In a certain residential building in Taipei, a group of people of different nationalities, ages and professions are gathered together. They are Yang Cheng­-ju, ­Blythe Wei, ­Zheng Ya­jun, and Yo­shi­nobu Tsu­ki­ashi; Li Yi­qian joins them online. The reason behind their meeting is the Ta­beru magazines, which originated in Japan.

These food-focused magazines, which are delivered to subscribers together with a sample of seasonal produce, not only convey information about agricultural production areas and outstanding farmers in words and images, they also bring farm-fresh foods into readers’ homes, creating a reading banquet that includes mul­tiple sensory experiences.

The realization of the concepts described in the book Fresh Food by Rapid Delivery has been like a quiet social revolution. It all started with To­hoku Ta­beru Magazine, founded by Japanese social entrepreneur Hi­ro­yuki Ta­ka­ha­shi. (To­hoku is the northeastern region of Hon­shu, Japan’s largest island, and ta­beru means “to eat” in Japanese.) Today in Japan there are 35 sister maga­zines, while in Taiwan four similar publications have been founded: Ta­beru in Eastern Taiwan, Yun­lin Ta­beru in Taiwan, Travel Ta­beru in Taiwan, and Central Taiwan Food Journal.

Perhaps Hi­ro­yuki Ta­ka­ha­shi never expected his magazine to get such a broad, even transnational, ­response. Formerly a prefectural assemblyman, Ta­ka­ha­shi devoted himself to reconstruction work in the wake of the To­hoku earthquake and tsunami of March 2011. In order to give a boost to local agriculture, he created To­hoku Ta­beru Magazine, which combined a publication with home delivery of foods. However, given the similarities in the problems faced by most developed countries in terms of imbalanced development between city and country, a disconnection between producers and consumers, and cash-strapped local governments, this pioneering work has already spread abroad.

Motivated by similar ideals, people working together at Taberu magazines selflessly help each other out.

Concern for food and agriculture

The person leading the way in transferring Ta­ka­ha­shi’s work to Taiwan has been Yang Cheng­-ju, who works at an engineering consulting firm. Despite her work having nothing to do with food or agriculture, she was inspired by Ta­ka­ha­shi’s book Fresh Food by Rapid Delivery. “I read this book several times in one week,” she says.

Yang took it upon herself to raise money to invite Ta­ka­ha­shi and partners from the Japan Ta­beru Magazines Alliance to Taiwan to share their knowledge, and thus the spark was carried to Taiwan. A while after the Chinese edition of the book was published, people who felt inspired by Ta­ka­ha­shi’s message came out in large numbers. They launched activities and served as editors, while Yang acted as matchmaker. They also invited Yo­shi­nobu Tsu­ki­ya­shi, director of the Mo­ki­chi ­Okada Association Taiwan (MOA Taiwan), to serve as a liaison between Taiwan and Japan, staying in touch with Japan through an organization dubbed the “Ta­beru Magazines Taiwan Affairs Office.” Within two short years, Taiwan editions of Ta­beru have flourished everywhere.

Though these independent publications are emer­ging in an era of intense competition in the magazine publishing world, there is something uniquely attractive about Taberu magazines. This is mainly because they “bring together people who might come from different fields, but are all interested in food and farming.” As Yang explains, “The greatest appeal of this magazine is that it breaks through the ‘echo chamber’ phenom­enon.” Rather than call it a magazine, it would perhaps be better to describe it as an open platform for ideas and dialogue about agriculture: Where are the best farmers and where does the best food come from? Do you want to understand issues of importance to rural communities? Even young people who are thinking of moving (or moving back) to live in rural areas can find answers to their questions here.

Yoshinobu Tsukiashi talks about the first time he met Hiroyuki Takahashi: based on their shared ideals, the two hit it off right away.

Relational demography

Within the broad policy orientation of regional revitalization, in recent years Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and Tourism has pursued “relational demography” as one of its main strategies. In the non-governmental sector, people like Hi­ro­yuki Ta­ka­ha­shi and Ka­zu­masa Sa­shide, the chief editor of the back-to-nature magazine So­to­koto, have also been strongly advocating this approach.

