Erhlin and Wanggong Observations: Summer Cultivation Rural Grassroots Field Survey Series II (3)
Text by Lin Le-hsin, Chen Ning, Huang Yu-ying, Chi Hsin-yun, Yang Hsiang-lin, Lin Ming-hua, Chen Yi-chun, Wu Chia-ling, Lu Kuan-ming, Cheng Pi-wei
Introduction The "Summer Cultivation Erhlin/Fangyuan Field Survey Group" is one of the teams conducting the Summer Cultivation rural field survey. Our group's survey area was not limited to the traditional "countryside"; beyond the famous Taiwanese farming township of Erhlin in Changhua, we followed our concern for Taiwan's primary industries southwest along the Changhua coast to visit the inshore aquaculture fisheries of Fangyuan and Wanggong.
Summer Cultivation Erhlin and Wanggong Field Survey [Day Four]
Text by Yang Hsiang-lin
Rising early, I headed once again to Erhlin Township Market. This is a very traditional market, and compared with where I live, it is quite substantial in scale. Compared with the city, many thick soup stalls, misua stalls, and noodle stands here start doing business early in the morning; country people are very used to treating these foods, which city dwellers regard as a staple, as the source of energy for a vigorous morning. Another feature of the traditional market is the many grandmothers who arrive early with their vegetables, spread nylon mats along the roadside, sit down on little stools, and set up small fruit-and-vegetable vending areas; when someone passes by, they wave and call out, "Boss lady, take a look!" This is the selling style of the traditional market: "boss lady" and "boss" are the terms you hear most often.
The shop staff working in the traditional market are all of a certain age, which seems closely tied to the outflow of young and middle-aged people from the countryside. Young laborers are not commonly seen in the rural areas here, let alone running small stalls in the traditional market.
After breakfast, we went to Representative Hung's home in Fangyuan, and the Representative immediately took us to see hydroponic agriculture. Hydroponic agriculture is a type of precision agriculture: vegetables are grown on water rather than soil. The vegetables and the water are not in direct contact; they are separated by polystyrene, and the buoyancy of the polystyrene supports the seedlings above the water. As for fertilization, the fertilizer is placed directly into the water for the plants to absorb. Apart from planting the seedlings, everything else is handled mechanically, including temperature control and water circulation. The person running the hydroponic farm is Brother Hung. He has been farming hydroponically for only two years, and he said that hydroponic agriculture initially requires ten times the capital of ordinary farming, while the actual selling price is only four to five times that of ordinary farming. The main market is still Taipei.
Brother Hung came from a law background and has worked as a land registration agent and a teacher, among other occupations. Later, after consulting many experts in this industry and relevant industry organizations, he now devotes himself to hydroponic agriculture. As for why he chose to enter this industry, he said, "I wanted to get into this business because I have a passion for agriculture." Throughout his conversation with us, he kept emphasizing that agriculture is not a "simple" industry; you must invest considerable passion to succeed.
This is quite at odds with the mainstream values in society today. Mainstream social values often regard farming as a thankless job that requires exposure to the sun and a great deal of labor. Some even think that agriculture, as a primary industry, is technically inferior to modern industries such as manufacturing and information technology. But after these several in-depth looks at farmers' work and industry, I found that agriculture actually possesses a profoundly deep body of knowledge, including the need to understand climate, how to coexist harmoniously with the environment, and even market buying and selling, all of which are areas unknown to us.
Afterward, we went on to Dacheng Township. Dacheng Township sits at the border between Changhua and Yunlin, and according to Sister Yueh-ying, this is the place with the most severe land subsidence in all of Taiwan; over the past nearly twenty years, it has subsided by at least 320 meters. Dead ducks discarded by upstream livestock operations drift through the streams from time to time, and the streams also give off a foul smell. Looking around, the levees have been raised at least three times, and the roads are constantly being built up as well.
After that, we went to the planned site for the Eighth Naphtha Cracker. The Eighth Naphtha Cracker, that is, the Kuokuang Petrochemical project. Previously, my impression of Kuokuang Petrochemical stopped at the white dolphins, and the National Trust's slogan was also "Save the White Dolphins." But after arriving at the planned site, what stretched endlessly before us were fiddler crabs, and lively, bouncing fiddler crabs, and beneath the sea there is still much ecology I know nothing about. Only then did I realize that the Eighth Naphtha Cracker would not only endanger the migration route of the white dolphins; the endless tidal flats visible before our eyes would all disappear because of land reclamation, and the rich ecosystem nurtured by the tidal flats would also vanish without a trace.
The Tidal Flat: Home of Fiddler Crabs, Mudskippers and Little Egrets
Right after that, we arrived at the Egret Grove in Dacheng Township. This large stretch of woods is where little egrets and black-crowned night herons live. Every March and April, flocks of egrets come here to nest. Their nests are built from twigs, and when a little egret is about to nest, it will first look for a nest that has already been built; if there is one, it will take over the earlier bird's nest and move in.
