When I came to Taiwan in 1964, every single square meter of agricultural land was cultivated. Over 70% of GDP was from agricultural products. Even so, farmers were barely surviving: they had to feed a million people army. With the “Made in Japan” products becoming more expensive, they got slowly replaced by the “Made in Taiwan” label. We saw the arrival of small assembly lines next to just about every farmhouse.

Farmers moved to more profitable activities, with the result that within a single generation, the agricultural sector of the Taiwan economy now contributes for less than 3% of the GDP. The Taiwan society got uprooted. Most everybody lost contact with the ground. Why protect and fight for something you do not see or feel? Most of today’s Taiwan problems can be traced to this very simple fact: the farmers have been abandoned for too long.

Let’s assume that today’s agricultural sector would contribute 10% of our GDP. Given Taiwan geography, an island in the middle of the ocean (plenty of water), on the Tropic of Cancer (on the 21st of June, the sun hits us at 90 degrees), with the highest mountains in Asia except for the Himalayas, a paradise for agriculture, this is a low percentage. Last century, the Japanese saw this: they wanted to turn Taiwan into the farm of Japan. We are talking about NT$700. billions of agricultural products to reach the 10% of today GDP.

First, job opportunities. For every increase of 3% of GDP of agricultural products, we add 600,000 farming jobs. With related fields, we added over 2 million jobs. Unemployment would be non-existent. Downturns in domestic and international economy do not affect this sector: people always need to eat. Older people like me will have the opportunity to contribute to the GDP, even pass their 80. Social stability is good for everybody, not only the politicians. And not only for the farmers, but also for the residents of the DaAn district.

The economy. The biggest problem of the Taiwan miracle, mainly in the IT industry, is the low level of added value in the export. A single PC contains plastics (oil), metal frame (iron ore), copper, gold, NEC disk drives, Intel chips, Microsoft software, etc, all imported portions of the final product, the majority. With organic agricultural products, they are totally MIT. We have total control on our product, with export money going totally in our pockets. It drives the economy. Taiwan people have money to spend at the Sogo on JungHsiao road, without having to wait for Americans to buy our manufactured products. Agricultural products would be the major sector of Taiwan economy.

The environment. This is really the main platform for the Green Party. The amount of pesticide used in the fields is more than 100 times above North America standards. Gone are the pesticides and chemical fertilizers, major sources of pollution. Incinerators are closed. The 10,000 tons of daily pwun is not going into the environment, but recycled. Large amount of factories closed: less demand for electricity (power plants), About 20% of the cities population are moved to the countryside, where jobs are: less commuting, less cars, less air pollution.

There will be impact in many areas of our life. The most obvious one is in the area of health. Hospitals fighting for customers!!! The political arena would be completely different from what we see now: with about one fifth of the population deeply rooted in Taiwan, the Taiwan identity issue is solved. On top of the agenda for all politicians would be to protect and safeguard our Formosa, the source of our life. The young generation will see again the beautiful Formosa I saw in 1964, will fall in love with it and fight for its future, all of which happened to me!!!

The key to this success is the Pwun. The Green Party should modify and adopt the vision I see, and have a strategy to sell it to the public. Long term: agriculture first, with a realistic target for agricultural products percentage of GDP. Immediate target: the composting of all the Pwun for all of Taiwan (the solutions are there, the political will is missing). How to sell the vision is the crux of the issue.