Don’t have time to discuss it (other than to say that if Korean farmers weren’t screwed before, they are now), but if commenters want to discuss the upcoming start of talks between Korea and China to conclude a free-trade agreement (FTA), here’s the place to do it.
FTA talks with China to begin
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1) Former Sen. Phil Gramm: “Free trade benefits almost everybody, but they don’t know who they are. Free trade hurts a few, and they all know who they are.”
2) Farmers have been getting screwed for a long time–by improvements in technology, changing tastes, more choices for consumers. I hope they will be getting screwed even more so consumers won’t keep getting the brown end of the stick.
3) It takes fewer people to feed the population so farmers will continue being creatively destructed off the farm.
The average Korean farmer is what, in his 60s? With his offspring living in Seoul this problem takes care of itself in the next ten years (which admittedly isn’t fast enough). Efficient, large-scale corporate farming is the future, but in the meantime expect plenty of manure dumps on embassy gates and other looney tunes behavior.
To Wedge – Don’t forget all the bandwagon jumpers who will use the real plight of the Korean beef producers (as just one example) to pursue their own agendas and point fingers. A “cause” will be born and exploited. Ya think maybe they’ll accuse China of having mad cow disease among their cattle? Or perhaps bone particles in their butchered products? Maybe even accuse them of selling beef that came from old cows…if the myth travels father than the truth…sell the myth.
Is Wedge aware that a record number of retiring Korean baby boomers are moving back to the farms to escape the job competition and the stressing life of the cities?
off topic but has anyone seen this?
http://pik.tv/en/news/story/27805-north-korea-punishes-citizens-for-lack-of-emotion-at-leaders-death
explains a lot.
In the 1980s, a lot of Korean undergrad activists flocked to Korea’s farming communities in an act of “shinto-buli” (or whatever) solidarity with Korean farmers, at least for a few months of the year. I always thought that was kinda cool.
Riffing off of what CM said, wouldn’t it be something if Korea experienced a wave of quasi-hippie / organic types migrating to the countryside in a mass rejection of the Seoul rat-race?
Kinda reminds me of that sleeper film, “Une hirondelle a fait le printemps.”
DLB
I guess South Koreans need to start looking for their own version of Khieu Samphan
Tilly, funny thing is this:
could be subscribed even by a free-market oriented individual
Japan has urban-to-rural “U-turners” and I’m reading lately that some Greeks are heading back to the land since the economy tanked there..
Farming looks like fun to dabble in, but a hard slog to do for a living — as an individual.
It also reminds me of the cruel joke at the time (I’ve forgotten it in the original Korean) that loosely went something like:
Urban Undergrad to Farmer: “I got up early this morning to help you with the farm, and went ahead and cleared that field of weeds for you.”
Farmer, incredulous: “Weeds? What weeds? That was next year’s cabbage crop!”
OK, I know, but it was funnier at the time…really.
DLB
Not sure about Greece, but in Italy and France it is a slightly different phenomenon. Lots of elders and young couples are moving back to almost abandoned spit villages (which are a dime a dozen in Europe) mostly for the reduced crime rate and the affordable housing. It is less a desire for an agrarian utopia than an Old Europe version of a suburbanization/white flight process
DLB,
I actually sort, kinda, maybe agree with you! Amazing, huh?
Korean farmers can’t compete in a globalized world, especially in livestock and also in grains and veggies. They need to carve out a niche. I don’t know if a “Whole Foods” concept can work in Korea at this time, but the fact of the matter is Korean farmers need to focus on quality rather than quantity. Organic, grown in your backyard, fresh foods sold through specialty groceries and high-end restaurants. It’s the only way and Korean farmers better get use to it.
Lastly, I think the government should help the farmers get there. Normally I’m a little more libertarian in terms of government involvement, but hey, they created this mess for farmers, they might as well help them. I think the Korean government should fund R&D that allow for efficient and high quality growth of specialty crops for the domestic and international market. Korean rice farmers can’t live off a commodity any longer. They need something special that people would be willing to spend more money on. Also, Korean farmers need to embrace science and technology at a level they have never done so before. The government should help them with that.
Famous last words? The next straw? Calling in the arsonists to put out the fire?
FTA with China is an impossibility for Korea. It’s like trying to mix oil with water, it’s not compatible. Korea should not do business with the enemy anyway. Below is a MBC TV report of horrible Chinese travel guides in Korea, telling fibs about Korea, to the Chinese. I suppose one man doesn’t make the majority, but it’s not improbable to presume that’s how a majority of Chinese think of Koreans.
http://tvpot.daum.net/v/38743493?lu=flvPlayer_in
“In Korea, Dec 24 and 25 are holidays. It’s influenced by the West. Korea is America’s colony”.
“The subway line 1, the tunnel was dug and built by China. North Korea also learned from our Chinese technology and they were able to dig their tunnels”.
“If you speak Chinese on the streets, the Koreans will look at you with envy. It wasn’t like this 15 years ago.”
“Namdaemun was burnt down, so Dongdaemun became Korea’s treasure #1″.
“In Korean dramas, you may have thought Korean women are really beautiful. Now that you are here to see for yourselves, you can see they are really ugly.”
“In Korea, the government tells the travel agencies which hotels and restaurants to take the tourists. We cannot freely choose where to take our guests”.
@ 10
Reminds me of the time my mother-in-law pulled out all my carefully nurtured basil “weeds” and planted 호추 instead.
an interesting difference, though, that these for the most part are not younger families with kids whose parents are still economically productive – as in the suburbanization phenomenon – but relatively well-off people who have retired. The process is one of gerontofication rather than classic modern gentrification
That, and coming to Melbourne.
I think it’s improbable.
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