Farming against real estate dominance 179
While Ma Shi Po has encouraged a few young people to become professional
farmers, to date not many have persisted long term. I met the first professional
farmer, Ah Yin, while he was working in the fields in 2011. He told me how he
successfully grew a kind of tomato, which he later sold at a very good price to a
restaurant serving European cuisine. Ah Yin, however, dropped out from farming
after a year because the income was too low and there was too much climate
uncertainty and market risk involved. Another university graduate, Gar Son,
joined Ma Shi Po as a professional farmer in 2012 after farming infrastructure
such as the anti-pest nets had been installed. With an improved harvest, Gar Son
told me in a short conversation in 2014 summer that he could now earn an average
monthly income of 10,000 HKD (approximately $1,200), but even that is subject
to seasonal fluctuation. Gar Son’s decision to become a farmer has attracted some
media attention (Slivia 2013; Lee Pui Man 2013), however, farming as a career is
not yet an attractive option for most young people.
To conclude this section briefly, Ma Shi Po farmers are committed to bringing
a global community-based urban agriculture movement to Hong Kong. More
than that, however, they have worked to strategically highlight the ecological,
social, and political aspects of practicing farming in the context of Hong Kong’s
real estate dominance. They propose that not only should farming be vigorously
defended for the purposes of local food provision; it should also be expanded so as
to improve community well-being and to create a more sustainable urban lifestyle.
In many ways, the Ma Shi Po campaign points to a brand new understanding
of environmental movement, farming practice, and the sustainability of urban
community by highlighting their interdependence. The permaculture workshops
have made members become reflexively aware of everyday life practices and
their role as potential agents of change (Lewis 2015, p. 354). Many gain not only
a sense of empowerment but also a new sense of civic engagement and social
activism that highlight the roles of bodily skills, working with new tools, and the
natural environment (Lewis 2015).
The permaculture workshop thus sets out to define new norms, alternative ways
of consuming, and living at the individual level. At the social level, it shakes up
the deep-rooted belief that the decline of the farming sector is part of an inevitable
and irreversible trend. It also ardently questions the popular opinion that Hong
Kong does not need farming at all because it can easily rely on imported food
from mainland China. Through its advocacy for urban-rural coexistence, Ma Shi
Po activism successfully emerges as an urban farming alternative in the New
Territories, which for the first time in Hong Kong history articulates problems
and issues regarding real estate dominance and food security and advocates
community gardens as an alternative food source.
New nodal points of politics and identity in Hong Kong
As the demolition plan approached, the Ma Shi Po community farm gradually
extended their campaign beyond Fanling in order to gather more social support.
The activists collaborated with major universities by holding seminars and cultural