Organic agriculture development must forge its own path (Part 2)
Image / Homemade fruit and vegetable enzymes from a farm family
On October 1, the third day, the keynote speeches centered on fairness, one of the four principles of organic agriculture, and the moderator was Roberto Ugas. The first speaker was Professor Wen Tiejun of Renmin University of China, whose topic was "Using organic agriculture to free rural residents from poverty: China's next miracle?", discussing whether China can reform its rural agricultural policy to shift toward what he called mainstream organic agriculture, and whether people living in remote areas can benefit from a policy shift to organic agriculture. When someone asked him during the open question session how he viewed the case of China buying land in Africa to farm, he did not respond directly, saying only that he would need to check the relevant data before he could understand it, yet the questioner had clearly come prepared.
Because after buying the land, the farming is generally done on a large scale, growing a single crop over a vast area, which clearly conflicts with the ecological agriculture and biodiversity that organic agriculture emphasizes. My personal feeling is that how could the agricultural wisdom accumulated over thousands of years of local cultivation by Chinese people or Eastern societies be inferior to Western organic agriculture that only arose in the past hundred years; it is just that it has not been organized scientifically or systematically, and by now we have no choice but to seek it from the West, as the saying goes, "when the rites are lost, seek them in the countryside." There is truly much helplessness and much room for effort in this.
The second speaker was Yoshinori Kaneko of Japan, who introduced the concept of a sustainable community in his hometown, the organic village of Ogawa. In addition to practicing organic agriculture, it also uses energy-saving technology from natural energy systems. He began farming in the 1970s, when the first oil crisis occurred, and worked with community residents and the local government to promote the use of solar power and biogas, and promoted the processing and production of organic sake, organic tofu, and organic rice noodles in the community to increase farmers' income. He is a true farmer-practitioner rooted in the soil.
The third speaker was Liz Clay from Australia, whose topic was "Fairness inside? Of course," emphasizing that fairness, one of the four great spirits of organic agriculture, must achieve a fairer meaning in fair trade and be widely applied in all aspects. She owns an organic farm certified for 22 years, is currently the chair of the Victorian Organic Industry Committee, and also served for seven years as a board member of IFOAM. She mentioned that the Melbourne region of Australia experienced nine years of drought in the past and floods last year, and that in the face of climate change, organic agriculture has more opportunities and challenges.
The fourth speaker was Sophia Twarog from Switzerland, whose topic was "Let the benefits of good products be shared with more people." She is herself an economist and believes that trade is sometimes unfair, while banning trade is always unfair, and that barriers must be opened and global tariff and non-tariff obstacles removed. Personally, I think that although her idealism is lofty, it is not necessarily suitable for the organic industry. Simply put, if large multinational organic farms dump agricultural products with lower production costs into regions with higher production costs, then local producers whose products overlap will inevitably be hit.
Moreover, organic products that travel across the ocean also do not conform to the principle of ecological energy saving, so I personally do not agree with her views. She is mainly active in East Africa, helping to establish organic product standards there, and most organic products in these regions are for export. Advocating trade liberalization for organic products is probably just an unavoidable expression of her personal position.
A gourd at a small rural eatery bearing the written words "local soil and local food"
Visiting Asia's first organic museum
On the afternoon of the final day of the agenda, I joined the local organic farm visit offered by the congress for citizen participation. Since I would return to Taiwan early the next morning and had not yet had a chance to visit local organic agriculture, I very much wanted to see the newly completed organic museum as well. The organic museum would host the IFOAM congress general assembly from 10/3 to 10/5. Since the itinerary included the museum as a visit point, I signed up for the tour.
We first visited an organic farm in the suburbs called Smile Farm. Its main production methods were all carried out inside semi-enclosed net-house facilities with transparent covers on top and open sides. The impressive melon and fruit tunnel display area grew healthy fruits and vegetables such as loofah, pumpkin, and tomato, while plastic net holes on the ground were used to grow many kinds of lettuce and other leafy greens. It also sold some certified enzymes or liquid fertilizer accelerators. Such a farm is suitable for city people to come on weekends to relax and pick fresh fruits and vegetables on site. Because there was no English-speaking guide, I could not gain a deeper understanding of the farm's operations.
