Fuli Township in the south of Taiwan’s Hualien
County is a traditional Hakka town where farming is the main occupation. In the
Japanese colonial era, the location’s abundant rice production and fertile land
earned it the name Fuli (prosperous neighborhood).
In 2010, Fuli-born Chung Yu-en (鍾雨恩), then 25, was about to graduate from the Department of
Social Welfare at Chinese Culture University in Taipei and was preparing to
pursue his interest in working in the field of long-term care. At that time,
his recently retired father had reorganized his own father’s rice fields and
was making plans to produce and market organic rice when he suddenly became ill
and was admitted to hospital. Seeing that there was no one to take over his
father’s work, Chung as his only son decided in 2011 to return home to help
out.
.jpg "founder of Manna Foods, Chung Yu-en")
(Image: FTV)
After coming back to Hualien, Chung not only
took care of his household’s affairs but also brought together other returning
young people to breathe new life into their hometown. Chung launched the Manna
Foods (天賜糧源) company and continues to help farmers
switch to cultivating organic crops as well as marketing their produce. He
continues to work for cultivation that is kind to the land, to achieve reasonable
profit between production and sales, and for more stable income with the
well-being of the farmers as the priority.
.jpg "Fuli Township in Hualien")
(Photo: Manna Foods’ Facebook page)
Manna Foods currently has 40 organic rice
farmers under contract with a cultivation area of 72 hectares, which is
gradually increasing. In response to the new popular attention to health and
food quality, new concepts and thinking have been introduced to help farmers
transition to cultivating organic crops. Manna hopes to build a relationship of
mutual trust with consumers, so that when consumers buy the produce they are
not only buying food or a story but also buying a kind of trust.
.jpg "rice product of Manna Foods")
(Photo: Manna Foods’Facebook page)
In the past few years, Manna Foods through food and agriculture courses or hands-on activities has continually brought consumers to understand the value of farmers’ hard work. Because if “kindness to the land” can become a consensus, then even if you cannot protect the land as a farmer, you can still support farmers through direct buying. By creating together a “positive” consumer market, farmers can cultivate happily while consumers can buy with peace of mind, and through this process re-establish mechanisms for the assurance of food safety.