by William R. Stimson
When he returned to Taiwan with an American Ph.D. and began teachingagriculture at National Chung Hsing University in Taichung, Ray Tungnever guessed he would go on to establish Taichung's first organicfarmer's market. He taught his students as his professors had him -that agricultural chemicals in the appropriate amounts do no harm.
A student came up after class one day to ask why he wasn't consideringthat even if applied in safe doses, those chemicals accumulate in thesoil, the riverbeds, and even the human body - until they reach levelswhere they do cause harm. A farmer may apply herbicide to his orchardonly twice a month. But that's 24 times a year. This student was afarmer and invited Ray to come see his organic farm.
It turned out to be a big surprise. Ray saw that organic farmingwasn't just about putting no dangerous chemicals in the soil and thewater and no poisons in the food supply and the body. It boiled downto an issue of basic integrity: Do we care more about profit or aboutthe health of the environment and the value of human life?
Thus began Ray's decade-long odyssey to the many small-scale organicfarms in the mountains and in the countryside all around the city ofTaichung in central Taiwan. He got to know the farmers, learned fromthem, and began buying and using their products. At that time anorganic trend was sweeping the agricultural market in North America,Europe, and even, to a lesser extent, Taiwan. Upscale consumersdemanded farm products without poisons and large-scale agri-businessesbegan supplying them to supermarkets.
In Taiwan small-scale organic farmers didn't really benefit from this.Even though their locally-grown produce was superior in freshness andquality to what the big companies delivered to supermarkets, thesefarmers didn't have the marketing skills or the distribution networksto compete. Ray got a sense that in this he might step in and make adifference. He suggested setting up an organic farmer's market inTaichung. The farmers said it wouldn't work.
Everything Ray knew about organic food and the value of organicpractices for the environment and for human health he learned from thesmall farmers, not from any teachers, professors, or agriculturalexperts at any of the universities he'd attended. He saw thesefarmers as a resource not just to provide chemical-free food productsto upscale urban consumers - but to educate the broader public as theyhad him about an entire way of life that was wholesome andregenerative to the individual and the rural landscape. The bigbusinesses supplying the supermarkets, in contrast, were justconcerned with turning out an agricultural product as cheaply aspossible that fit the organic specifications. It was Ray's genius tosee that the unique advantage of the small farmer would present itselfin the face-to-face setting of a farmer's market; and the farmers, insuch a situation, could become an agent for change. He never gave upon his dream of the organic farmer's market. But for ten years itdidn't happen.
Then, last Fall while on sabbatical in Tampa, Florida, he went aroundlooking at farmer's markets in Florida. They got him all fired up.When he returned to Taiwan his mind was decided. He begun reachingout to the organic farmers to let them know he was going ahead withthat old dream of his. He invited them to a preliminary meeting towork out the specifics. At one farm, the farmer's wife was furious at him. "Because of you myhusband turned this onto an organic farm," she lashed out. "Now lookat us. We've become a poor family. The neighbors ridicule us."
"She's going to divorce me," the farmer confided sadly to Ray. "Theneighbors have got these ideas into her head. She says I've betrayedthe family for some stupid idea of mine that doesn't make any sense."
Ray invited them both to the meeting. To his surprise the wife came.Almost sixty farmers and their families were in attendance. The mixincluded vegetable farmers, fruit farmers, tea farmers, and ricefarmers. Ray noticed the man's wife listening in surprise as thestories poured out on all sides.
Farmers told how they initially turned organic after seeing theirparents poisoned and crippled for life by farm chemicals. Taiwan'ssmall farmers in years past were uneducated people of lowsocio-economic status. They didn't know better than to trust thefast-talking salesmen who came around promoting agriculturalchemicals. Then, even when it became apparent that the chemicals didreal harm, farmers kept using them because they knew of noalternative.
Other farmers poured out their stories about how organic farming takestime compared with conventional agriculture because it involvesimproving the quality of the soil and the environment. It may take afew years just to get started. They told how it's not just about theimmediate financial reward, but about leaving the land andsurroundings better for the next generation than the last generationleft it for us.
There was talk how in rural Taiwan there used to be all kinds ofsnakes, frogs, fish and birds. At night, a naked light bulb attracteda cloud of moths, beetles and flying insects. No more. So manyliving things had been poisoned and are not seen anymore. Taiwan hasthe highest rate of liver cancer in the world. In places the islandis turning into a wasteland. It was once named for its beauty.
As the meeting broke up Ray happened to catch sight of the man's wifeand could see the change in her and in the way she was with herhusband. She laughed and smiled and had made lots of new friends -individuals that unlike her ignorant neighbors could make herunderstand what her husband was trying to do and why.
Ray saw that this dream of his wasn't just about marketing thesefarmers' fresh organic produce in Taichung, and it wasn't just abouteducating city dwellers to a new and more wholesome lifestyle. It wasperhaps most importantly about community building. He scheduled asuccession of other planning meetings. Then, in April he sent out thefinal invitations to join Taichung's first organic farmer's market.Of the initial sixty farmers, only thirty-three attended the openingof the market in September.
A representative from one of Taiwan's big agri-businesses approachedRay with a desire to be part of the market. If that company had abooth at the market they would staff it with salespeople hired just tosell vegetables, individuals who wouldn't themselves have undergonethe change in consciousness that occasions a shift to the organiclifestyle the small farmers had undertaken, sometimes at considerableexpense to themselves and their families. Ray turned the big companydown. It wasn't what he wanted for the market. He wanted the peopleof Taichung to have the chance for a face-to-face encounter that mightpossibly let them see - organic food is not just about fruits andvegetables that are free of poisons. It's not just about a productthat meets organic specifications. It's about a change in lifestyle,and a change in consciousness - a way of living that doesn't damagethe environment or other people and is wholesome all around.
These farmers had lived isolated lives on their small farms, tendingtheir land and crops, largely out of contact with each other and anylarger community. Now they arrive at the market early every Saturdaymorning, energetic and excited to see each other and connect with allthe different people thronging the stalls, asking questions, andbuying things. One really does get the feeling at the market that thefarmers have come not just for the money, but to feel part of a largercommunity that cares about the same things they do.
Many Saturdays in the first early morning rush around 8 a.m., when themarket is at its busiest, some farmers sell out. Instead of packingup to leave, they stay the whole rest of the morning, socializing withfarmers at other booths, assisting them with the customers, answeringquestions, and sharing their enthusiasm about the wholesome way oflife they've chosen, and its benefits.
The market is held on the campus of Taichung's National Chung HsingUniversity. It peaks early, between 8 and 9, but goes on until noon.A walk among the stalls and a talk with some of the farmers is enoughto give a whiff of hope that environmentally-ravaged Taiwan might yetbe turned back into the pristine paradise it once was.
Ray is always there, walking from stall to stall, talking witheveryone - a big smile on his face. It's not many men who can say ashe can, that their dream has come true.
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William R. Stimson is an American writer who lives in Taiwan. More ofhis writing can be found at: http://www.billstimson.com
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