the need to return to life advocates themselves for action. The "joint buying" action of the Homemakers United Foundation pioneers, reexamined at the present stage, has distinctive meaning and value.
In everyday households, homemakers always do a lot and say little; returning to homemakers' self-affirmation, women tell the most life-centered social movement. Members participated in writing about joint buying, and after three years of gestation, The Vegetable Basket Revolution - From Joint Buying to Finding Happiness Through Cooperation took root, sprouted, and became a book. The whole book is divided into six major units: the history section, the product section, the class and station section, the issues section, and the vision section. Using class and station figures and product development stories to weave the warp and weft of joint buying, it reviews the social movements homemakers participated in, then settles, coalesces, and encourages the necessity of citizen action. By gathering purchasing power and accumulating influence, it outlines the vision and challenges of the next decade.
A Basket of Vegetables That Changes the World
In the process of joint buying, the Homemakers United Cooperative hopes that every bunch of vegetables can show the farmer's name, so that members not only eat but also feel grateful: "I know you, and having the chance to eat the vegetables you grow is our honor." And farmers can also proudly say: "The vegetables I give to the cooperative are sweet vegetables." With the commitment to order a basket of vegetables every week, members give farmer-producers the possibility of secure production, while also building a long-term partnership between consumers and producers.
It starts from safe food, but the joint buying movement has never limited itself to food choices. Instead, from the perspectives of environmental impact and daily life needs, it carries out serious learning and exploration, finds daily necessities that can improve life in stages, and through gathered joint buying power supports laborers and strengthens the protective power of the environment. For twenty years, homemakers have continued to practice the "vegetable basket revolution." The homemakers who were the movement's founders back then have now reached grandmother status, and they sincerely hope that the idea of joint buying will also be passed down from generation to generation in members' families, driving more discussion and practice in society. The vegetable basket revolution - from here on, we'll take over! I believe this is the best tribute to the pioneers of the joint buying movement.
■3/20The Vegetable Basket Revolution New Book Sharing Session / Independent Bookstore Event
Speaker: Lin Tai-hsuan (senior class leader and interpreter at the Homemakers United Yangmei Station)
Venue: Qinggeng Yudu Little Academy
Date: 3/20 (Fri) 10:30 a.m. Free admission
Address: No. 12, Lane 560, Section 1, Fulong Road, Pingzhen District, Taoyuan City
Phone: 03-450-6377
Qinggeng Yudu means working on sunny days and reading on rainy days. This is a life rhythm that follows nature, and it is also the operating philosophy of the independent bookstore Qinggeng Yudu Little Academy. When the "book fragrance" of an independent bookstore meets the "vegetable fragrance" of joint buying, what inspiration will be sparked? In this sharing session, class leader Tai-hsuan will speak from the consumer's point of view about how she participates in a vegetable basket revolution.
Qinggeng Yudu Little Academy blog http://neoq006.pixnet.net/blog
■3/26The Vegetable Basket Revolution New Book Sharing Session / A Historical Walking Tour of Joint Buying
Speaker: Weng Mei-chuan (head of Life Advocates Workshop)
Venue: Shilin Station (No. 50, Fuzhi Road, Shilin District, Taipei City)
Time: 3/26 (Thu) 14:00-16:00 Free event
14:00-14:40 Introduction: Talking about the homemakers in joint buying (Shilin Station)
14:40-15:30 Field visit: A historical walk along the footprints of joint buying (outdoor streets)
15:30-16:00 Exchange: Feedback and sharing (Shilin Station)
Event inquiries: 02-2999-6122#550, 518
The area near Shilin Fulin Elementary School has always been an important base for the development from joint buying to the cooperative. In 1994, the Taipei County Goods Handling Labor Cooperative was established, and at the end of the year the Northern District Joint Buying Center was established; in 1995, vegetable goods handling was set up and delivery operations began; at the end of 1995, the Mothers' Production Class was established, and based on cherishing and loving things, it handled surplus or damaged agricultural products. The homemakers who devoted themselves to joint buying walked many winding paths and also left marks in certain spaces. The new book sharing for The Vegetable Basket Revolution uses a historical space guided tour, inviting joint buying senior Weng Mei-chuan to lead everyone on a walk to review the tracks joint buying has traveled. Everyone is welcome to take a historical walking tour of joint buying.
3/26 registration link http://goo.gl/forms/sG4We3bFej
Book introduction EDM (Books.com.tw link)
Like on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/basket2015
The original text was also published on the cooperative website http://www.hucc-coop.tw/15965
Green Claims monthly, January 2015, issue 136 full electronic text