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An ideal and prosperous life, one mu of land is enough——Interview with Taitung Co-Food   How much money do you need to earn each month to live a happy and prosperous life? If you want to have an acre of land, have a rich harvest every season, and share it with the masses, eat and live with the people you like in a beautiful place... How much do you need to pay for such a life? In Luye, Taitung, there is a group of people who live a life of mutual help and sharing in a friendly farming way. They cooperate to buy and sell their own agricultural products and share each other's cooking. All 11 members are under the age of 40. In order to maintain a "land-friendly" life, they cultivate without fertilization and medicine, and they each use different "slopes". "Bars" to maintain basic expenses - some are small farmers, meridian massage, private kitchen cooking; some are engaged in coffee roasting and dessert sales; some are engaged in carpentry, ironwork, custom furniture; Design, advertising marketing, table hosting, wedding decoration, etc. They have a common name called "common farming and common food". Over the past 6 years, they have escaped the lifestyle of chasing money and adhered to the concept of "live well by love, eat well and gather together by food". On the land of Luye in Taitung, they have grown diverse harvests year after year.   From Danshui Happy Farm to Luye, the harvest in the first year was almost zero Talking about how a group of "community farming and food" met, we have to start from 2013. That year, one of the members, Tong Yaqi, had just returned from a working holiday in Australia. She was originally a social worker, and she witnessed the changes of the four seasons in Australia. Seeing the land grow different crops in different seasons, the process deeply touched her. Healed her. After returning to Taiwan, she read a book "My Happy Farm", which was written by a couple of doctors in Tamsui. She was deeply inspired, and she began to volunteer at Tamsui Happy Farm for two years. There, a group of people rented a piece of land in Tamsui and cultivated it with the "Xiu Ming Natural Farming Method" (no pesticides, no fertilizers, continuous cropping, self-picking), and ate and produced together. sold under the name of , and Fanzhuan was born. After leaving Happy Farm, Yaqi and a few partners still want to continue to live together in this way in the future, so they began to look for places with Xiuming farming methods in various parts of Taiwan. In 2016, they came to Luye, where many seniors helped them find land and houses, and settled down. Before coming to Luye, Yaqi and Lotte met in Orchid Island. At that time, Yaqi went to Lanyu as a substitute teacher. He had just left Lotte, an environmental protection organization, and went to Lanyu as an environmental volunteer after walking around the island. At that time, when Lotte was thinking about "how to continue to do something for the land of Taiwan", Yaqi invited her to farm in Luye together, and she agreed.   "At that time, I thought, maybe we can start by protecting a small piece of land!" Lotte said. At the beginning, the five partners lived together in a 13-square-meter iron house. There were no screens, and they set up tents outside. A somewhat dilapidated toilet was built, and an old truck over 30 years old was bought. The local elders were very happy to see this group of young people, and from time to time gave them furniture or supplies that were not needed at home. They rented a land and planted it from 30% of the land. However, in the first year, they didn’t plant anything. They came here with the experience of Tamsui Happy Farm, but found that Tamsui’s experience has been developed for 10 years, and the land and climate have changed. However, the physique of the land in Taitung was not mature at that time, and their harvest was almost zero that year.   "What I don't need is what you need"——Reduce desires, get rid of the money game With no returns on all their investments, they have to find a way to survive. Without money, they were frantically looking for job opportunities, which was the case for almost the first 4 years. Due to the instability of the land, they planted nearly 12 pieces of land in 6 years, and some of them were taken back in half a year... It was not until the year before last that there was land that could be used stably for a long time, and the harvest could only be achieved when the soil quality could be improved. Gradually enriched. The members are also constantly changing. After living together for almost 3 years, they couldn't live in 13 ping later, and found an 80 ping iron house tea factory, and the members changed from 5 to 7. 70% of the things in it are second-hand things picked up. There are no compartments, so they are covered with cloth, and the windows are glued with broken cardboard... There, they lived together for two years, until the landlord wanted to sell the land , They began to find another place to settle down again. After many times of relocation, until now, in the past 6 years, the total number of members is 11, and finally divided into 3, 4, and 4 people, living in the same Luye in different houses.   Even if the harvest is not satisfactory, as long as there is no financial loss, they will continue to farm and never want to give up. If you don’t have money, you go outside to help people weed, plant trees, and clean the house; if you don’t have money to rent land or buy seeds, you exchange them with other resources; Ginger, taro, carrots, etc. can be kept for a long time without spending money on seeds, and they do not need to spend manpower to turn the fields by themselves. Why do you want to stick to the life of farming together no matter how difficult it is? Le Tian said: "I have always thought that "sharing" is the most ideal way of life - what I don't need is your need, your need may also be my need, and if it is established, it will be exchanged, and there is no need to measure it with money. .”   Adhere to land-friendly farming practices and listen carefully to the message of nature They not only survive in their own way in the material world, but also begin to understand the messages of nature. One year, the fields they planted couldn’t get enough water, but they still wanted to grow vegetables. In the winter of that year, they used tap water to grow all their vegetables. After moisturizing well, they began to wait for the rain, and the vegetables would grow very small. , but very flavorful. Le Tian said that they would rather spend some water bills than go out to buy vegetables. "Others may be able to harvest pineapples in 18 months, but we need to plant them for more than two years, which is slower than others, but since the message that nature tells us is: 'The current state of this land and water is like this, there is no way to give you more. For a long time, just accept it, obey it, and take what we should take.” The current members farm or engage in different jobs. The same thing is that they all live in a way that cherishes the land. She and Yaqi planted about 100 kinds of things on 5 points of land, a small amount of variety, and there are more than 20 kinds of fruit trees alone, and others such as rice, roselle, ginger, soybeans, taro...For 6 years, they have insisted on not using pesticides and fertilizers With the cultivation method, the harvest and the soil become more and more mature and rich.   Expand the sales of local products throughout Taiwan, insisting on a niche and independent existence In addition to growing their own food, they also sell it openly on the Internet. Combining local trusted small farmers, small shops, and individual joint sales, so that people can buy "community farming and food" and local products they think are good at the same time, and sell them together in one box, and the parcels are also picked up. Made of cartons and self-made partitions to reduce waste of resources.      

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