Ms. Chen has been participating in MOA, an organic farming certification organization, for twenty years. With her vision and love of organic farming, Ms. Chen and other parents from Hushan Elementary School founded Grass Hope Taiwan Organizations, bringing a positive influence to their community. Our interview with Ms. Chen lasted for a two hours during our third visit to the field of Grass Hope Taiwan Foundation. We organized the content of our interview into the following points:
- Organic farming farmers v.s Natural farming farmers:
- Organic farming farmers work on passing organic certification and following official regulations. While both types of farmers focus on being eco-friendly to the land, natural farming farmers don't necessary want to apply for the certification. This is beacuse the application process is very complicated. In addtion, some farmers couldn't afford paying the application fee. Some of the farmers that practice natural farming for their own personal interest, and they don't neccesary want to get the certification. One of the drawback for not applying the certification is that the crops cannot be officially recognized as "orgainic" crops.
- Extra info: Grass Hope Taiwan Foundation helps the local farmers to practice natural farming. Since most of the local farmers are elders, they don't really need the certification. Therefore, Grass Hope Taiwan Foundation focus on teaching the practice of natural farming instead of promting organic certification.
- What are some teachings of natural farming?
- Natural farming teaches the farmers to understand their land. Every land has its own characteristics. Farmers will need to know what types of crops best fit their land. Farmers should not grow a certain kind of vegetables simply beacuse of profit.
- Natural farming encourages the farmers to reduce their reliance on using peticides and fertilizers. Grass Hope Taiwan Foundation understands that it is really hard to change farmers' farming habits. The members will not force farmers to make a dramatic change. Instead, they will work with the farmers in a long period of time. Gradually, most of the farmers are willing to accept the practice of natural farming.
- What are the benefits of practicing natural farming ?
- It is friendly to the environment, the soil, animals, and people.
- What are some problems that Grass Hope Taiwan Foundation faced?
- Grass Hope Taiwan Foundation works on promoting community-supported agriculture (CSA). Members from the local community can order fresh vegetables with us. Then, we will send vegetables to them. We tried to provide high quality choices for our members. However, sometimes hot weather will affect the appearance of vegetable. We will educate our customers that the vegetables are not ill. They just need to put them into a bowl of water for 5 mins, then the vegetables will look great again. We need to keep on communicate with our customers. Most of them buy the vegetables provide by Grass Hope Taiwan Foundation to support us. It is our responsibility to give them the update news about our foundation and our products.
- How do people support Grass Hope Taiwan Foundation?
- People support Grass Hope Taiwan in many ways. Some of the local community members will volunteer to help. Other support the foundation by joining classes or ordering vegetables. Some local business such as restaurants and hotel will also work with us. We hope that through cooperation, more and more people will get to know the practice of natural farming and the importance of food education.
- Japanese culture and food education:
- In 2005, Japan passed laws about food education. Schools started to value students' health more. Students that eat a healthy diet often will pay more attention during class time. For example, a Japanese principle found out that students that eat typical Japanese breakfast (rice and miso soup) would behave better than students that eat sandwiches as breakfast. This is because eating rice is better for maintaing a stable blood sugar level. Stable blood sugar level often leads to better temper and higher concentration. Therefore, Japanese government work on promoting healthy diet in the campus.
Ms. Chen explained the process of natural farming in the interview.
<Pictures taken by Grass Hope Taiwan Foundation and Earth's Children>