Farming against real estate dominance 177lifestyle consumers and natural food lovers, the permaculture workshop targets
more hardy learners who are willing to endure sun, sweat, and labor-intensive
work. Composed of nine classes, each lasting for 3 hours, the permaculture
workshop is different from conventional weekend farmers’ courses. Ma Shi Po’s
permaculture workshop is an in-depth engagement with the concept and methods
of permanent agriculture beyond growing organic produce on the weekends.
The concept of permaculture stresses the philosophy of working with the natural
landscape and existing ecosystem while providing food for humans. It advocates
the preservation of biodiversity, picking instead of killing bugs, practicing natural
composting, and adopting alternate farming (or leaving land fallow) in order to
enrich the nutrients in productive land and utilize the least amount of resources for
crop production. In Ma Shi Po, permaculture is further emphasized as a practice
that connects urban communities to the rural while also reducing municipal waste.
Most important, the course aims to equip participants to become professional
farmers by linking them to market demands. The instructor, “T.V.”, a veteran
farmer with an English literature degree and a leading Ma Shi Po activist, reaches
out to the food network on behalf of his students so that they can eventually farm
to supply for restaurants. In short, the permaculture workshop is serious about
nurturing committed individuals to become full-time and part-time farmers.
In my several encounters with T.V., however, it was clear his goal was to do
more than convert a small number of people into professional farmers. In public
lectures, T.V. has presented his view that farming is a political matter in Hong
Kong because it involves negotiating with key stakeholders on issues of land
planning, including the government, land developers, and indigenous residents.
In the New Territories, these powerful stakeholders are more interested in
turning farmland into sites of development and profit. Ma Shi Po’s campaign
for preserving farmland is, therefore, highly political because it would adversely
affect these stakeholders’ interests. But T.V. believes it crucial for all global cities
to have urban farming for the purposes of long-term sustainable development. In
a newspaper interview, he articulated his thoughts clearly:
The success of cities in mainland China is not just evaluated by their real
estate development, but also by their self-sufficiency rate in terms of food
provision. Why does Hong Kong not need it? It is true that Hong Kong is
small but Singapore is even smaller and still keeps a higher self-sufficiency
rate on food supply. How important is agriculture in Hong Kong? The
Hong Kong government does not have the guts to face the issue! Hong
Kong is now losing the resourceful New Territories without thinking about
agriculture, rural villages, farmers and their relationships with Hong Kong’s
sustainable development
(Lui Yek 2013)My interviews with four students of T.V’s permaculture workshop also reveal
their broader concern with political and social matters that go beyond leisurely
weekend farming. One of them, Ah Tak, told me,