Paldang Organic Farms

Some good news has just come from Korea – a success in the struggle for the preservation of the Paldang Organic Farmlands.

The Paldang region is the birthplace of modern Korean organic agriculture and is the source of drinking water for the residents in the metropolitan areas of Seoul. The Korean government under its ambitious Four Rivers' Restoration Project planned to convert the region into bike trails and public parks, claiming that organic agriculture has a negative impact on the water quality of the region.

The struggle of the Paldang organic farmers was joined by the organic, environmental, religious and other social groups in Korea and it became symbolic in the national struggle against the Four Rivers' Restoration Project. Dumulmeori, a beautiful scenic haven in the Paldang region remained the last region to be developed under the Restoration Project.

In October 2011, the IFOAM membership present at its 20^th General Assembly unanimously passed a declaration in support of the Paldang farmers. The Declaration "openly supports the determined efforts to maintain organic management of the land inthe Paldang region" and recognized that Paldang as the birthplace of Korean organic agriculture "has a symbolic value for the national and the international organic movements."

On 12^th August 2012, the Ministry of Land, Transportation and Maritime Affairs and the Committee for the Preservation of the Paldang Organic Farmlands came to an agreement on the preservation of the organic farmlands to be managed as a community ecological park, taking as example CERES of Australia, a measure that was suggested  by the organic farmers since two years ago. 

 The success of the negotiations was possible due largely to the mediation of the Catholic Church whose members held daily mass in the Paldang region for more than two years.

A common consultation body is to set up with the participation of the local governments of the Paldang region (Yangpyeong County and Gyeonggi Province), and the members of the Committee for the Preservation of the Paldang Organic Farmland. The budget for conversion into a community ecological park would be borne by the government. The organic farmlands will be preserved and Paldang will be a model of sustainable development in watersheds.  

Based on the peaceful resolution of the crisis and the public consensus reached, Paldang farmers "promise to strive to promote and preserve organic agriculture in Korea."

The Four Rivers' Restoration Project has proven to be an environmental disaster with floods and environmental damage in all areas developed under the project. Wetlands have been destroyed and the natural habitats of many migrating birds have disappeared. Contamination of the rivers have worsened and  flooding have become more frequent.

Many politicians are asking for the dismantling of the dams built as part of the Restoration Project and most of the presidential candidates have taken this up as their campaign slogan.  

The courage of the four farmers who remained and fought to the last will always be remembered in solidarity.   

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Here is a regularly updated list of other things Cory writes

Change in December 2011

This month has been full of hopeful signs of what H. H. Dalai Lama has been calling our transition away from the century of bloodshed to the century of dialogue.

This month Kim Jeong-il is dead after 17 years of his dictatorship in North Korea which have caused the systematic impoverishment and starvation of millions of Korean people. There has always been a lot of nationalistic sentiment against the North Koreans in South Korea since the Korean war. It seemed natural to think that this may have manifested in some celebration at the death of Kim Jeong-il. However, there are no crowds cheering in the streets. In fact most people interviewed by the media in South Korea said they are hoping for change in North Korea. They have expressed hope that the North Korean people will now get more to eat and that displaced families, separated by the post Korean War border, may see each other again. It is amazing and refreshing to hear that the people are choosing a more compassionate and hopeful view of the situation.

Also today the last of American troops have left Iraq after nine years of senseless and bloody war. The Iraq war was started for no apparent reason other than economic interests of the United States and it has now ended. (I think Joseph Palermo said everything there is to say about this topic in the first few paragraphs of his fantastic piece for the Huffington Post http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joseph-a-palermo/the-end-of-the-iraq-war-a_b_1157086.html). This is a great relief for billions of people who are victims of violent US foreign policy and are hopeful that the military force of the United States may finally stop working to serve the bottom line of giant business and American commerce. The dialogue has begun about a possible future where the United States does not serve as the world police but instead cooperates and participates in a fair and just world.

