Organic Greenfield | Agriculture is an integral part of Hong Kong
Organic Greenfield, an extension of ‘Kong Yeah‘, is an organisation that advocates ‘Community Supported Agriculture’. Ho Ying and Nicole run the organisation and in 2017 they introduced the Organic Greenfield CSA Project. They have been devoted to building long-term cooperative ties with local farmers and producers, as well as playing a bridging role between them and the citizens. While organic farmers can better promote their products, this also encourages eating local amongst the public.
“The current self-sufficiency rate of vegetables in Hong Kong is less than 2% and it almost seems impossible to achieve 100% or put ‘Farm-to-Table’ into practice. Despite this, a lot of people in the industry are working hard towards agricultural rehabilitation.”
The establishment of Organic Greenfield
Ho Ying: Organic Greenfield ('Tin Yeah') is an extension of ‘Kong Yeah‘. We established Kong Yeah owing to concerns over local production, the ecological environment, and small businesses. We mainly held activities back then, such as visits to small shops, food production workshops, 'Everyday' Mini Revolution (a monthly dinner and sharing with local ingredients) etc. Even so, these are often one-off activities and we started to think about achieving sustainable development. Through the social network built from Kong Yeah, we met a lot of farmers, so we came up with the idea of 'Organic Greenfield' (selling local farm products).
Before settling down in a Tsuen Wan industrial building, we once rented a ground floor shop in Mongkok. The location happened to be near the distributor involved in the new wave of pandemic outbreaks in July. We eventually moved out due to unaffordable rents, which in some way can be regarded as 'tuition' for a valuable lesson in operating a business. We chose our current location because it is near Kam Tin where we both live. Now the focus of our operations is shifted to online co-purchases, where there is higher flexibility.
Nicole: Ho Ying and I first met each other at the 'Go Beyond the Mall' action as volunteers. We had known at that time that there are many top-notch but gradually declining local manufacturing businesses and we wanted to help them. Ho Ying later established Kong Yeah with their friends, followed by Organic Greenfield. My role as a participant evolved to one of the persons in charge as I ran the Organic Greenfield CSA Project along with Ho Ying. I saw how Organic Greenfield slowly grew and all these changes just happened naturally.
Sowing through co-purchasing
Nicole: The idea of ‘Community Supported Agriculture' is the objective of Organic Greenfield. We hope to gather through the CSA project a group of long-term supporters towards co-purchasing local agricultural products that are eco-friendly, organic and of high-quality. We now work with farms mainly around Kam Sheung Road (in Yuen Long), Ta Ku Ling and Fanling. We try our best to help small-scale farmers on their sales by stabilising demand for their products. In this way, they can focus on farming and come up with better and more diversified planting approaches.
We don't let our CSA members choose what to buy, but distribute seasonal agricultural products according to the local production. Farmers are therefore not restrained from growing only certain types of crops to fulfill general demands. This helps as crop diversity is important to soil, insects and even ecological balance.
We prepare over 100 'vegetables packages' every week and distribute them to the New Territories, Kowloon and Hong Kong Island over 4 days. Members are mostly around 30 to 40 years old, often young couples that have certain standards for life and quality of food, as well as parents or people who tend to be physically weak. Apart from the package of vegetables, we also send them dry goods, with introductions of different types of food and recipes. We attach importance to agricultural education and hope our customers get to gain knowledge such as the sources of their food, the methods for preservation etc.
Ho Ying: It is not easy at all in the downstream sector. There is a lot to learn in conveying the effort (crops) that the upstream sector (farmers) entrusts to you. Apart from the sales of products, we have also been learning things like stocking, picking up goods, inventory management, product display, packaging, getting along with customers and so on.
We care more about relationships and education than profits. Through our CSA project, we hope more people will know how to eat local. Customers can shift from a passive consumer role to an individual that takes action, and one day they will discover high-quality local vegetables on their own. The most heartwarming thing about the CSA project has to be our members' support and trust in us. We were strangers that got along together because of vegetables, and some of them even wanted to invest in our business (LOL).
What kinds of 'good stuff' are there in Hong Kong?
Ho Ying: The local agriculture can be divided into two seasons: spring/summer, autumn/winter. The former abounds in melons and beans, while the latter comes with different kinds of vegetables, tomatoes, potatoes, radishes, etc. A lot of Hongkongers only know bok choy, choy sum, Romaine lettuce when it comes to vegetables, but there are actually many choices. For example, there are a few local species of amaranth, which is in season during summer, including green amaranth, red amaranth, ruby amaranth, purslane, etc.
Nicole: Aside from agricultural products, there are also a lot of high-quality local sauces and seasonings, dry food and processed food, such as Yuet Wo’s sun-dried Dark Soy Sauce from Sheung Shui, Liu Ma Kee's fermented bean curd with over a hundred years of history, Kang Kee's shrimp roe noodles in Wanchai, etc. Sadly, the younger generation is less likely to know or appreciate these local time-honoured brands, making it difficult to pass them on.
Hongkongers consuming local produce
Ho Ying: The current self-sufficiency rate of vegetables is less than 2% and it almost seems impossible to achieve 100% or put 'Farm-to-Table' into practice. Despite this, a lot of people in the industry are working hard towards agricultural rehabilitation. The Agrivengers' Club has been training teenagers farmers to enter the industry, continuously raising the production of wax gourds, which are now available at YATA Supermarkets. We are promoting agricultural development from the farm one step at a time, in hopes for raising awareness and local consumption towards Hong Kong farm produce.
Agriculture, the countryside and green belts are an indispensable part of our daily life in all places. Though agriculture 'invades' nature, it can also be its guardian.
Nicole: Hong Kong’s agriculture development not only faces the difficulty of land scarcity, but also a lack of manpower. A farmer once told us that what the local agricultural sector needs most is new blood entering the industry. Also, the public is often under the impression that local organic vegetables are expensive. In fact, this changes when techniques are more developed and more people participate to raise the supply.
Some Hongkongers tend to find farmlands remote and unfamiliar places, but rural areas are only around an hour's drive from here. It is not that difficult to go into the fields and learn about our land as well as the production processes of our food.
Sales amid the pandemic
Nicole: Owing to the pandemic, we chose to stay home for sorting goods and packaging in the past few months. There have been more enquiries about the CSA project, but we are having mixed feelings about this. It is certainly pleasing to know that we have more customers, but our 'vegetables packages' are not mass-produced. We are too short-staffed to handle a huge batch of orders, and can only introduce them to other co-purchasing projects. Our co-purchases are not immediate or one-off, but somehow like a membership where we collect a monthly fee. We give out the vegetables regularly and hope to build a long-term relationship with our members. Therefore, we often reach out to know more about our members and see if our model suits them. We recently decided to prepare 'vegetables packages' tryouts for people who are interested.
Ho Ying: Organic Greenfield is not just a shopping platform, but a channel for everyone to learn to spend time with different kinds of food. We hope we can connect with our members more, like running workshops on jam, working with Kang Kee to make local vegetable noodles, harvesting activities, etc. This brings together farmers, manufacturers and citizens.
“We are Organic Greenfield, we are HKers.”
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This article was featured on Apply Daily English Version. See the article @ https://hk.appledaily.com/news/20200925/RMKWAJOSPZE5XENJBCCKKE77DI/