2011 Bow to Land Farmers' Market: A Long-Term Vision

Lead photo/ Hao-hsun

People are always in the habit of searching for the point of origin, searching for the passion that started them on a path, probing and returning to that first expectation of the unknown in their own hearts. People always hope they can stay true to their original intention, and then let that intention become the strength that keeps them going again and again. So do I, and I believe so do all of us, even if we walk different roads and see different scenery.

This is how "Bow to Land" came to be.

(Image source: 2010 Bow to Land Life Festival)

In November 2009, when a good number of people were hoping to approach and care about land and life from all kinds of different angles, each developing different types of distinctive activities, a chance coincidence brought everyone together and gave rise to the "Bow to Land Life Festival."

The Taiwan Organic Industry Promotion Alliance, the College of Bioresources and Agriculture at National Taiwan University, the NTU Green Campus Alliance, the Lai Ho Foundation, the Green Party Taiwan, the Taiwan Homemakers United Foundation Consumer Cooperative, Fushan Farm, the NTU Department of Agronomy, the NTU Farm, the NTU Agricultural Exhibition Hall, the NTU College of Social Sciences Student Association, the NTU Roots and Shoots Club, and Organic Magazine, with more than a dozen main and co-organizing groups listed for the first year, give a sense of just how grand and rich that year's Bow to Land Life Festival was.

Bow to Land, beginning in 2009, was formed just like this from a chain of fortuitous connections, and through the organic linking of all kinds of different activities, it aspires to let us face Mother Earth with humility and once again think about our relationship with the land.

(Image source: 2011 Bow to Land Life Festival)

In October 2010, carrying on the spirit of 2009, organized by the Taiwan Rural Front, the NTU Student Association, and Goodwill Agricultural Products, with guidance from the Extracurricular Activities Section of the NTU Office of Student Affairs, and support from the Hao-Jan Foundation and the Judicial Reform Foundation, and taking the "Bow to Land Life Festival" as its starting point, a series of activities was planned: the "Agricultural Land, Our Future" lecture series, which lets us understand the relationship between agriculture, land, food and you and me; the "Bow to Land" concert, which shares music with participants in the most natural and sincere way; the "Documentary Screenings," which let the public see the efforts of farmers who persist in cultivation; and the "Bow to Land Farmers' Market," a bridge for connecting with friendly small farmers from all over.

The second year of the Bow to Land Life Festival still hoped, through this approach, that in an era that pursues speed and efficiency and drifts away from the land, those of us on the consumption end could re-examine the meaning of land to us and the connection between agriculture and life, and let us see that the everyday act of a farmer bending down to cultivate actually contains a belief in the environment, friendliness toward consumers, and the insistence on seeing agriculture as a force for "change."

So then, the Bow to Land that follows.

(Image source: 2011 Bow to Land Life Festival)

In September 2011, the Bow to Land Farmers' Market opened as an independent market that aspires to run for the long term. Executed by the Taiwan Rural Front and the NTU Guyu Club, with support from the Hao-Jan Foundation, from September of this year through the end of the year we are trying to make Bow to Land a regular, ongoing market that operates on a monthly frequency.

With two years of accumulated experience, Bow to Land seems to have symbolically opened up something faint yet continually shining in this city of Taipei and on campus - through network relationships, many students, friendly groups, producers and consumers have appeared, appearing in the Bow to Land Life Festival occasions held in festival form over the past two years. This kind of opening-up keeps making us think about whether Bow to Land can become a stable platform that, beyond the farmers' market, can also, because of the special networks that exist, have more possibilities sufficient to develop, spread and continue steadily.

In recent years, many farmers' markets have been established one after another in Taiwan that likewise work hard to support farmers, are friendly to the environment, and hold to ideals. The establishment of these markets has gradually turned from points into lines and then into surfaces, accumulating a great deal of force for change, in the hope that our lives (including producers and consumers, and the environment) can be better.

So then, what about Bow to Land? I think that Bow to Land, as a gathering platform presented in the form of a farmers' market, besides the market's own important ability for producers and consumers to connect with and influence each other and to demonstrate the power that green consumption can exert, also hopes that through the market's setting, young people can participate nearby, that ideal-driven groups can pass messages to the crowd through the market's setting, and that through Bow to Land, those who brush past each other in the market can "see, converse, and change."

Looking back from the first year of Bow to Land, searching for the starting point of each year's Bow to Land and the fruits it hoped to bear, always gives me, someone who has just graduated from university and whose pace is still slow and cannot keep up with many seniors, a bit more strength when it comes to organizing a market like this. There are many seniors I have not yet had time to consult, much knowledge I have not yet had time to accumulate, and many places I still need to learn and improve, and all of these continue to move forward with time, along with the pace of Bow to Land.

Bow to Land's own story is about agriculture, life and us. The story that Bow to Land writes together with you and me is about the shared future we will walk toward together.

