Experience a work-exchange holiday at the Nan'ao Natural Farm Friendly Farm
People are searching for a connection to the land
With extreme weather and the rise of environmental awareness, reflecting on the harm that industrialization has brought to the planet, to the land and to people themselves has become an overt social issue. When people talk glibly about the environment and environmental protection, they also discover how many people have become completely severed from the land, having lost all feeling for it, because from birth to adulthood they can find no real connection to the land in their lives.
Having lost that connection, everything about talking environmental protection and loving the land becomes a topic of a virtual world rather than a personal matter. This phenomenon is especially pronounced among those born after the eighth grade cohort.
Only action makes it real
It is against this backdrop that the working-holiday exchange has gradually become popular. Many people have begun to head out to the land themselves or with their children, and have gradually deepened this kind of action, not only joining environmental movements, but some actively serving as environmental volunteers, taking part in activities such as wetland restoration, the Thousand-Mile Trail construction and going down to farms in the countryside to join working-holiday exchange programs.
In addition, in recent years, because New Zealand and Australia accept paid working holidays for foreigners, going to New Zealand and Australia for a working holiday has become a popular activity, and this has also stirred more young people's interest in and action toward working-holiday exchanges.
Becoming benefactors of this land
About 1400 people came to Nan'ao Natural Farm for the 2011 rice-planting experience and the working-holiday exchange launched after spring. Since the working-holiday exchange was launched, a steady stream of working-holiday friends has not only supported Nan'ao Natural Farm's dream of "producing clean food in quantity, producing clean land in quantity", but has also become benefactors of this land. Thanks to so many benefactors for their help, and thanks to these people's participation for giving us more confidence and strength to move forward.
At this moment, I would like to look back, to share the experience of Nan'ao Natural Farm with friends who care about Nan'ao Natural Farm, and also to share it with farms all over Taiwan, China, as a commemoration of the year 2011.
Even so, we instead used a more open "working-holiday exchange", emphasizing the appeals of "experiencing the fields", "learning through work exchange" and "a working-holiday vacation", to turn visitors into positive farming help. This not only made both hosts and guests feel they had gained something, but also allowed us to accept more working-holiday volunteers more openly. Looking back, this change of direction was a successful strategy, and also a practical embodiment of the spirit of "seeing problems as opportunities" in seeking sustainable operation.
Being open is a good idea
Now, many farms make the burden of hosting reasonable by charging a fee to receive visitors.
However, Nan'ao Natural Farm instead uses free countryside experience and learning to encourage contract-farming households to take part in farming themselves, so as to achieve the goals of promoting natural farming and expanding its support community (collectively known as community-supported agriculture: CSA–Community Supported Algriculture). Looking back, the working-holiday exchange successfully encouraged more people to take part in natural farming, and also supported the dream action of "Nan'ao Natural Village" to "produce clean food in quantity, produce clean land in quantity".
The localization of the working-holiday exchange
The international working-holiday exchange network WWOOF TAIWAN provided a model for the working-holiday exchange. Besides referring to WWOOF's rule of 6 hours a day and one day off a week, Nan'ao Natural Farm took Taiwan, China's local characteristics into account and added a 3-hour work-exchange "lodging but no meals" working holiday, as well as a 1.5-hour work-exchange "no meals, no lodging" "work-exchange visit".
The 3-hour "meals but no lodging" working holiday allows work-exchange participants to keep more time for sightseeing or personal work such as writing.
And the 1.5-hour "work-exchange visit" is usually a same-day round-trip visit with no food or lodging, for which Nan'ao Natural Farm can provide relative services such as a briefing, a guided tour and rest at the inn.
A friendly farm with the temperament of a social enterprise
We can see the working-holiday exchange as a kind of friendly exchange of services. In it, visitors contribute labor to help the farm with farming, and the farm provides food and lodging as well as sharing of farming techniques and content.
In order to host more working-holiday friends, Nan'ao Natural Farm has established a simple, friendly, self-service culture and facilities. Apart from the kitchen and cooking equipment, which can be considered fairly complete, Nan'ao Natural Farm does not provide very good facilities; instead, it asks work-exchange participants to stay at the Nan'ao Natural Farm inn to the standard of a "backpacker".
Perhaps some people have already noticed that at Nan'ao Natural Farm, whose main axis of operation is contract farming and commissioned cultivation, a great deal of the work-exchange work is in fact labor for the crops of contract-farming households, and when contract-farming households come to Nan'ao Natural Farm to farm, most of it is also caring for everyone's crops. This is essentially very different from an ordinary farm.
Nan'ao Natural Farm, by engaging in friendly farming, has driven friendly trade, and has also brought friendly people to take part in these friendly actions. So I say that Nan'ao Natural Farm is a friendly farm with a "social enterprise temperament" that shares.
The outlook for Nan'ao Natural Farm in the new year (2012)
In the new year, Nan'ao Natural Farm has started contract farming and commissioned cultivation of vegetables and fruits, on the one hand developing idle land, on the other hand contracting with farmers to expand natural farmland, and on the other hand increasing the diversity of what working-holiday friends can experience.
Facing the growing number of contract-farming friends, working-holiday friends and the international "friendly guests" introduced by the Tourism Bureau's Spotlight Plan, I hope that Nan'ao Natural Farm, with the support of so many friendly benefactors, can lead everyone to act for the dream of clean food and clean land. I also hope that everyone can, from these practical actions, find beautiful memories of themselves and of the land.
— Ajiang / Nan'ao Natural Farm — 0988208178 farmhouse 039982183
— Nan'ao Natural Farm website https://sites.google.com/site/nanaozirantian/
— The earth is our common mother; a healthy earth nurtures healthy children