How is the charm of pineapple defined? Hualien Fuxing Community's appreciation of food ingredients gives the answer

Beside Provincial Highway 9 in Ruisui Township, Hualien County, there is a big pineapple that catches the eye of many visitors. Near the big pineapple, the Fuxing Guesthouse, run by the Fuxing Community Development Association, has in recent years ridden this wave as public tastes have favored the original flavor of pineapple, making a name for itself with organic native pineapple cakes and processed products; the big pineapple has become virtually synonymous with the Fuxing community. Before this, the local native pineapples could only be left to rot in the field as fertilizer after the Lunar New Year, but some people felt this was a waste, and so this native pineapple transformation plan was launched.

Although weeds run rampant in the pineapple fields, and the association must hire workers every month to use brush cutters plus manual labor to clear the weeds - a very painstaking process - this effort has also created habitat for ring-necked pheasants and Taiwan hares. Ring-necked pheasants come to the fields to lay eggs; some small mammals and birds also often show up, building the unique ecological appearance of the pineapple fields.

At first it was simply about not wasting these hard-grown pineapples, but unexpectedly the native pineapple cakes won both praise and popularity. Although the community hopes to raise the stakes further and keep planting, Lai Menghong, true to his original intention, stands in the position of the farmers and of conservation, believing that only by transferring no-tox farming techniques to farmers will the benefits expand, rather than letting the association's success affect the farmers' interests.

"If the association sells the products, the farmers will also have confidence," Lai Menghong plans to work with 5 farmers, each contract-farming 5 fen of land, and to buy at a guaranteed price, so that no-tox farming methods gradually expand in area; and the pineapple fields that nurture ring-necked pheasants are also planned to apply for a ring-necked pheasant ecological label, so that the charm of Fuxing pineapple continues to spread.

※ Also published on the Environmental Information Center