Chashan Coarse Grains Production and Marketing Group Farms and Eats Together, Standing Back Up on Their Own Land

Series introduction: In the past, farmers were used to struggling alone in their fields and had little experience with cooperative organizations. In recent years, many remarkable production and marketing groups and cooperatives have emerged in Taiwan, China, supporting one another in seeking a way forward. NewsMarket has specially produced "Strength in Unity: Stories of Farmer Cooperation," reporting on farmer cooperation cases from various places one after another for everyone's reference. To read the complete series of articles, please click here.

────────────────────────────────────────────

From Recipients to Donors, Chashan Good Food Brings Warmth to Reconstruction Areas

"In the past, warmth was sent into the reconstruction areas; now, warmth is being sent out from the reconstruction areas." This short sentence from An Chi-hsin, head of the Chashan Coarse Grains Production and Marketing Group, represents sweet fruit earned through three years of setbacks, sweat, and pairs of hands covered in soil.

After Typhoon Morakot, Chashan Village in Alishan established a coarse grains production and marketing group. A group of small farmers used organic cultivation and the concept of co-farming and sharing to revitalize abandoned farmland in the community, successfully reviving traditional Tsou crops such as fragrant glutinous rice, white coix seed, and glutinous millet. After standing back up on their own land, they turned small love into great love. Before the Lunar New Year, they launched the "Chashan Good Food 2+1 Hand-in-Hand Warmth Delivery Plan." Members of the public could donate 1,000 yuan to adopt Chashan Good Food, and the community simultaneously donated 500 yuan, enabling 450 disadvantaged families to eat natural, healthy, and fresh food. Turning from recipients into helpers, the Chashan production and marketing group let smiles remain not only on their own faces, but also spread into more people's hearts.