As explained by ­Meiji University professor To­kumi Oda­giri, “relational demography” is the study of the population that has a relationship with a particular place. At a time of considerable outflow of population from more remote rural areas, the effectiveness of policies such as encouraging women to have more children or recruiting young people to relocate to a particular rural area is quite limited, due to difficulties in practical implementation.

Therefore, in recent years attention has begun to turn to the “relational population,” comprising people who give a location economic support, or who visit regularly or even live there for short periods. Although these ­people cannot be counted as part of the local population, they still have a relationship, however deep or shallow, with the location. They are a source of energy for local revitalization, and there is a strong possibility that as a result of their long-term association with a place, they may become future migrants who settle in the locality.

Within the strategy of relational demography, the Ta­beru magazines are one method of promoting the creation of a relational population. One great strength of the Ta­beru publications is that they can transcend the limitations of a conventional magazine. Since their launch, through their journalism and through food tasting and cultural experience activities, they have been able, as Yang Cheng­-ju puts it, to “find interesting linkages.” These diverse links with consumers can help transform fading rural communities.

The best examples of people moving from “consumer” to “activist” are the editors of the magazines themselves. ­Chiang Pei-yan, founder of Ta­beru in Eastern Taiwan, who relocated to Nan’ao by herself, has been able to use the publication to link with producers from all over Eastern Taiwan, and even bring together young people who have moved to Nan’ao to play a part in producing the magazine. Also, in view of the unique character of the eastern counties, these young people are very active in organizing cultural experience activities, inviting readers to immerse themselves in the vitality that springs from the mountains and seacoast of this region.

Another example is Blythe Wei, who is currently studying in Tai­pei. Not only has she been able, through Travel Ta­beru in Taiwan, to rebuild her former connection with rural communities, she has even enrolled in graduate school in the Department of Bio-Industry Com­munica­tion and Development (formerly the Depart­ment of Agricultural Extension) at National Taiwan University. “After I started studying I began looking at agri­culture from a more serious angle,” she recounts. She has also proposed the idea of “participative journalism,” opening up editorial work to others. “This is not my personal magazine, it’s just that I came in contact with the concept of Ta­beru magazines relatively early on.” Holding fast to this idea, she has invited young people who are still in school to join her editorial team, and by leading them on reporting trips to the countryside, has enabled young students whose lifestyles are far removed from those of rural areas to have the opportunity to visit remote farming communities.

This shows that the significance of the Ta­beru maga­zines has not only been to deliver fresh foods directly from farming areas, but also to serve as platforms for promoting interactions between country and city. Besides creating meaningful links between urban and rural areas, they are also searching for opportunities for survival for rural communities that are lagging behind. Or, in the aspirational words of Hi­ro­yuki Ta­ka­ha­shi, “They will enable continual contact and interaction between city and country, and spark action to achieve this mission, as the two sides protect each other.”

Taberu magazines and a selected food item are delivered together, providing readers with a sensory experience that transcends the printed page. (courtesy of Taberu in Eastern Taiwan)

Free-range chickens raised in Eastern Taiwan. Eating food from a specific region is an opportunity to learn about the area’s terroir and culture. (courtesy of Taberu in Eastern Taiwan)

Helping farmers with their work and only interviewing them during rest periods enables the reporters of Taberu in Eastern Taiwan to build deep friendships with their interlocutors. (courtesy of Taberu in Eastern Taiwan)

Shiitake mushrooms grown on logs in the traditional way in an Atayal indigenous community. (courtesy of Taberu in Eastern Taiwan)

The editorial team at Taberu in Eastern Taiwan: Chiang Pei-yan (center), Chen Tzu-ching (left) and Tsai Shan (right). All of them have backgrounds in agriculture. (photo by Lin Min-hsuan)

The most familiar of local fruits acquire a sense of novelty through design. (courtesy of Travel Taberu in Taiwan)

Blythe Wei says: “I’m really lucky to have come into contact with Taberu magazines while still a student.”

Travel Taberu in Taiwan covers all of Taiwan. Each issue reveals fascinating scenes of rural life to readers. (courtesy of Travel Taberu in Taiwan)