I’m Osumi, the representative of Shiawase organic farm.
Many people will be starting their new paths from April, which is common in Japan.
Around the farm, cherry blossoms bloom, birds chirp, and insects begin to move.
When I feel the warm breeze in the field, I feel the complex feelings of calm, anxiety, and excitement.
At that time, I realize that spring has come.
I guess some people have started their career in agricultural fields from this spring.
And I think there had been many twists and turns to get there,
for I used to be one of them.
After all, I started farming when I was in my mid-40s.
Then, what kind of path have I taken and what have I felt to get there? And how am I walking my life now…
In the series of essays “Into the field”, I would like to describe some aspects of organic agriculture from my experience, while introducing such things as my life.
・・・
Part 1
Making ends meet in agricultural field has been my childhood dream as the eldest son of a full-time, professional farmer.
However, compared to the dreams of my classmates in the elementary school graduation essays, my dream seemed too small, and I even felt lonely.
And it took longer than expected to make that small dream come true.
I went to a faculty of agriculture at a local university and thought hard about the theme of my graduation thesis as “the possibility of agricultural business and management”, but I couldn’t find the answer at last.
Green tea business, which my family was running, had also fallen into a long-term downturn.
“There may be an answer in high school education…”
That idea made me become a high school agricultural teacher. My teaching life was fulfilling, and I sometimes thought, “This may be my vocation.”
Some students asked me, “Sensei, agriculture is fun. How can I do farming as business? Every time I’m consulted however,
“For the time being, how about going to the university’s faculty of agriculture?”
I always answered like this, since I didn’t have such experience as business, and I often asked myself “Is this really good for students and me?”
Finally showing the potential of agriculture is to do it myself. Seeing is believing. That’s the only and simple way for me.
However, I can’t even find out how to start. What kind of plants should I grow? What kind of strategy is needed to do agriculture as a profitable job, not a hobby?
Life is often compared to a mountain. If possible, people want to choose the “right” way to climb the mountain.
What if my choice was wrong and irreparable?
As I thought about it, I couldn’t step out more and more, and it took me a long time to find the “answer”.
As a result, I now make organic vegetables for a living. This is the mountain which I thought is the worth climbing.
Then, why did I climb a mountain called “organic vegetable making”?
No, in the first place, it may have been a mistake to compare it to a “mountain”…
(To be continued)
