The practice of organic agriculture on environment protection - A case study of Tse-Xin Organic Agriculture Foundation

• Main Authors: TSAI WEN–LIAN, 蔡文練
• Other Authors: Zheng ，Zhi–Ming
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2017
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/act255

碩士 === 輔仁大學 === 宗教學系碩士在職專班 === 106 === Abstract We see the beauty and sorrow of Taiwan, the indiscriminate deforestation and industrial pollution on this lovely island from the filmmaker Po-Lin Chi’s documentary, “Beyond Beauty – Taiwan from above”. Mother Teresa’s quote: “The opposite of love is not hate, but indifferent.” If we continue to neglect the importance of environmental protection, and don’t treat our home - earth properly, then, we will become the victim of our own evil deed. The modern agriculture of conventional farming which heavily uses of pesticides, herbicides , chemical fertilizers, and practice of genetic modification, will cause the ecological imbalance, decline in bee population, and the loss of biodiversity. Improper use of pesticide poisoning famers, and pesticides got blended in the food chain through the ecosystem; chemical fertilizers will eliminate the micro organism in soil and make the soil becoming lifeless and not suitable for farming; chemical fertilizers will also pollute the hydrosphere, causing eutrophication in many aquatic areas; One of the purpose of genetic modification is to increase the agricultural production, biologists plant and mix genes from animals, plants, bacterial, and virus in the modification process, because there are no restrictions in selecting genes, and the process may cause the loss of biodiversity and affected by deadly virus, therefore the process increase the chance of emerging new virus and the possibility of species extinction, and the causes of genetic modification seems irreversible . "Organic agriculture" refers to the farming methods that devoid use of any chemical agents and genetically modified products. According to the degrees of intervention on the agroecosystem, organic farming can be categorized into general organic farming, friendly organic farming, and natural farming. The “Tse-Xin Organic Agriculture Foundation” (TOAF) make all efforts to promote organic agriculture in carrying out environmental protection. Master Rih-Chang, founder of TOAF, promote organic agriculture with the belief and thought of “The Lamrim Chenmo” (The Great Treatise On The Stages Of The Path To Enlightenment). TOAF now is the leading organic agriculture certification agency in Taiwan. In order to promote the organic agriculture, it must have the support from the consumer market and farmers. Leezen, a brand of organic store that belongs to the same corporation as TOAF, is the channel of selling organic products. The combination of the two, TOAF and Leezen, encouraging famers to invest on organic faming, and maintain the growth of organic agriculture in Taiwan, and thus, helping the environment protection. TOAF belongs to a Buddhist group. Dharma has a profound understanding on environmental protection. It emphasis on the developing of spiritual mind. Once people stop fulfilling their desires in the material world, they can rebuild their relationship with nature; if people neglect the spiritual mind, then they will not find the right attitude toward the nature. Most of us agree that environmental protection is the most important issue in modern world, and needs to be addressed urgently. We all live in the same world and all life is interrelated. We hope the environmental protection can became a common awareness, so all the livings can find their position in the ecosystem, and our future generations can still see the eagles in the sky, and lead the human spiritual mind back to the original “good”. Key words: conventional agriculture, organic agriculture, The Lamrim Chenmo (The Great Treatise On The Stages Of The Path To Enlightenment), genetic modification organic agriculture certification agency