Fostering a City Farm to Start an Organic Enterprise

Tsai Shieunt Han

Kun Shan University, Tainan, Taiwan

Keywords: City Farm, Organic Products, Health, Quality of Life, Environmentally Friendly.

Abstract: For forwarding quality of life and health condition of Taiwan busy urbanites, we diversify an alternate

business blueprint such as green products of sachet, perfume, wash supplies and skin-care, etc. in order to

service our consumers. We plan to get involved in the activities mentioned above and enhance our publicity

more in the offing. We hence conducted an investigation of organic enterprise that includes city farm and

organic product acceptance and cognition. The result is that Taiwan urbanites accept city farm which can

save the cost of living and cognition of organic products which can advance their physical and

psychological health. On top of that, Taiwan urbanites consider cost of living and quality of life as an

important part of life. We, city moms, take more care over organic products, green enterprise and cost of

living for our family as a start and willing to promote carbon emission and quality of life of Taiwan

urbanites as well. The community impact is useful for the urgent movement of production of green products

presently. We hope the extreme goal of energy conservation will be done to promote friendly environment

of Taiwan and the world and will hopefully meet the CSR (corporate social responsibility) eventually.

1 INTRODUCTION

A city is usually full of tall, cold, hard and solid

buildings and small in area. However it is a densely

populated place where some people hope to promote

a quality of life for relaxing nerves tension and

crowded urban environment in a contemporary

society. There are some quickest ways such as

community or attic city farm, hydroponics

aquoponics

farm, potted plant on the windowsill or

balcony or climbing plant over backyard fence at

home, for example, may be a better way back to

nature for modern urbanites.

For improving quality of life and health

condition of Taiwan busy urbanites, we trigger the

business by using a strategy of diversification to

contact and communicate with Taiwanese. There is a

schedule of organic city farm, an organic and herb

hand-made pizza mobile diner and a bistro enterprise

respectively. The bistro enterprise will have organic

and herb ingredients of cuisine, tea, cakes, biscuits

and cookies. We also have an extreme goal of

environmentally friendly bistro enterprise in Taiwan.

To achieve our goal of organic entrepreneur, the

article aims to study organic, herb and hand-made

enterprise can be accepted by the consumers and

play the sincere role of businessmen. The objectives

are: 1. To investigate the relationship between city

farm and cost of living. 2. To investigate the

relationship between organic products and health. 3.

To investigate the relationship between health and

quality of life. For checking these phenomena, we

conduct a survey in order to retain a solution

mentioned above.

2 MANUSCRIPT PREPARATION

2.1 Contact with Taiwan Urbanites via

City Farm and Cost of Living

Urbanites may be too tired to cook meal after work

and school. Home meal replacement

becomes a new

favorite of theirs. Jo et al., (2014) studied the home

meal replacement market size in Seoul, Korea and

they presented that the Home Meal Replacement

(HMR) has been growing rapidly in the food

industry of Korea. Because of the conveniences that

the HMR product provide so that busy workers

and/or individuals who live alone are the target

consumers in general. Taiwan has a similar situation

and HMR is also popular for the same target

consumers here. However, we observe that HMR

may cost money but do not satisfy individual’s

Han, T.

Fostering a City Farm to Start an Organic Enterprise.

DOI: 10.5220/0008489601450150

In Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Entrepreneurship and Business Management (ICEBM Untar 2018), pages 145-150

ISBN: 978-989-758-363-6

145

health necessity because of the alert of food hygiene

and freshness.

We are a group of city moms who want to save

cost of living because of the responsibility of thrift

and are obliged to process it right away from now

on. Initially, a brainstorming meeting was carried on

and the solution is to foster a city farm with cheaper

natural compost in order to get organic vegetables

and herbs. Some farms or communities, such as

community or attic city farm, hydroponic or

aquaponics farm, and herb potted plant will be our

vegetables sources. We are willing to spend some

time to grow organic vegetables for our family and

are happy to save the cost of living. Our group will

settle the time, freshness, cost of living, and health

troubles for Taiwan urbanites who have insufficient

time. Likewise, Nugent (2000) investigated that

Africa city farm saves around one third cost of living

of urbanites monthly. We care about time, cost of

living and our energy bills, so that a hypothesis can

be proposed: H

There is a significant relationship

between city farm and cost of living in Taiwan that

has been made.

2.2 Communicate with Taiwan

Urbanites via Organic Products,

Health, and Quality of Life

Taiwan is in a situation of a hazard of food

processing that we are afraid of and should keep an

eye on, such as food being cooked using reused

(second-hand) oil. We think that organic products

are necessary right now. We are a group of city

moms who want to improve family’s health in mood

and body because we love our family so much. We

consider unhealthy food, products, air pollution and

environment as “health diversity” items and want to

get rid of them as soon as possible. We are obliged

to process it right away from now on.