On the way to the woods, a little egret had fallen into a man-made ditch. The feathers of a little egret do not have the wax coating found on the feathers of adult birds, so once a little egret falls into the water, its feathers quickly absorb water, and the little egret cannot fly and is prone to dying. After we used a tree branch to fish the little egret out, Sister Yueh-ying placed it in the field to "sunbathe" and warm back up, and we, out of excitement and novelty, kept crowding around the little egret, staring at it without blinking, watching to see when it could stand up.
The villagers living here also do their utmost to protect this egret grove, but right next to the egret grove is an expressway construction project; once the expressway construction begins, it will certainly destroy this romantic egret grove, and what will be destroyed is not only the ecology but also the possible chance for people and nature to live in harmony.
[Dacheng Xigang - In Search of the Egret Grove]
Text by Lin Ming-hua
Setting out from Fangyuan, we followed Provincial Highway 17 south to Dacheng in Changhua. This is the estuary of the Zhuoshui River, and locals often call this place the southwestern corner of Changhua, or use the phrase "wind's head, water's tail" to describe the survival difficulties caused by its geographical position, which is unfavorable for both farming and going out to sea. Yet even at the wind's head and water's tail, the tenacity of estuary people remains unchanged. Along the coast of southern Changhua, Xinbao, Wanggong and Fangyuan have an economy based mainly on oyster and clam farming, while Dacheng sits right by the Zhuoshui River estuary, where the wetlands are muddy, so residents adapt to the different wetland conditions, mostly farming freshwater clams near the sea and raising ducks inland. Dacheng is constrained by its sandy soil, and its farmland is mainly used for peanuts and watermelons. In recent years, some farmers have gradually switched to hydroponic vegetable cultivation; besides being more profitable, the crops are also more diverse, though the threshold and cost of running hydroponic vegetables are higher than those of field cultivation.
Also because it is remote, Xigang Shalun in Dacheng has attracted many little egrets to gather, forming the largest egret nesting site in central Taiwan. At noon, the Summer Cultivation group followed the guide to the legendary egret grove, expecting to see many birds flying about, but instead saw only two or three little egrets and black-crowned night herons foraging in the surrounding paddies. The guide explained that at this hour the egrets have all gone out to feed, and that the best time for birdwatching at the egret grove is in the evening, when weary birds return to their nests.
This vast tidal flat is a moving sight that must be seen to be believed
So the Summer Cultivation group strolled through the egret grove under the blazing sun, following the guide's footsteps and explanations through a natural forest where giant leucaena and horsetail she-oak grow intermingled, with soil, bird droppings and trees blending into a damp earthen smell unique to the coast.
Along the way, a little egret in distress made the whole group try every means to rescue it from the ditch. The brave guide said: let it sunbathe and warm up; animals should simply be left to follow nature, and human intervention should be minimized. For a moment, everyone seemed unable to bear leaving the little egret behind and moving on, but after learning that human intervention with animals can produce the opposite of the intended effect, they seemed to slowly learn to accept the animal's own inherent instinct for survival. At that moment it might seem cruel, but respecting nature is the unchanging law for living peacefully with all living things.
Not far from the egret grove is Xigang Bridge. Standing on the bridge, waves of fishy smell drifted by from time to time, and looking down, for some reason, there were many dried fish and dead crabs on the bridge; some had already dried out, and some were flattened by cars. Could it be that fish and crabs have superpowers and ran onto the bridge to end their lives? The guide explained that it was because the land in the Dacheng area has severe subsidence, and sediment from the Zhuoshui River estuary keeps silting up, so at high tide the stream gradually rises above the bridge piers, and that is how fish and crabs were left stranded on the bridge, unable to return home.
Not far from the bridge, an abandoned red-brick house has sunk nearly one third of its depth. Standing on this land and seeing with my own eyes buildings affected by land subsidence was truly shocking. The causes of the subsidence are none other than the uneven distribution of water resources caused by the huge water consumption of the Erhlin Cheng Loong paper mill and the Sixth Naphtha Cracker plant across the Zhuoshui River. The Sixth Naphtha Cracker plant faces Dacheng across the Zhuoshui River. Standing at the center of Dacheng Xigang and looking south, the huge chimneys of the Sixth Naphtha Cracker plant keep belching grayish-white smoke, which cannot help but make one cry out in protest: besides the squeeze on resources and environmental pollution caused by industry, politicians also take the opportunity to vilify Dacheng as a barren land, and then use that to promote the even more energy-hungry and more polluting Kuokuang Petrochemical project to Dacheng...
<To be continued>