Dynamic Local Practice of Organic Agriculture in Yuan-li

• Main Authors: Li-Ching Chen, 陳莉靜
• Other Authors: Po-Yi Hung
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2017
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/z88u32

碩士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 地理環境資源學研究所 === 105 === Since 1980, organic agriculture in Taiwan has been developed in consultation with Council of Agriculture. A standard operating procedure of organic agriculture has been built up by “local knowledge.” Therefore, without doubts, the organic product has been given remarkable accomplishments as healthy and safety. However, organic farmers developed another set of local discourses of organic agriculture in sequence. This study focuses on how local knowledge of organic agriculture has been practiced in Taiwan’s Yuan-li Township. Since 1980, organic agriculture in Yuan-li has been developed by Agricultural Research and Extension Station, one rice seller and four farmers. Nowadays, it has become the largest organic rice area in western Taiwan and a diverse organic agriculture as farmer plant organic wheat and other organic grains. This study was conducted by qualitative research methods to analyze how local knowledge has been practiced by related actors. Consequently, organic farmers can become knowing agents once again. And this study rethinks the questionable distinction between organic agriculture and conventional agriculture. This study indicates locals and outsiders, local knowledge is distributed among, moreover, organic and conventional agriculture. By challenging the binary concepts, organic agriculture and local concepts could be reconfigured meaningfully. Nygren (1999) underlines situated knowledges as challenge of dichotomies between local knowledge and science knowledge. Furthermore, the complicated knowing process could be interpreted by the concept of translocal assemblage. McFarlane (2009) highlights translocal assemblage for understanding social movements. By examining how local farmers in Yuan-li interact with new communities, methods and crops, this study shows organic agriculture development which exchanges ideas, knowledge, practices, materials and resources across sites rather than just the connections between sites. By taking local knowledge approach, this study challenges the binary imaginary about organic agriculture in local concepts. And then, using translocal assemblage to interpret the case of Yuan-li, it shows knowledge of organic agriculture is distributed among local farmers and the exterior, and shared with organic farmers and conventional farmers. Above all, this study mainly took the analysis of organic farming practices in Yuan-li as an example of contemporary agriculture.