Firstly, we foster a city farm without chemical

fertilizers to get organic vegetables and herbs. We

ask some experts in compost because it is an

essential part to have an organic farm. Organic

vegetables need an essential element which is

compost. After preparing compost, we rent plots of

land from community authority that release

community patches to the inhabitants of community.

We also make attic, windowsill, balcony, and

backyard to be our city farm for increasing the

harvest. It’s lucky that some mothers are familiar

with variety classes of vegetables and herbs. We are

willing to spend some time to grow organic

vegetables for our family and happy to see them

eating the favorite and healthy organic vegetables.

We have quite a confidence after the initial step, and

we are eager to plan the next step for our

entrepreneurship.

According to the definition in Wikipedia, the

compost is a mixture of decaying organic matter, as

from leaves and manure, used to improve soil

structure and provide nutrients when waste drops

into the compost where it is naturally processed into

soil and liquid fertilizer over time. According to

definition in Wikipedia, compost is organic matter

that has been decomposed in a process called

composting. This process recycles various organic

materials - otherwise regarded as waste products -

and produces a soil condition (the compost).

Compost is carbon emission which is better than

chemical fertilizer and used for example in gardens,

landscaping, horticulture, urban agriculture and

organic farming. The compost itself is beneficial for

the land in many ways, including as a soil

conditioner, a fertilizer, addition of vital humus or

humic acids, and as a natural pesticide for soil. In

ecosystems, compost is useful for erosion control,

land and stream reclamation, wetland construction,

and as landfill cover. At the simplest level, the

process of composting requires making a heap of

wet organic matter (also called green waste, such as

leaves, grass, food scraps) and waiting for the

materials to break down into humus after months.

The decomposition process is aided by shredding

the plant matter, adding water and ensuring proper

aeration by regularly turning the mixture when open

piles or "windrows" are used. Earthworms and fungi

further break up the material. Bacteria requires

oxygen to function (aerobic bacteria) and fungi

manages the chemical process by converting the

inputs into heat, carbon dioxide, and ammonium

(Wikipedia). Based on the concept above, we have

the next hypothesis: H

There is a significant

relationship between organic products and

individual’s health in body and mood in Taiwan.

In addition, quality of life (QOL) is the general

well-being of individuals and societies, outlining

negative and positive features of life. It observes life

satisfaction, including everything from physical

health, family, education, employment, wealth,

religious beliefs, finance and the environment. QOL

has a wide range of contexts, including the fields

of international development, healthcare, politics

and employment (Wikipedia).

After a step of city farm, an organic and herb

hand-made pizza is baked by mobile diner which

baked pizza by using brick kiln in the following. In

the beginning of business, we will use FB for online

and social media power to promote our pizza mobile

ICEBM Untar 2018 - International Conference on Entrepreneurship and Business Management (ICEBM) Untar

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diner and stop by at the same location in months.

Personal direct selling is also a useful

communication tool with our consumers and we

community moms are experts to manage that. Later,

we release our location information on the group of

FB in order to collect a group of customers.

Communication channels may be personal that

include social channels and word of mouth and mass

media that directs more than one person and

includes sales promotions, events and experiences,

and public relations. Social channels consists of

neighbors, friends, family members, and associates

talking to target buyers. We will use the relationship

between moms and community to process it.

Positive word of mouth sometimes happens

naturally with little advertising, but we can manage

and facilitate with bureau of community to finish it.

We will create attention via events of high quality of

organic products which include hand-made herb

cake, cookies, tea, sachet, perfume, soap, shampoo,

lotion and moisture on the internet and mobile diner

at the same time.

We build teamwork and try to diversify our

business variety. Therefore, opening an organic

bistro restaurant to promote our organic and herb

cuisine will be the following step. The

communication tool of events and special holiday

will be used. Later we will involve meal delivery

service and home cooking service in some special

occasions such as banquets of birthday, mother’s

day, father’s day and the night before the Lunar New

Year that are important family dinner parties in

Taiwan. Once more we are eager to be master chef

of religious festival and wedding banquet which has

a lot of people eat together and our organic purpose

has been satisfied. We plan to get involved in the

activities mentioned above and enhance our

publicity more. Of course advertising and campaign

budget is considered for remaining the price for our

customers.

There are some alternate business blueprints such

as sachet, perfume, soap, shampoo, lotion and

moisture, etc. to diversify our green enterprise. It is

not only to reduce carbon emission but also to

improve the environment and air quality of Taiwan.

Brown and Jameton (2000) examined urban

gardening in the USA and did not have strong

evidence on improving urban public health.

Neverthless, Namdar et al., (2017) thought that

educational status, monthly income, and rural/urban

residency may have a positive influence on the

QOL of Iranian women.

