Stepping into the muddy earth,
how the sweet scent of Nature meets my nostrils.

The above Chinese saying extolling the visceral pleasure of the land was spoken at press event by Minister of the COA Su Jia-chyuarn to welcome the youth with open arms to a series of events promoted by three “Wander Vögel” (a German term akin to “birds of a feather”) who are closely tied to the land in their work.

The July 7 press event, featuring TV star Yu Meiren, is a means to promote the COA’s most recent series of activities of soaring “Wander Vögel”. They introduced three people who are close to the land and champions of agriculturalist ideals.

The Council of Agricultural, a government agency -responsible for Taiwan’s natural resource use and agricultural development said that Taiwan has a plethora of ecological environments of forests, waterways and plain fields. These we can say with pride are the assets of every citizen of this great nation and serve as “platforms” for the youth to interact with Mother Nature. There are three “Wander Vögel” Agrievents organized into three stages of development: Bird Retreat, Nesting, and Wingéd Fantasia aimed at giving Taiwan’s youth the opportunity to intimately encounter our agriculture. As the agriculture industry matures, the future promises even more variety in activities for the youth in domestic non-migratory fowl cultivated for agricultural purposes.

One of the three “Wander Vogel” is taking action to achieve his aims. Mr. Lai, Ching-Song, a master degree holder in environmental studies and has changed his life by starting to cultivate his own raw materials by becoming a modern farmer. His motto is “to cultivate one’s own Rice and to take ‘stock’ in one’s own grain.”

Another of the three “Wander Vogel” is Mr. Chang Ching-Jin. He is a Sheraton Hotel chef. It is the dream of every modern descendant of the agricultural class to have their own fields to till. He instead has done the next best thing-he has become a chef of Chinese medicinal cooking.

The third “Wander Vogel” is a beautiful designer for a wedding photo boutique by the name of Jhao Gao, Shu-Ying. She said bye-bye to Taipei living and has become a landscape artist for companies and has a particular knack for lying sod.

Yu Meiren, a Taiwanese celebrity who gave herself the gift of giving up her high salary at her 40th birthday so that she could travel the world with her family. On her journey she learned how to take on new challenges. She returned from her yearlong journey and invested in a plot of farmland in Yilan. She said that she now go back to her land to weed when she is not busy with her show. Surrounded by people of the earth, she feels obliged now to promote rural life and farmers’ values. As a “bird of the same feather” she welcomes youth to visit her farm and to gain a better understanding of their homeland. It’s just as Lai Ching-Song said, “You don’t need to live on others’ land, just return to your own grounds and you will have your piece of heaven.”

The COA has stated that the “Wander Vögel” project involves taking in a variety of agricultural experiences such as organic cultivation, tea farming, agriculture, husbandries and agritourism and places an emphasis on the role of agricultural improvement stations of the COA throughout the country. For the implementation of this project, these stations select good in organic, husbandry and agricultural farms for the leaving activities sites. All-in-all there are 42 different stages in the project. Activities include bamboo cultivation, flower potting, tealeaf picking, the tea ceremony, husbandry, brewing and distilling of alcoholic beverages, raising livestock, aquarium maintenance and composting.

There are at least one if not two activities every month in coming months. In each activity with up to 20 individuals of ages 18-35 youth welcome to participate. The youth have the opportunity to experience three days and two nights life at rural area. The aim is to give the youth the chance to experience nature, to learn the hardships of life and also to shape the values of the youth. It is further hoped that they will not turn a blind eye to the agricultural industry and to further understand the importance of life, environmentalism, to learn how to serve the community, to struggle for what is important and to have the fighting spirit.

The COA seeks primarily to entice youthful participation in the events themselves. Provide half of the activity expense. In addition, the COA also provide each “Wander Vögel” a memorable shirt with an estimated value of over NT$2000. Registration the first event has already began at the July 7 liftoff event and complete forms must be handed in before August 1. Youth ages 18 to 35 are welcome to attend. The “Wander Vögel” project Web site is located at straybirds.coa.gov.tw.