Mikan Dialogue Vol.7 『Commons Farm’s Future Vision – Learning from the Efforts to Reduce Pesticides in Agriculture -』

The 7th installment of the Mikan Dialogue, an online talk session that delves deeper into citrus through art and culture!

This time, under the theme of “Future Vision of Commons Farms,” ​​we invite Hajime Ogaki, owner of Shimozu Kyodai Mikanyama, a citrus farm in Wakayama Prefecture, to talk about how he started pesticide-free cultivation after the death of 17-year-old Satoru Matsumoto due to pesticide poisoning, and his efforts in cooperation with the Kyoto University Pesticide Seminar. We will also be joined by Tomoo Hirose, an artist living in Italy who is running the “Commons Farm” project in Kinan, aiming to create a “park-like farm,” and together we will think about the Commons Farm we should aim for through the perspective of art.

*What is pesticide-free agriculture?
Pesticide-free agriculture refers to farming that does not follow national standards, but rather reduces the amount of pesticide used as much as possible through hard work. In 1968, a high school student died after spraying pesticides (fluorine-based insecticides) in Okubo, Shimotsu-cho, Kaiso-gun, Wakayama Prefecture (now Kainan City), and after this incident, his parents and his younger brother began cultivating mandarin oranges with reduced pesticide use. Since the 1970s, when pesticide use was at its peak, they have taken measures against pests, such as using minimal fungicides, machine oil, and the Yanone scale wasp, a natural enemy of the Yanone scale insect.

参考：https://eco.kyoto-u.ac.jp/?p=521
参考：http://shukusho.org/data/16-1ab.pdf

*What is Commons Farm?
A long-term art project by Tomoo Hirose that began in 2022. The farm practices agriculture that reinterprets the harvested mandarins and their cultivation process from an artistic perspective, creating a space where people can come into contact with creative value through various experiences and encounters and exchanges with people from different positions and occupations. In order to create an unprecedented “park-like farm” that anyone can enter and exit freely, we are currently looking for abandoned farmland (or idle farmland) in the Kinan area. In addition, as part of this project, there is a seedling foster parent project called “Sapling Journey” where citrus seedlings are grown until a site is found, and a newsletter called “Mikan Sapling Journey News” that is sent out irregularly by Hirose.

Summary
■Date: Tuesday, September 10, 2024
■Time: 19:00-20:15 (75 minutes)
■Venue: Online
■Speakers: Hajime Ogaki (Shimotsu Kyodai Mikanyama), Satoshi Hirose (artist)

Speakers

Hajime Ogaki (Shimozu Kyodai Mikanyama)
The third generation owner of Shimozu Kyodai Mikanyama. Born in Hiroshima Prefecture. After retiring from the apparel industry where he had worked for many years, he was introduced to the orchard by a fellow road biker and became the owner in 2018. Shimozu Kyodai Mikanyama began cultivating pesticide-free mandarin oranges in collaboration with Kyoto University’s Pesticide Seminar after the death of a 17-year-old high school student who died of pesticide poisoning in 1968.

Shimozu Kyodai Mikanyama Website: https://www.sk-mikanyama.com/ourfarm
Mandarin Field website: https://www.foun-p.com/about.html#sec04

Satoshi Hirose（Artist）
Born in Tokyo in 1963, Hirose currently lives in Milan. Based in Italy, he has participated in numerous exhibitions in Japan, Asia, Europe, and other parts of the world. Satoshi Hirose is a contemporary artist who creates poetic works using a variety of media, including installations, environmental interventions, performances, sculpture, photography, drawings, and larger-than-life projects. His creative principle is a transdisciplinary imagination that transcends borders and connects heterogeneous cultures and t