Since the organic museum was the last stop on the itinerary, and I was afraid I would not make it back for the dinner gathering arranged by Korean friends that evening, I later left the group to visit the organic museum in the outskirts of the city. Its transportation was not convenient. This new building is Asia's first organic museum of a fairly large scale, mainly displaying and introducing the history of organic agriculture, with the earliest rice fossils to show the long history of rice culture, as well as many early farming tools. If the organic agriculture history section were removed, it would feel like an ordinary agricultural exhibition hall. What was creative was that at the exit, it displayed representatives of today's giant multinational chain enterprises in the food industry, showing the enormous influence of conventional agriculture today and how it controls people's right to choose food. Whether organic agriculture can win back some space is a question everyone should think deeply about in the future, and the right to choose is in our own hands.
It took about half an hour to finish visiting the organic museum. Fortunately, I had asked the original tour guide to arrange for museum staff to call a taxi back to the venue. Because the location was remote, it took a long time before a taxi finally came. Only then did I realize the purpose of the congress specially reminding those attending the general assembly that they had better stay together at the Hanwha resort, because the congress provided shuttle buses, which could avoid the inconvenience of transportation.
When I returned to the venue, the opening performance of the closing ceremony was underway. The heavenly voices of this children's choir filled the ears with joy. The theme of the closing ceremony was strengthening the commitment for the next 3 years. The first speaker was ISOFAR president Professor Ulrich Kopke, whose topic was "Setting the theme in organic science," emphasizing that in order for organic agriculture to receive more attention and response from decision-makers and people around the world, there must be more scientific evidence to demonstrate the advantages of organic agriculture.
Because I would leave Korea early the next morning, Korean friends and the host family couple had set a dinner gathering date long beforehand. I could not bear to decline their kindness, so after listening to the first speech, I left first at around six o'clock. In the evening I experienced traditional Korean food and rice soup. There were many small dishes and much was left over. I smiled and told my friend that if all of this were organic ingredients, we would definitely order just the right amount, and then there would be no waste. It seems organic slow food is not easy to make popular in the short term; more people need to identify with it psychologically and put it into practice for it to truly prevail. I think consumers themselves must be aware in order to truly change customs and move toward an organic lifestyle.
Small (pickled) dishes of a traditional farm family
Reflections and suggestions
Researchers should attend more organic academic seminars
Unlike the last time in 2008, when the 16th OWC was held in Italy and Taiwan formed a large delegation to actively participate in order to compete for the right to host this year's 17th congress, this time, as far as I know, there were only about ten Taiwanese attendees, who mostly arranged their own itineraries to go to Namyangju (city) in Gyeonggi (province), where the venue was located. Those I met at the venue included three staff members of the Homemakers United Foundation, Shi Hongsheng, Zhang Zhiyuan, and Zhong Yuanhong, as well as producer Mr. Chen Bilang, Professor Huang Zhangru of our school's organic center and his assistant, and Mr. Chen Yisong, who was once a technician with an agricultural technical team sent abroad for many years and is now retired and serving as an organic volunteer.
Professor Chen Shixiong, president of Mingdao University and also chairman of the Taiwan Organic Industry Promotion Association, came only after the seminar ended to serve as the moderator of one agenda item at the general assembly because he was busy with official duties. Being able to speak up for Taiwan's organic agriculture is something to be glad about. Although I did not get to meet him, I did meet his Indian doctoral student at National Chung Hsing University, Amit Kesarwani, who came to present a paper. Although we are not far from Korea, the number of Taiwanese attendees this time was not large, and with such a limited number of attendees trying to learn across so many agenda items, it truly felt impossible to be in two places at once.
It is especially worth mentioning that although organic volunteer Mr. Chen Yisong is already retired and nearly seventy, his spirit of actively participating in the agenda and taking careful notes truly made me admire him. Mr. Chen Yisong and I, on this trip, stayed at a host family not far from the venue arranged at a reasonable price by my then British classmate, a Korean friend. The host, Mr. Ahn, and his wife have a son and a daughter, and all treat people kindly. The greatest benefit of staying there, besides experiencing Korean family life, was that during the congress we could be relatively free from transportation restrictions and take local buses back and forth to the venue on our own. Being able to personally experience the demeanor of the older generation of agricultural people was another gain of this trip.
Learn from Korea in developing friendly ecological and organic smallholder characteristics
This international organic agriculture congress roughly continued the previous session's model of holding different themed sub-sessions at the main venue and in surrounding areas, but what was more thoughtful was separating the schedule into pre-congress sessions and the main venue in a before-and-after format. I still remember that last time in Italy, in order to attend the organic aquaculture agenda, I went alone to a small coastal town about 3 hours by car from the main venue and thus could not stay at the main venue to listen to other seminars, which was truly a regret.
