"Do you write everything in a positive manner?" Wenxin, the orange (Tankan to be precise) farmer asked. "Not necessarily, but so far, all the farmers have been extremely nice to me, so I have nothing too depressing to write." I replied. "Let me tell you my views towards the traditional farmer's methods." Wenxin had a sip of tea and started telling me his concerns.
The first time I met Wenxin, he came with a red wagon pulled by a motorcycle-like engine (a wagon-like vehicle with its own engine). "Are you going to be scared to sit on this?" Wenxin had to yell because the engine was so loud that I could hardly hear him. I jumped into the red wagon and he drove at a speed of 15km/hour, or slower. Well, at least it was faster than walking, though I did see bicycles passing us.
We sat in the bushes of his tankan farm. He showed me his surgery scar on his neck. "I used to be a business man. I used to only care about time and making money. I could not sit like this with someone who cannot benefit me in any way. If you had come and found me at the time, I would not have chatted with you. However one day, I needed to take this thing out of me. I stayed in the hospital, and I realized, there's something more than simply making money and making connections for personal benefit. There should be something more to living." Wenxin looked at me smiled.
He took over his wife's dad's Tankan farm and started planting Tankan in his way. Like the farmer in Taitung, he believes in farming practices that have a good balance with the earth, that materials he uses should not be harmful to the soil, that the environment should be balanced. However, while the Taitung farmer doesn't use fertilizer, Wenxin created his own natural fertilizer that he believes is also beneficial to the soil, that helps soil to better absorb nutrients. He believes that if you treat the earth nicely, it'll give something back to you. (aka no money spent on pesticide and less money on fertilizer). He brought me to a little nice cafe with many plants in cans and then he popped the question if I would write something not so positive. He says: "government are incapable and farmers are ignorant." Government, Wenxin claims, have rules that make it harder for farmers to plant healthy food, and farmers, because they need to make quick money, don't believe in creating better soil for the environment and they don't understand how they can benefit more than simply getting rid of the weeds quickly and making fruit grow faster.
For example, farmers can ask for government support if they prove that their land is arable, but even to prove that, they need a bit of money, they need to get rid of weeds, so they spray weed-killing herbicide; however that is very harmful for the environment in the long run. The ingredients not only harm the soil of that area, but also the nearby farm land, and worst, the nearby water. But due to existing government policies, farmers will do whatever is required to get the support money as fast as possible.
He showed me around the area, and pointed that, all the farms beside that area that performed weed-klling herbicide are damaged now. He says, the concept of giving balance to the environment and farming practices is growing, just not fast enough. Even on his own crops, he has but gradually reduced the use of pesticide. In the last four years, he reduced the amount of pesticide from 40 bags to less than 10, 4 times less than the original amount. What he wishes he can do now is to farm in happiness, and spread the merit to anyone who would like to try and share.
