A lifetime alongside new farmers, this dedication is deeply moving

Photography / Munch

There are two kinds of "new farmers": one is the new farmer who abandons conventional farming methods and starts over, and the other is the new farmer who has just entered the ranks of farming. Whichever they are, what they carry is a very complicated state of mind. What looks like the leisurely ease of "picking chrysanthemums by the eastern hedge" is in truth like a warrior who has gone onto the battlefield and is beset front and back; sometimes they are very much like a pawn that has crossed the river -- with no choice but to keep moving forward! The objects that the Taiwan Homemakers United Foundation Consumers' Cooperative has worked hard to accompany include both.

In the early days, countless new-farmer stories played out at the cooperative. Such new farmers were not necessarily young; most were elders who had the courage to change. When they learned from Weng Xiuling, Lin Bixia, Xie Lifen, Dong Yabin and others that there were consumers who needed them to provide organically grown produce, they were willing to change because of the accompaniment of such purchasing power. In order to provide the cooperative with produce grown under more meticulous care, they had to learn new farming knowledge on one hand, and soothe their families' anxiety about change on the other; they had to face the uncertainty of production on one hand, and face the gaze of their fellow villagers on the other.

I once heard a farmer friend who grows white radishes say: when he first switched to organic farming and did not spray pesticides, there were so many insects that the leaves were eaten until nothing could be seen. Afraid the neighbors would laugh, in the middle of the night under the moonlight he turned the crop over and buried it in the soil. The next day the neighbor asked suspiciously, and he still stubbornly insisted: the harvest is in -- once you have seen his bitter smile, you will never forget it!

Farming is truly not simple, and for an old farmer to become a new farmer is even harder! Staff and members often need to be constantly reminded that we should treat with kindness for a lifetime the farmer friends who farm with such care and who are friendly to the land & to farming. In fact, only in this way can our health and the environment truly be treated with friendliness. The strength that lets them keep going comes from the members' collective purchasing power; what cannot be overlooked is the endless professional accompaniment of the cooperative's product specialists and consultant Lin Bixia, as well as the 18 years of "on-call" accompaniment from the academic world by Professor Zheng Zhengyong and Professor Ni Zhengzhu, teacher and student -- an invisible contribution!

There are two kinds of young new farmers: one is from a family that already farms, and the other is one who voluntarily leaves a job to farm. While we admire their courage, what needs to be seen is the difference in their circumstances. If the family already farms and the elders support the switch to organic, then this is blessed farming. Otherwise, like the cooperative's new farmer friends, in order to switch to organic farming, the old father actually let it develop into a three-year standoff in which father and son did not speak. Although one feels heartache for such new farmers, one sincerely respects their persistence.

The key question for those who voluntarily leave a job to farm is: is it a personal choice? Or the whole family's approval? Those who can gain the whole family's approval have blessed farming. If it is a personal choice, then not only family members, but sometimes even relatives and friends will come to obstruct or question with cold words. New farmers who voluntarily leave a job to farm have problems of land acquisition and funding, and problems of agricultural knowledge and experience; so many challenges test young new farmers.

To be companions with new farmers for a lifetime is both an obligation and an opportunity for the people of Taiwan.

In the face of rapid global climate change, farming is becoming harder and harder! Under global food shortages, where will ingredients come from? This will be a serious issue of life sustainability. Doing our homework is not only for us; it is even more so for new farmers! We actually have no choice: to be healthy, we need new farmers to stay in farming and produce food that is friendly to us; to love the environment, through the effort of friendly farming, the environment of Taiwan's farming areas is protected!

Especially in the tribal and upstream-downstream rural areas of drinking water source zones, our collective purchasing power indirectly protects ourselves, not only ensuring food safety, but at the same time even more ensuring the safety of drinking water quality. When we demand the quality of ingredients, are we responding in terms of price and purchasing power? This awaits our deep thought!

Is companionship, from the superior position of a consumer, made up of endless nitpicking and demands, drifting in a related-but-detached relationship?
Or is it based on the principle of symbiosis, supported by the spirit of being companions for a lifetime, using purchasing power to affirm the determination of new farmers?

After the age of 52, he (Tolstoy) came to realize:

"'Whether life has meaning' is not a theoretical question, but a practical one -- if you have always been doing meaningful things, then your life has meaning; if you have always been living a sinful and meaningless life, then your life has no meaning."

Teacher Peng Minghui of National Tsing Hua University, on his blog, takes Tolstoy as an example and explores this.