Where is our Donation going?
Initially our search was for individual farms to aid and help get back on their feet to help them begin feeding their community.
In our search, we have found that the majority of farms are small in size and depend largely upon family members to work the land. Because of the small size of the farms, the vast majority of them belong to cooperatives to get better prices on the inputs that they require and to market their produce. Because of this, a strong bond is created among the members, many instances one farmer helping another to tend the farm.
This leads to the difficulty of finding an indiividual farmer to accept a donation for their farm only. They would be embarrassed to be singled out for aid. No matter how much or how little, they would want to share with other farmers in their coop.
Now our search has narrowed itself down to seeking out a small group of farmers and below is their info.
Please check back as we will be updating as the info comes information comes in.
Thank you for supporting "Walk the Farm!"
Takao (I will just use their first names) and Four others
Takao is 65 years age and lost his wife three years ago. He has one son, two daughters and three grandchildren and all of them help on the farm. They did not hire any outside labor.
As with many farms in the area, the main crop was three acres of rice and one third of an acre of greenhouse strawberries (commercial production, not u-pick).
Even though his home was not located on the farm, as a result of the tsunami, he did lose both his home, the farm, several vehicles and farm machinery to the tidal wave.
Before the tsunami there were about twenty eight members in his coop. Four members were killed and nineteen he does not know their whereabouts. He has met up with four others and have decided to work together again.
We will be revceiving information about the others in his newly formed coop and will post as soon as possible.
Takao and his family has just moved from a shelter into a goverment built temporary house where they may live for two years. He is currently looking for a job (to help out with the bills until he may begin farming again) but is extremely difficult in the damaged area.
If we are able to help them out, more than likely the funds will go to living expenses. They have agreed to keep us updated as to their progress.
A photo of Takao's cooperative members from 1993. He had found it under the tsunami debri.
Strawberries inside Takao's green house before the tsunami
The green house after the tsunami.
Yukikaza, Tsueno, Kiyohiko and Kazuo
These are four farmers in the Sendai area and have similar stories. Each farm about four acres of rice and about three quarters of an acre of vegetables.
Yukikazu lost an uncle, otherwise everyone else's immediately families are fine. They are fortunate that they are living in apartments except Kiyohiko is living with relatives.
All of their farmland, farm equipment and most of their vehicles are gone.
They are waiting for the government to decide what they will be allowed to do in the area.
If we are able to help them, most of the funds will be used for living expenses until they can begin farming.
Tsueno-san and his wife.
Debri inside Tsueno-san's home
Many areas of affected farmland remain submerged in salty ocean water.
One other group
One more group of farmers that we are considering are some peach growers. They have the situation where they cannot sell their fruit due to radiation concerns but they still must maintain their orchards otherwise risk letting the trees die. This would mean losing mature trees and an infrastructure that took four years to build.
We hope to have information this group soon.
This page was last update on 7/11/11