This time, based on Korea's local production characteristics, different themed pre-congress sessions were held in several places, including organic aquaculture, organic tea, organic cosmetics, organic ginseng, urban agriculture, and organic wine. This not only allowed discussions in related fields to be more concentrated and exchanged, but also arranged local visits, giving academia and industry a chance to interact, which fully shows the thoughtfulness of the organizers. Only after the pre-congress sessions did participants return to the main venue at the Sports and Culture Center in Namyangju, Gyeonggi, for exchanges on other themes.
The main venue is located in Paldang, which is said to be the eight scenic spots where eight fairies descended to play. Paldang is by the Han River and is a very important water source protection area. Before taking office, President Lee Myung-bak supported the Paldang organic agriculture special zone, but after taking office, in order to fulfill his political promise of the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project, he sent excavators into the special zone to carry out the project, and police therefore clashed with farmers. Choosing to hold the congress in such a place, with strong support from the local government as well, shows the subtle relationship between the central and local governments.
But aside from political factors, a group of farmers in the Paldang area first established an organic group as early as 1976, which can be called the origin of Korea's organic agriculture. The "Paldang Water Source Organic Agriculture Movement Headquarters," initially founded by 20 farmers, has now grown into a cooperative organization of 330 farm households and 5000 consumers. Taiwan's Homemakers United Foundation Consumer Cooperative also interacts closely with them. This time its staff also visited Paldang, and I did not get to go, which is a regret.
The Paldang area is currently Korea's largest organic special zone, supplying about 70 kinds of vegetables and livestock products to 12000 households living in Seoul and the metropolitan area. In 2010, Korea's pesticide-free (uncertified) and certified organic production area totaled 110000 hectares, about 6.4 percent of total cultivated land, with an output value of about 1.6 billion US dollars, of which certified organic area was about 40000 hectares (2.2 percent of total cultivated land). The mayor of Namyangju also called for building Namyangju into a Slow City, and its Slow Food movement is also quite famous. The slogan of the congress theme was "Organic is life," attempting to create various activities of a Festival of Life. Koreans truly showed the substance of their desire to integrate organic living.
Long-term preparation and full cooperation to achieve success
Although the thoughtfulness of the congress organizers could be seen everywhere, these staff members or volunteers were relatively unable to communicate in English, and one often had to ask several people before getting a response. I think this can serve as a reference for future organizers willing to host, to include volunteer service training. The chairman of the congress preparatory committee was the governor of Gyeonggi Province, and there were two vice chairmen, one the mayor of Namyangju where the venue was located, and the other the chairman of the Korean Federation of Sustainable Agriculture Organizations (KFSA). KFSA also planned all the pre-congress local visits and the cultural or performance activities during the congress, but the pre-congress visits arranged to China and Japan may have been canceled due to insufficient numbers.
Because the organizers subsidized airfare and waived registration for participants from developing countries, many people came from African countries. One participant from Indonesia also received airfare subsidy despite registering late, which shows that the matters promised by the Korean government or the organizers at the previous general assembly were implemented.
However, judging from the number of people attending the opening ceremony and the congress Gala dinner (night of joy), there were only about 400 to 500 foreign participants this time, clearly nearly half fewer than the 800 who attended the GALA last time. The reason is worth exploring, especially since last time each Gala dinner participant had to pay 90 euros and this was criticized, while this time it was only 30 euros, which counts as a reasonable price. Because organic farmers are not wealthy, in fact, adding the registration fee of nearly 300 euros still makes for a small burden.
Even if there were only 500 foreign participants, if Taiwan wishes to hold a similar seminar, it would still need to invest a great deal of resources. For example, cooperation among all industry, government, academic, and research sectors in Taiwan's organic industry would need to be closer, and the training of organic volunteers, including strengthening English ability, would all need to be prepared in advance.
Enzymes fermenting in clay jars
I also hope that at the next International Organic Agriculture Congress in Turkey in 2014, Taiwan can show more organic agriculture research capacity by then, and I hope relevant units can provide some resources to assist attendees, as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs NGO Committee did this time by providing airfare subsidies. If there could be subsidies for other things such as registration fees, that would be even better. After all, besides airfare and registration fees, attendees still have to pay about half of the total cost themselves for accommodation and living expenses. After all, there are not many people like Mr. Chen Yisong who, though retired, still pays out of his own pocket to attend seriously. Those with English communication ability should be encouraged more to learn from the international community, which also conforms to Taiwan's interests at the present stage.
