To the citizens of the greater capital region, Seoul Station is the beginning of the way home. It was where you put your heart on board even if you are unable to go yourself. To the sons and daughters of farmers it was the entrance to a new world, the place where they went from pre-modern to modern times. When there is peace on the Korean peninsula, it will be gateway through which North and South come and go and where they merge together.
It is right there in Seoul Station Plaza that there will be a big farmers' market from Wednesday until the 27th. It is a communal market ahead of the Lunar New Year, organized by farmers' organizations like the Korea Catholic Farmers' Movement, the Korea Advanced Farmers Federation, and the Korean Woman Advanced Farmers Federation. The goal is to lessen the sense of distance felt between urban and rural people, workers and farmers, and consumers and producers, by sharing with city dwellers their food products prepared with earnest hearts. The Hankyoreh Foundation for Reunification and Culture is participating as well and proceeds will go to help North Korean children endure the winter, so the event will also be a stepping-stone for North and South Korea. There will be three hundred products from around the country, including various grains, ritual utensils, and Korean beef. All are agricultural products that are safe and of superior quality.
The wishes of the farmers organizing the market are simple. They want people in the cities to take a little interest in the farming industry and farming communities, the basis of the country's livelihood. Urbanites have been indifferent about their traditional hometowns in farming regions. Last year the rice agreement was ratified and the price of a sack of rice dropped from W160,000 to W130,000. The industry is being shaken at its very roots, and yet city dwellers were happy to see prices fall. They wrote off farmers' street protests as an expression of group selfishness.
You cannot produce good fruit with weak roots. Farmlands are the roots of the cities. Agricultural regions have to be strong for cities to be healthy. Korean cities grew on top of the sacrifices of rural communities. Farmers across the country are holding out their hands. It is time for city people to grab them firmly. Let us affirm that together they are one at the Seoul Station farmers' market.
The Hankyoreh, 24January 2006.
[Translations by Seoul Selection]
[Editorial] The Farmers' Market At Seoul Station |
