Around the world, urban farming spaces are becoming increasingly common. For some, it is a way to supplement food production for city dwellers. For others, it is simply about the therapeutic effects of farming and the reduction of stress. However, despite the benefits, there are also many challenges, such as land ownership and the busy nature of city life that leaves little time for recreational pursuits. Join us today as we hear from those pushing for urban farming spaces in Taiwan, and the obstacles they encounter. Here’s our Sunday special report.
Surrounding this lush green rapeseed garden, is Taipei’s affluent Tianmu District. With a bustling department store off to the right, the garden produces quite the contrast.
A hen clucks loudly, drowning out the sounds of people nearby. As if responding to the people, the hen breaks the barrier between city and farmland.
Chang Chia-hao
Volunteer farmer
We also have to work. So, throughout the week, it’s basically just the people who live nearby who will come here and do this farming. If we’re busy with work, then on Saturday and Sunday we’ll all come together here as a group and work on it.
Sharing the harvest is a source of joy for these part-time farmers, but their urban farm is also a source of frustration at times.
Tou Hui-hsia
Volunteer farmer
Lots of people pass through here to look around, and there people who come here at night when they’re out for a walk. Naturally, when they see the beautiful okra plants, the beautiful eggplants, the vibrant red hot peppers, they inevitably want to pick a little to take with them. We put up signs, which we hope will encourage people not to do this. However, even if we catch people picking the crops, we can’t report them to the police, we can only try to persuade them not to do so.
However, this unfortunate setback is not enough to destroy the passion these volunteers have for farming.
Tou Hui-hsia
Volunteer farmer
It’s like what I told my sons. I grow okra and sweet potato leaves today, so that they can eat them.
Sharing the harvest with family members makes farming more fun, and what is harvested is more than just produce.
According to data from the United Nations, as of 2020 the percentage of the world’s population living in cities was 56%. By 2050, that number is projected to grow to 68%. Some countries have already begun promoting urban farming programs.
Liu Che-wei
Activist
Take Seoul, for example. Overall it’s a very similar city to Taipei geographically — both are within basins. Over in South Korea, there are lots of urban areas in the basin. In November 2011, the government there passed the Act on Development and Support of Urban Agriculture. This act is really special. It not only promotes agriculture, but also everyday farming, community farming, and so on.
Urban farming can be a great pastime, and in some countries the practice has even contributed to food self-sufficiency for urban residents.
Chang Sheng-lin
National Taiwan University
Cuba over the past 30 or 40 years was impacted by the Cold War, and it was prohibited from importing oil, and prohibited from having all manner of exchanges with Western countries. Therefore, urban farming there is extremely developed. Organic farming there is also quite developed. So, when people say that urban farming and organic farming can’t support a society, well, Cuba is an example that refutes that.
However, relying on urban farming for society’s survival is something still far out of reach for Taiwan – especially given Taiwan’s limited land and large population.
Liu Che-wei
Activist
Lots of public sector space, public land, can’t be converted to different long-term use. What can be done now, is to open up rooftops for communities to use for farming. We can open up these underutilized spaces for adoption by community organizations, so they can be converted into public farming spaces.
In terms of using public spaces for community farming, Fujian Borough in Taipei’s Songshan District provides a very good example.
This farm was established in 2015. Three years earlier, in 2012, this plot of land belonged to the Ministry of National Defense. Locals fought to gain use of the land, so that they could set up this farm, and bring some well-needed greenery to the borough. However, 10 years on, it is no more.
Lin Kun-hsin
Fujian Borough warden
This space here is about 500 ping, arranged in a perfectly square plot. It’s very suitable for building a social-housing complex, so we got caught up in such plans. The farm was here for about 10 years, and made everyone very happy, so of course the borough residents are very upset about this. We have protested, but we came up against regulations, because this plot belong