Thinking about it, although Korea failed in its bid in 2005 to host in 2008, in 2008 it did not lose heart and, with the government and private sector working together, came back and finally won the right to host in 2011. In fact, Korea has many diplomatic allies, but for large international events that can increase national honor and status, the whole country still works together to strive for them. This is much stronger than the so-called "checkbook diplomacy" that we were previously criticized for internationally or domestically, and it is also something we should learn from and emulate in the future.
However, thinking about it now, although Taiwan lost that bid three years ago, it may actually have been fortunate, because are we really ready? Since I began attending in 2002, some inner voices have often surfaced, such as wondering whether Taiwan's current organic agriculture area of only five per thousand is enough to show how much we value organic agriculture, and also thinking that compared with more developed organic agriculture countries such as those in Europe, we are like a "newborn" stage, and our international status and visibility are still insufficient.
At such a scale, is it appropriate to open our arms to the whole world and hold an international organic agriculture seminar? Are our academic or industrial circles capable of bearing such a heavy responsibility? Before the country or the public has a firm view on organic agriculture, I think we still have much room for effort. It may not yet be time to hold such a grand organic agriculture seminar, but regional seminars like the East Asian Organic Agriculture Forum previously held at National Chung Hsing University, or small seminars like those of ISOFAR, are suitable to invite or bid to host. In this way, by gradually increasing our connections with the organic world, hosting the OWC will come naturally and be much easier.
Taiwan still needs to forge its own organic path
Conversely, Taiwan's current organic agriculture area ratio is not high. First, it means there is great room for growth in the future; second, it means Taiwan's organic agriculture development has always been limited. The biggest problem is whether we have a sound agricultural policy or a more precise organic agriculture policy, including the existing policy that a farmhouse can be built on just 0.25 hectares of farmland, which is a fatal blow to the desire to increase organic agriculture area or develop organic agriculture special zones, and may even become the fuse that leaves Taiwan's agriculture unsustainable in the future.
Korea, like Taiwan, is a country mainly based on smallholders, and has an even denser population of 50 million. It cannot be denied that its organic agriculture is also limited by smallholder farming, such as the difficulty of creating buffer zones. Korea's flexible approach is to promote pesticide-free (uncertified) environmentally friendly production agriculture. In fact, this is turning inward to recover the essence of the ancestors' smallholder farming. Perhaps this model can provide another reference and way out for Taiwan's agriculture, but getting consumers to identify with it is truly not easy. I am very afraid it will again fall into the quagmire of the safe pesticide use emphasized by the Good Agricultural Practice program, thereby accidentally harming certified organic products.
We must recognize that East and West have slightly different concepts of organic agriculture, and their environments also differ. I do not think we must completely imitate Western organic agriculture practices, but we always need something to refer to. As mentioned above, the ancestors accumulated thousands of years of local agricultural wisdom, but because it was not passed down scientifically or systematically, today we can only seek it in reverse from the West. With no choice but to study hard and slowly recover local farming characteristics, this is just like what Koreans have always emphasized: "local soil and local food."
Think about it: today, besides humans, do not all living things follow this principle? If Taiwan's organic rice emphasizes export sales, does that not violate the most original intention of organic agriculture, which is to eat locally? And whose organic is the organic we pursue? Is it the world economic view of organic traders wanting goods to flow freely, or the local production and consumption of a smallholder economy? Sometimes even I am confused about how this organic path should be walked correctly. Perhaps there are no definite answers to these questions, but what is certain is that Taiwan's future organic path is still very long. Yet only if everyone actively participates and understands more about the organic world or the world of organics can we perhaps distinguish the true from the false and find a suitable path.
In a future environment of drastic climate change, I believe Taiwan's organic agriculture does not necessarily have to align with the world, but it must connect and find a local organic form suited to itself. "Organic is life, life is organic." Becoming an organic self may indeed be the ideal life we pursue in the future.
Materials brought back, names and contents
1. Congress Handbook for 17th IFOAM Organic World Congress (abstract)
2. Proceedings of the Third Scientific Conference of the International Society of Organic Agriculture Research (ISOFAR), 29 Sept.~1 Oct. 2011, Namyangju Youth Center, Paldang, Gyeonggi, Korea.
3. Proceedings of Preconference on Organic Aquaculture, 26-27 Sept. 2011, Korea Ocean & Development Institute – East Sea Research, Uljin, Gyeongsangbuk, Korea.
Further reading