2011 Bow to Land: Farmers' Market and Life Festival

[Smallholder Farming, Green Consumption]
Bending down to cultivate is the farmer's humility before the crops, the sky and the earth,
and we, who receive the grace of nourishment from heaven, earth and farming friends, bow down to learn the land's tolerance and the farmer's steadfastness.
Bow to Land is a reflection that lets us learn humility toward the environment and coexistence with all things in nature;
Bow to Land is an attitude that lets us buy directly, consume locally, enjoy what is in season, support small farmers, and protect the environment;
Bow to Land is a self-expectation that lets us once again, "from the heart," understand the relationship between agriculture, land, food and you and me, and show the power of green consumption.
Let's bow in gratitude to land, nature and farmers!

Bow to Land Farmers' Market/Evening Event Location:
Palm Avenue, National Taiwan University. On the brick path between the Xinsheng South Road side gate of the NTU main campus (No. 1, Section 4, Roosevelt Road, Da'an District, Taipei City), the Agricultural Exhibition Hall and the tennis courts, across from the McDonald's on Xinsheng South Road.

●  Farmers' Market
On the third Sunday of every month, let us bow down together, read the stories behind the food, see the diligent faces of farmers, and practice the power of friendly consumption!
2011/09/18 (Sun) 10:00~17:00
2011/11/20 (Sun) 10:00~17:00
2011/12/18 (Sun) 10:00~17:00

●  Bow to Land Forum
From 13:00~15:00 on market days, through a different theme each month, a real conversation with you and me at the Bow to Land market site. Let us stop in our tracks at the market, and in these two hours of forum, listen to and share each other's imaginations and think about our own ways of putting them into practice!
2011/09/18 (Sun) 13:00~15:00, Local Ingredients
2011/11/20 (Sun) 13:00~15:00, Fair Trade
2011/12/18 (Sun) 13:00~15:00, Staple Grain Culture Expo

●  Bow to Land Life Festival
Farmers' Market, Bow to Land evening event, "Agriculture and Life, Our Possibilities" lecture series
Since 2009, the Bow to Land Life Festival series of activities has filled in our imagination and understanding of agriculture. The 2011 Bow to Land Life Festival will carry on the spirit of the previous two years and hopes to continue opening up a "heart" perspective on agriculture for you and me.

●  Bow to Land Farmers' Market
2011/10/15 (Sat) 10:00~17:30
2011/10/16 (Sun) 10:00~17:00

●  Bow to Land Evening Event 2011/10/15 (Sat) 18:00~21:00
→ Concert: Wen Yin-chang (Misa), Chen Yung-tao (A-Tao), the Dounao Re Zou Chang Troupe, the Mountain Dog Big Band (sponsored by the Hakka Affairs Council), and Monkey Xiao-Fu, performers who have long cared about rural and agricultural issues, convey through music in the evening breeze their deep attachment to the land.
→ Tribal members share with everyone the experience of returning to cultivation in two places, Lichiu and Taoyuan.

2011/10/15 (Sat) 18:00~21:00

●  "Agriculture and Life, Our Possibilities" Lectures
In an era that pursues development, people are busy moving forward and forget to take a careful look at the scenery that once existed around them. Agriculture has been simplified into food production, and people no longer say grace before every meal; the source of food is just the seemingly inexhaustible, neatly arranged shelves of the market and convenience store, while whether the food comes from a foreign country overseas or from a village outside the city is completely unknown, and the impression of the countryside is left with nothing but the uniform sight of rice paddies.

Yet the relationship between agriculture and us is far more than just food and fullness. One group of people tries to bring food and us closer, so that we know better the food we eat and are closer to the land beneath our feet; another group of people fights hard against transnational agribusiness, trying to reclaim food sovereignty and reclaim the right to cultivate, and to stop the distance between people and land from being pulled farther and farther apart again and again.

The 2011 Bow to Land Life Festival lecture series invites just such a group of people to share with you and me that there is such agriculture, such a life, and such possibilities for us:

1. 10/6 (Thu) 19:00~21:00 "La Via Campesina and Asian Rural Youth Organizations - Sharing from the La Via Campesina Asia Youth Conference" Hsu Po-jen, Chen Ning, Room 112, NTU Agronomy Hall

2. 10/16 (Sun) 13:00~15:00 "Grow Good Vegetables, Live a Good Life: An Introduction to and Practical Experience of Community-Supported Agriculture" Elizabeth Henderson, at the Bow to Land Farmers' Market site

3. 10/24 (Mon) 19:00~21:00 "Seed Conservation and Farmers' Seed Saving" Kuo Hua-jen, Room 112, NTU Agronomy Hall

4. 10/28 (Fri) 19:00~21:00 "More Than Just Filling the Stomach - The Food Journey from Place of Origin to Dining Table" Lai Ching-sung, Room 104, NTU Activities Auditorium

For complete and up-to-date information, please see the Bow to Land Farmers' Market blog, or search for Bow to Land Farmers' Market on Facebook

Organizer: Hao-Jan Foundation
Co-organizers: Taiwan Rural Front, NTU Guyu Club
Special thanks: all the friends and farming friends who helped with preparations and participated in setting up stalls, and all of you who support friendly cultivation and green consumption