Social sustainable and community supported agriculture

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Guandong’s agricultural trade volume is the highest in the country, and the contribution of technological and scientific progress was 72% in 2023, nine points higher than the national average. Mechanisation has increased by an average of 10-15% and the incorporation of technologies, such as agricultural drones, has decreased costs by one- third while increasing yields by 10-20%. Guandong has about 1.8 million hectares of “high-standard farmland”, so the benefits of leveraging such technological advances, given these numbers, is not inconsequential.

It may seem that the above fetishizes technocratic modernization models where technological capital is utilised for productivity and profit outcomes alone. The current progress, however, sits within an ideological context of Ecological Civilization and thousands of years of land stewardship under traditional farming practices. The approach acknowledges that civilization thrives as ecology thrives; that man and nature are one; the integrity of natural resources (water and land) is invaluable and benefits mankind; and that humanity has a role in the natural system. The goals of such social and environmental reform according to  these principles and using the various capitals (economic, educational, political, cultural, social) are to minimise climate disruption and social injustices. It is “resource conservation and environmentally friendly agriculture”.

The scale of any Chinese vision is huge and this perspective on sustainable community development is no exception. It is one thing to have such great vision and another to bring local communities along for the ride.

Chart 1. China’s agricultural production cost and profit showing dynamic changes (1991-2018)

Chart 2. Dynamic changes in the use of chemical fertilizer and pesticide in China (1950–2019) Data sources from China National Bureau of Statistics. National Data from 1950 to 2019. Cited 30 April 2021. https://data.stats.gov.cn

Professor Wen Tiejun, an expert in macroeconomics and sustainable development of  Renmin University, and famous for establishing the New Rural Reconstruction Movement, suggests that in order “to confront the social and economic changes underway at a global level, we need to work on the integration between the urban and rural contexts.” Some of the methods to achieve this integration are to engage consumers directly with the food they eat through organic farming, urban farms and Community Supported Agriculture close to population centres so that they understand the relationship between healthy soils and thriving communities.

In China’s agricultural history and traditions soil health and human health were core. Permanent and traditional systems of agriculture such as highlighted in F.H. King’s book published in 1911, “Farmers of Forty Centuries: Permanent Agriculture in China, Korea and Japan” and in the practices underlying Permaculture design methods were closed-loop systems where each element contributed to other elements in multiple ways. However, as with the introduction of industrial farming systems in other parts of the world, the traditional methods and care for people and planet was set aside for modern chemical practices, and with it the first condition of farming to maintain fertility was eroded. Pesticide and fertilizer use skyrocketed in China over the past 40-50 years, and the country currently uses 30% of all fertilizers and pesticides produced globally.

An example of classic agroecology is rice production where aquatic animals are produced in the paddy. Ducks manage pests and weeds, fertilise the fields and oxygenate the growing medium. A bonus outcome is emissions lowered by around 40% according to studies in 2017. A case-study of such a mixed farming polyculture system in Anhui was highlighted in a 2023 United Nations report on Climate-Smart agriculture in China: the old is new again.

Such systems in even small agricultural holdings increase farmers’ income, and function to support food safety, food security, and environmental and biodiversity preservation. It also increases output for a lower volume of inputs due to the synthesis of mutually beneficial elements and utilising nature’s circular systems. The combined green development tools of modern technologies, mechanisation and traditional knowledge of natural agricultural ecosystems will continue to be important to shift the trajectory of higher costs to lower profitability in agricultural production experienced to date (see chart 1).

Through the implementation of  green development policies, we are already witnessing a decrease in required inputs (see chart 2), and a slowing of water and land degradation.

The macro-level trend is now encouraging, but to maintain this direction and to acknowledge from whence it came, we should continue to encourage engagement by consumers with  food, their farmers and farming practices through Community Supported Agriculture and other social enterprises and localized farm systems. This activity has been ongoing since the 2000s from Beijing down and Hong Kong up.

Community Supported Agriculture has been translated into Chinese as 社区支持, a form of social sustainable agriculture (社会生). It is a system of risk sharing between farmers and consumers that originated in America in the 1980s in response to the industrialisation of food systems, to maintain and develop small-scale organic family farming and to achieve local food security. Consumers pay for a share of the harvest up front and would sometimes offer their labour.

