In Taiwan, Volker Chen and George Hu established Verdancy in response to the growing imbalance of rural and urban development. They started a 2-hectare pilot project in an abandoned chicken farm in north Taiwan because, “We wanted to prove that our system can work for anyone,” Chen says proudly.
They recruited four people with zero farming experience, and in just two years, the recruits learned to grow tomatoes, strawberries, turmeric, dragon fruit, and more. One has since started his own independent farm, two others formed a new Verdancy cluster and new recruits now learn these novel and efficient farming methods.
“We turn wasted factories and barren lands into profitable planting fields,” says Hu. Instead of traditional land farming, Verdancy uses nonwoven bags for grow beds. Each plant grows individually to prevent contagious disease or soil contamination. Verdancy focuses on plants with the highest medicinal and economic value in Chinese medicine.