Friendly aquaculture without drugs! Yang Jumen's journey to the source (1)
Photo/ Yang Jumen Yuxin, who came along with Jumen, puts on a "frog suit" to get ready to go into the water and catch fish and shrimp
In the cold wind, we arrived at the seedling selection site, one of the local sources of hard clam seedlings in Kouhu.
When the weather is cold, the thing you dread most is "touching" water. I believe that after eating "clams" for so long, few of you have seen how they are farmed, right? Today I will not only show you how hard clams are farmed, but also help you understand why everyone has gradually come to accept "polyculture" rather than "monoculture."
Polyculture: This means that in a pond, besides the "target" species being farmed, such as hard clams, milkfish, white shrimp, giant grouper... other kinds of organisms are also added in response to various situations. By using the food chain, problems such as algae, disease, and parasites... are solved.
Monoculture: This means farming only 1~2 target species of fish or shrimp, but in order to prevent and control algae, disease, parasites... chemicals must be applied for control.
In the cold wind of around ten degrees, watching the farmers busy one by one, you would not see the word "cold" appear. My old home used to farm clams, so I roughly know how it is done. We also, besides farming clams in the pond, had to farm tilapia, grass carp, bighead carp... to help eat the algae, and the fish raised could also be sold for money. This is one kind of polyculture.
In the freezing weather, watching the older women each wrapped up tightly with no gaps in their clothing, their hands still "coming with the wind and going with the water," made me shiver... Actually, the main purpose of this action is to use a "sieve" to wash and sort, separating hard clam seedlings of different sizes into "grades," that is, large and small, so that buyers can make purchases and farm them conveniently.
During the washing and sorting process, things that are not hard clam seedlings must also be picked out from time to time, such as grass, leaves, Babylon snails, sand shrimp, whisker shrimp...
After washing and sorting, the result is bag after bag like this, each one about the same size. In this way, after the farmers who buy them take them back and farm them, the harvest time will be the same. There will not be some big and some small.
This bag is the culled portion. In fact, inside there are small shrimp, "whisker shrimp," which were often used as bait when fishing in the past. They also taste pretty good. If made into dried shrimp, they would be even better. But generally speaking they have little economic value, one reason being that they are too small, and another being that the labor for sorting them is too expensive. Otherwise, on the market, the price is not bad. In the food chain, the small shrimp here are a food source for the fish!
Beautiful, right! People kept wanting to buy "dried shrimp" from Sister Sun, but there never has been any. It is not that she does not want to sell, but, dear readers, take a look for yourselves: if you want a catty of dried shrimp, how much labor would be needed to achieve that. Ha...
This is sand shrimp. Many people see all shrimp as the same, but in fact they differ in size, color, growth habits, taste and texture... Sand shrimp generally appear in hard clam ponds because when seawater is introduced to farm hard clams, sand shrimp seedlings enter with the seawater, and milkfish, which are farmed in hard clam ponds to eat "algae," also count sand shrimp as one of their food sources.
I did not have too many thoughts when taking this photo; I just wanted to tell myself that I had been here. The person on the right is Master Ahe. One day, when Yuxin saw Master Ahe introduced on "One Step at a Time," she very seriously told me to go stand in the corner as punishment. Yuxin said, "Look at how hard the farmers work. You cannot just talk and make things up. Learn from them!" After watching the introduction myself, I thought a lot. I really need to be more serious and let more people see the farmers' efforts.
Generally, beside a pond there will be a small work shed, where tools can be stored and where things can also be sorted during harvest. Another point is that fishermen follow the "moon" and the "tides." Most current farming introduces seawater for cultivation rather than pumping groundwater. So another use of the work shed is for rest, and when fish prices are good, for fear that "thieves" will come by, people also keep watch overnight in the work shed.
Yuxin laughs so hard she is shaking all over, her hair flying in the wind. This "frog suit" is a great helper for fishermen going into the water; it is waterproof and cold-resistant. When city people come to the countryside, everything is novel and they want to try everything, which is why this photo exists.
Helping out is also a kind of experience, and that is what a "place-of-origin trip" is like. It lets people without experience get a taste of farm work, which leaves a stronger impression, and the next time they see agricultural products that farmers have worked hard to farm or grow, they will no longer judge their "value" simply by "price."
