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Young farmers reconnect globally: Yilan field notes (La Via Campesina Taiwan visit feature 6)

General News By Emily Carter 0 views

Editor's note: This article is part of the "La Via Campesina 2012 Taiwan Visit Special" series. For the related visit itinerary and other articles in the series, please see the links at the end of this article.

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Photography / Zheng Yayun

On the fourth day of La Via Campesina's visit to Taiwan (5/29), the delegation arrived in Yilan, with its clear mountains and waters. In the afternoon they first arrived at the home of contract farmer Lai Qingsong of the "Gudong Club" to exchange views with several young farmers who had returned to farming; in the evening they dined at the Pine Garden Cottage in Jinshi Community, Yilan City, where young agrarian movement members Wu Jialing, Xie Chuankai and Xiao Yihan hosted the guests with local ingredients. After the meal, members of La Via Campesina gave speeches and held in-depth discussions with local farmers in Yilan.

Yilan County, with its fine mountains and waters, has in recent years attracted many young people to return home to farm. Compared with the other stops on La Via Campesina's Taiwan visit, this was a rather striking feature. Among the delegates on this Taiwan visit, Yakub is the head of the East Asia-Southeast Asia regional youth committee, responsible for organizing youth in various places. Therefore, on this Yilan trip, besides introducing La Via Campesina, the topic of "youth returning to farming" was naturally a focus of discussion. Hence it was especially meaningful that this trip opened its Yilan visit with the "Gudong Club."

The Gudong Club and Yilan's returning young farmers

Those attending in the afternoon included Lai Qingsong, Nan'ao smallholder Guanyu, Nan'ao Natural Farm's A Jiang, Junru, Pinjie, Yilan Xiao Tiantian's Binglun, Siwei, Weihuan, Xiangnian and others.

What these people have in common is that none of them were originally farmers, and they might not even count as children of farming families. For example, Chen Guanyu was originally the bassist of the band Jiaogong, but because he wanted to be closer to the land and to seek another way of life and of creating, he began learning organic farming methods in 2006 and currently farms one and a half fen of land in Nan'ao. Another example is Junru, who began caring about environmental issues in university; after finishing military service, wanting to find a job that directly protects the land and is friendly to the environment, he began a journey of working in exchange for lodging, and currently works at Nan'ao Natural Farm. None of them are children of farming families.

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