Growing food in a post-colonial Chinese metropolis: Hong Kong’s down-to-earth civil society

Abstract

Since Hong Kong is stereotyped as a financial centre with high land prices and population density, the absence of local agriculture and dependence on food imports are seemingly taken for granted. Decades ago, agriculture was an important economic activity. However, after signing the Sino-British Joint Declaration which determined Hong Kong’s reversion to Chinese sovereignty, the British Hong Kong Government shifted attention away from local food supply to urbanisation and modernisation, opening the door to imports from mainland China and the rest of the world. Today, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government continues with this policy orientation. Despite limited agricultural infrastructure, policy support or training opportunities, interest in local food has been rekindled in recent years. The enthusiasm for alternative food networks resonates with global trends towards sustainable agriculture and food movement. It has arisen alongside controversial events and social movements regarding food safety, land development, and cultural heritage conservation. Some urban dwellers, many under the age of forty, voluntarily join the ranks of farmers, as new farms have mushroomed all over both sides of Victoria Harbour and the New Territories. Low wages and difficulties in finding a sizable piece of land remain an issue, but more and more customers support farm products from farmers’ markets, organic food shops, or ‘wet market’ vendors specialising in locally grown vegetables. Farm activities, courses on agriculture, and relevant events organised by the informal sector or NGOs integrate people from diverse backgrounds, building a community of like-minded residents of the city. Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted with the community since 2016, this paper attempts to furnish some observations on the bottom-up resurgence of agriculture fuelled by civil society in Hong Kong.