| Summary: | 碩士 === 崑山科技大學 === 機械工程研究所 === 102 === In recent years, acute and chronic food poisoning caused by excessive use of pesticides as well as severe pollution of farmlands and rivers by industrial wastes have resulted in heightened concern for food safety and food sourcing among both environmental groups and the public. Meanwhile, increasingly more small farmers in Taiwan have come to recognize the fact that environmental destruction not only makes it difficult to restore soil fertility but also lowers crop yield. In order to protect farmland sustainability and alleviate environmental destruction, small farmers have gradually begun to reduce the use of chemical fertilizers or even switch to natural or organic farming practices. Nevertheless, natural or organic farming methods raises production cost and are more labor intensive, which usually are not offset by the purchase price. Consequently, small farmers are plagued by economic distress as they can hardly make ends meet. So how could those farmers who opt for natural or organic farming practices sell their products at a viable price premium? The best solution is to minimize the involvement of intermediaries in the distribution channel to maximize profit. Farmers’ markets, which have become popular in recent years, appear to be one good way to implement this solution.
“Tang Po Vinegar,” a vendor at Taipei 248 Farmers’ Market, and the Taipei 248 Farmers’ Market are both the research subjects of this paper. By collecting and analyzing secondary information about farmers’ market and fruit vinegar and conducting questionnaire surveys on selected vendors and consumers, this paper studies Tang Po Vinegar’s signature “organic, non-toxic, and healthy” production process, its return to the traditional marketplace as a sales channel, and also the commonality and complementariness between its sales and message promotion - elements that make it possible and desirable for producers of small-scale agricultural products to set up permanent stalls in a new found marketplace, such that the marketplace, small farmers, as well as consumers can all receive benefits. A creative product like “naturally brewed vinegar,” which combines artistic packaging design and marketplace sales, also sheds light on the value and developmental potential of small-scale agricultural products and farmer’s markets.
Combining creative farmers’ market with LOHAS products has generated conspicuous success in this age. At its planning and inception stage, a farmers’ market has to recruit farmers who identify with “organic farming” to set up vending stalls. After it starts running, it needs effective supervision, support, and communication among farmers about the sales messages in order to maintain the operation and food safety standards. Once the operation of a farmers’ market is on track, its managers still have to continue to oversee whether the farming methods its farmers have adopted remain eco-friendly. In the case of the 248 Farmers’ Market, it has to this day firmly held its founding ideals: selling natural, non-toxic, safe and healthy products, close monitoring of food safety on behalf of its consumers, and continuous promotion of soil-friendly agriculture.
Tang Po Vinegar at the 248 Farmers’ Market has committed itself to selling naturally brewed vinegars made with non-toxic ingredients since the very beginning. In a restless culture where consumer values change rapidly, it has weathered much hardship and endured much risk. What keeps the husband-and-wife owners of Tang Po Vinegar to the principle of making only naturally brewed vinegar is their strong Buddhist faith and firm belief in causality; their unbending insistence is well appreciated and affirmed by its customers. Though Tang Po vinegar is a small-scale business with limited sales and output, its laid-back and spiritual owners consider that the production and marketing of their “creatively and naturally brewed vinegars” based on the concept of “drinking for health, purchasing without concerns” is the best way, and in the perfect scale, for them to cultivate rapport with their customers.
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