What is more, the streets and web pages are filled with the peaceful protesters and voices of the 99 percent who are saying that time is up for the ill formed feudalist style economies. This is very hopeful news. 

http://occupywallst.org/

http://www.occupytogether.org/

In support of all this and more here is a quote from the Dalai Lama's 'An Open Heart: Practicing Compassion in Everyday Life'

I find that because of modern technological evolution and our global economy, and as a result of the great increase in population, our world has greatly changed: it has become much smaller. However, our perceptions have not evolved at the same pace; we continue to cling to old national demarcations and the old feelings of 'us' and 'them'. War seems to be part of the history of humanity. As we look at the situation of our planet in the past, countries, regions and even villages were economically independent of one another. Under those circumstances, the destruction of our enemy might have been a victory for us. There was a a relevance to violence and war. However, today we are so interdependent that the concept of war has become out dated. When we face problems or disagreements today, we have to arrive at solutions through dialogue. Dialogue is the only appropriate method. One-sided victory is no longer relevant. We must work to resolve conflicts in a spirit of reconciliation and always keep in mind the interests of others. We cannot destroy our neighbors! We cannot ignore their interests! Doing so would ultimately cause us to suffer. I therefore think that the concept of violence is now unsuitable. Nonviolence is the appropriate method.

Slow Down Korea

Living in Korea I am getting to know first hand how rapid industrialization and the obsession with growth changes a people. The shift happened so fast here (under the ruthless Park Administration 1961-79) that some traditional farm houses still stand between tall buildings and the farmers can still be found ploughing the earth beside the highway and wild collecting in the cryptoforests. Guerrilla gardening is the norm in Seoul.

In the countryside, among the farmers and foodies, it is still possible to get a feel for the slowness and quality of the traditional Korean life. A lifestyle which is in danger of becoming extinct in the frenzy of achievement, success and growth that keeps people in the office and in the classroom from morning till midnight.

The shift from traditional agrarian society to an 'Asian Tiger' of economic growth has been a harsh and violent one, filled with ideological struggles and the division of the people. The history of internal conflict since WW2, resulting in multiple mass massacres, has been repressed by the Korean and other foreign governments.

Many questions remain and a lot of work for the visionaries, movers and shakers of Korea.

As inspiration for a move toward a more just and equitable society I am posting the manifesto of the group who gets closest to hitting the mark. This manifesto marked the beginning of Slow Food in 1989.

The Slow Food Manifesto 

Our century, which began and has developed under the insignia of industrial civilization, first invented the machine and then took it as its life model.

We are enslaved by speed and have all succumbed to the same insidious virus: Fast Life, which disrupts our habits, pervades the privacy of our homes and forces us to eat Fast Foods.

To be worthy of the name, Homo Sapiens should rid himself of speed before it reduces him to a species in danger of extinction.

A firm defense of quiet material pleasure is the only way to oppose the universal folly of Fast Life.

May suitable doses of guaranteed sensual pleasure and slow, long-lasting enjoyment preserve us from the contagion of the multitude who mistake frenzy for efficiency.

Our defense should begin at the table with Slow Food.
Let us rediscover the flavors and savors of regional cooking and banish the degrading effects of Fast Food.

In the name of productivity, Fast Life has changed our way of being and threatens our environment and our landscapes. So Slow Food is now the only truly progressive answer.

That is what real culture is all about: developing taste rather than demeaning it. And what better way to set about this than an international exchange of experiences, knowledge, projects?

Slow Food guarantees a better future.

Slow Food is an idea that needs plenty of qualified supporters who can help turn this (slow) motion into an international movement, with the little snail as its symbol.

Organic in Seoul Korea

Just arrived in Seoul, Korea and now live at the Green Scent Farm, a peri-urban organic farm with vegetable production and farm exposure programs for children and consumers from Seoul.

On my first night on the farm I was treated to a large traditional Korean barbecue with the whole family. Complete with a few different species of native plants and some heavy Korean schnapps.

I am here working for the Korean Federation of Sustainable Agriculture Organizations (KFSA) one of the many organizers of the IFOAM Organic World Congress (IFOAM OWC).

The IFOAM OWC (titled: 'Organic is Life') will take place in Gyeonggi Paldang in early October. The organizers are several government institutes and non-profit organizations.

The event will also be the 3rd Scientific Conference of the International Society of Organic Agriculture Research (ISOFAR) looking at the development of the Organic Sector in Korea and other Asian countries.

For now I am working on getting rid of my jet-lag and getting into the swing of life in Seoul.

For balance, here is a Poem from Wendell Berry's Farming: A Handbook

The Man Born to Farming

The Grower of Trees, the gardener,

the man born to farming,

whose hands reach into the ground and sprout to him the soil is a divine drug.

He enters into death yearly, and comes back rejoicing.

He has seen the light lie down in the dung heap, and rise again in the corn.

His thought passes along the row ends like a mole.

What miraculous seed has he swallowed

That the unending sentence of his love flows out of his mouth

Like a vine clinging in the sunlight, and like water

Descending in the dark.