The concept appears to have been introduced to Hong Kong around 2003 by NGOs like Hong Kong-based Partners for Community Development.  The first CSA conference in China at Renmin University was held in 2009. That year was also the first season of Little Donkey Farm, a government supported CSA partnered with Renmin University Rural Construction Center and Sustainable Development Advance Institute. Their remit is “Developing ecological agriculture, supporting healthy consumption, and promoting mutual aid between rural and urban areas.” It was all about the land, the food and friendships.

Shared Harvest Farm was then founded 2012, a 2.6-hectare farm 70 km north of Beijing associated with Community Food Safety Research and Extension Center, Tsinghua University.  By 2018, it had 500 members.

As in America, these farms were established in response to chemical reliant farming practices, environmental damage and erosion and – of particular relevance to the Chinese context – food safety concerns. Where consumers build a relationship with their farmers, these concerns are alleviated.

The development of community supported agriculture, community organic agriculture or permaculture in the Greater Bay Area appears to be slower than in other areas of China. In a 2019 study on the status of CSR, there was no mention of Guandong province. A global map of Permaculture projects mentions few in the GBA although some teams from Hong Kong have started enterprises there.

Similar to the early CSA farms in Beijing, there are farms in Hong Kong established in collaboration with universities and research institutes.

Grow CityU is a living laboratory of sustainability, the first organic rooftop in Hong Kong. The enterprise promotes urban rooftop farming and educates people on sustainable lifestyles. There are garden plots for students and staff to farm, and organic fertilizers, seeds and farming tools available. Intercropping and crop rotation are encouraged to minimise disease, and plastics must be removed from the garden to avoid contamination. Apart from how to grow, it delivers broader benefits to the local community (see figure), and teaches food sustainability based upon Permaculture principles: “Permaculture develops sustainable forms of human communities by following models of naturally occurring ecosystems”.

There is a growing understanding in Hong Kong that any further loss of farming land is untenable. Only 1.8% of Hong Kong’s vegetables are produced locally. Awareness is growing that for food security, urban agriculture needs to be developed. Urban agriculture can alleviate organic waste issues. It also cuts food mileage and our carbon footprint from related logistics and from landfill.

Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden is another Permaculture space in Hong Kong focusing on sustainable living and farming. As urban residents are disconnected from nature, the farm aims to facilitate that reconnection for  “we do not understand the harm we do if we don’t commune with nature and are immune to harms done to it”.  In 1951 Kadoorie Agricultural Aid Association used chemical fertilisers. They now use sustainable living options and spread these ideas through the GBA. For Kadoorie, “sustainable urban agriculture is widely employed worldwide in life education, education for sustainability and rehabilitation programmes in harmonising different groups within a community.”

One of the problems with the CSA model discussed earlier is that it is labour intensive and thus the produce is generally around three times the price of supermarket products.  However, the nutrition density, safety, freshness and the relationships developed offer benefits to the consumer far greater than the food produced. Then there are the benefits to the soil and land, and improved animal husbandry. Another term used for these systems is appropriately “social sustainable agriculture” for they champion sustainable agriculture, rural social justice, farmer/consumer relationships, education, environment management, and engage with society and community development models. These models can offer cross-generational mentoring and various forms of therapy for the vulnerable and disadvantaged in society. CSAs and other small urban farming models are a social good grounded in food, soil and community.

Supply chain extensions downstream can involve local restaurants and farmers markets. Upstream are the allocation and availability of land and roof-tops, water and composted organic waste streams. Access to farming space does not require use of clear land: unused land set aside for future property development, even vacant land under dispute, or business, schools and government roof-tops and other available spaces can be put to good use close to city populations.

Even Macau has a number of small backyard plots, hospice gardens and at one point there was a market garden in Coloane open to the public. The region is yet to develop a CSA or community farm that provides the full gamut of offerings available in Hong Kong, or mainland China. With the appropriate community buy-in, Macau, too, could become an Ecological Civilisation.