Many people traditionally think that the concept of organic and non-toxic means a high unit price and not being friendly enough to the general public. Every product has a reasonable price. In terms of ideas, people in Taiwan no longer have the simple, cherishing mindset they once did. According to research reports, the food thrown away in Taiwan each year is worth about 35 to 40 billion yuan, roughly 30% of total food. This means that when we make purchases, we are not choosing what we want; in our mindset we are actually choosing which agricultural products to discard.
There is a joke often told: because Taiwan has no emperor, in the past we would "cleanse the ruler's side," which simply means that there were petty people around the emperor, and we would raise troops to remove the petty people around him. But now there is no emperor, so mothers have changed it to "cleansing the refrigerator." How many people have mooncakes from last year, zongzi from last year, eggs not cooked for 2 months, vegetables bought and not cooked for 1 month, drinks opened but not finished...
The joke is not just a joke. From the perspective of capitalism: "every action is a cost." Buying food and not eating it is "cost 1;" throwing it away is "cost 2;" the garbage truck taking it to the incinerator is "cost 3;" the incinerator is set at 1000 degrees, and dioxins thermally decompose at 800 degrees, but we send kitchen waste that has not been properly sorted to the incinerator. Because kitchen waste contains large amounts of oil, salt, and water, it lowers the incinerator's combustion temperature to 400 degrees, causing the incinerator to emit toxic gases; polluting the air is "cost 4;" kitchen waste lowers the combustion temperature and causes incomplete combustion, making kitchen waste and plastic melt together into blocks that need to be cleared out and then buried, which is "cost 5."
And when we buy agricultural products, if we still pick the big ones, the beautiful ones, the low-priced ones, and the large-quantity ones, is that really necessary? Are we really just choosing what to throw away? Thinking back, why not buy agricultural products that are friendly to the environment and eat them in appropriate amounts? Appropriate amounts means that the main cause of modern disease is obesity. Rather than losing weight and seeing doctors, it is better, at the very start when choosing what to eat, to choose things that are good for the body, good for the environment, and good for farmers.
Inevitably the city habit came again: wanting to try everything. But only by trying can there be understanding, and this is also the greatest imagination behind the market's ongoing place-of-origin trips. I also discussed with Sister Sun whether, when spring comes next year and flowers bloom, we should hold a "place-of-origin trip" to let consumers go directly to the place of origin to recognize and understand how the "things they eat" come to be. I believe that through firsthand, on-site experience, interaction between "production and sales" is more easily achieved.
Inevitably, coming here means eating. As the saying goes, "If you want to eat a fly, catch it yourself." It sounds a bit dirty, but it is the wisdom of the older generation. So let us get to work! Male mud crab. Autumn is the season for "crabs." By the time we came, the season was a bit past, so they tasted a little "thin," but they were still very delicious, because they were just "fresh"!
He looks like he is not in a very good mood, so he keeps raising both claws high, as if he wants to fight me. I will wait for Master Ahe to come and deal with you!
When we catch them, we also have to be careful not to get "pinched." Master Ahe, living by the sea really makes a difference. In just a few moves he left the male mud crab "helpless," catching it easily and effortlessly.
No need to say much about this. Catching a male mud crab is out of the question! Just make do with it and catch a "small" crab that cannot even be named, just to take a photo.
With this kind of trap cage, besides crabs, fish can also be caught, just fewer of them.
This "tiger grouper" was caught in the trap cage just now. It is very small, not yet at the stage for eating, so after taking the photo it will be put back into the pond to continue growing.
Just as I was recording, a "little egret" flew by, a very pleasant scene, so I casually took a photo. When we lose "spring and autumn," then in winter we fear summer will not come. I have found that environmental conservation is becoming more and more important, and what matters is that thinking and doing must be the same.
When something is taking shape, the most important thing is consistency! A counterexample is: when a piece of clothing emphasizes green environmental protection, but uses cotton from conventional farming, and cotton's pesticide use accounts for 30% of total agricultural pesticide use, and the clothing has also undergone improper bleaching, such as with sodium hydroxide. And the color painted on the clothing is green, but the composition of the pigment is refined from petrochemicals, and in the refining process it harms the environment, and wearing it on the human body is also not good. Do not just talk without putting it into practice. As old Mao said well, "No investigation, no right to speak." (This article is the first part; the second part is to be continued.)
Further reading
Master Ahe Natural Ecological Fish, Shrimp, and Shellfish