Besides, when Chen et al., (2005) explored the

attitudes of motivation, participation frequency and

overall satisfaction among city farm participants in

Taichung, Taiwan, we see that most respondents

were satisfied in the service of city farm of the

community in general. In addition, the ‘Pursuing

Health’ motivation was found being the main factor

affecting participant’s overall satisfaction. It sends

some beliefs to our group for seeking healthier

eating and living lifestyle of Taiwan urbanites. We

trigger the business by using a strategy of

diversification so that we have a schedule of organic

city farm, an organic and herb hand-made pizza

mobile diner, and a bistro enterprise respectively,

which include herb ingredients of cuisine, tea, cakes,

biscuits and cookies. The bistro business will

include a natural diet environment and health

cuisine. Therefore, we make another hypothesis

eventually: H

There is a significant relationship

between urbanities’ health in body and mood and

their quality of life in Taiwan.

3 MATERIALS AND METHODS

3.1 Data Collecting and Statistical

Analysis

There are 30 pre-tests to give in 2016. Cronbach’s

coefficient number is 0.86 and the validity is 0.81.

Thus, we conduct a formal survey and 250 random

samples from western Taiwan were collected in

communities. The respondent rate of valid samples

was 75% (188). The credibility Cronbach’s α

coefficient, KMO is 0.703, and effective coefficient

is 0.621. The SPSS 17.0 software is used as a

statistical tool. Methods used in this research contain

a descriptive analysis, a factor analysis, and a

correlation analysis.

The demographic statistics distribution are

presented simply, such as the most of the

respondents of females (152 or 81%), college

education (169 or 90%), married (154 or 82%),

employed (179 or 95%), monthly income (around

NTD 30,001 to NTD 60,000 each month) (175 or

93%), and monthly payment (around NTD 22,001 to

NTD 37,000) (182 or 97%).

Table 1: Demographic Profile of the respondents (N=188).

Variable Frequency Percentage (%)

Gender

Female 152 81

Male 36 19

Fostering a City Farm to Start an Organic Enterprise

147

Table 1: Demographic Profile of the respondents (N=188)

(cont.).

Variable Frequency Percentage (%)

Education

High 6 3

College 169 90

Graduate

&Above

13 7

Marital

Status

Married 154 82

Single 34 18

Monthly

Income

≦NTD

30,000

8 4

NTD

30,001-

60,000

175 93

≧NTD

60,001

5 3

Family

Monthly

Payment

≦NTD

22,000

4 2

NTD

22,001-

37,000

182 97

≧NTD

37,001

2 1

3.2 The Factor and Credibility

Analysis

There are thirty two items of questionnaire to be

designed that includes three parts of grow plants

willing city farm, organic consideration and health

cognition. Three variables were extracted by using

the factor analysis which includes physical and

psychological health, cost of living and quality of

life. The total VAR percentages is 64.47% and each

of them are 57.53%, 6.19%and 1.81%, respectively.

The Cronbach’s α coefficient, KMO is 0.75 (see

Table 2).

Table 2: The Factor Analysis and Credibility Analysis

(N=188).

Variables and

components

Physical and

Psychological

Health

Cost of

living

Quality of

life

Eigenvalue

(EV)

9.02 4.02 1.09

Variation

percentage (%)

56.53% 5.19% 2.75%

Cumulative VAR

percentage (%)

56.53% 61.72% 64.47%

Cronbach’α

credibility

coefficien

0.75

3.3 Pearson Correlation Analysis

According to Table 3, the physical and

psychological health is significantly related to cost

of living and quality of life. There are inferences that

the city farm is significantly related to cost of living

in Taiwan and organic products are significantly

related to urbanites’ health in body and mood. We

see the hypotheses 1: There is a significant

relationship between city farm and cost of living in

Taiwan and hypothesis 2: There is a significant

relationship between organic products and

individual’s health in mood and body in Taiwan has

been met. Besides, there is a significant relationship

between cost of living and quality of life. We

inferred that urbanites take cost of living and quality

of life as an important part of their life. We,

therefore, see the hypothesis 3: There is a significant

relationship between urbanities’ health in body and

mood and their quality of life in Taiwan has been

achieved. There are many studies on realizing the

community’s quality of life and health in different

areas (Rosemarie, Sniezek, Zack, Lucas, & Burns,

2010; Kindig, Asada, & Booske, 2008;Reeve, Hays,

Bjorner, Cook, Crane, Teresi, Thissen, Revicki,

Weiss, Hambleton, Liu, Gershon, Reise, Lai, &

Cella, 2007) and have similar results with this study

(see Table 3).

Table 3: Correlation analysis on physical and

psychological health, cost of living, and quality of life (N

= 188).

Variables and

components

Correlation

Physical and

psychological

Health

Cost of

living

Quality

of life

Physical and

Psychological

Health

Pearson

Correlation

1 0.327** 0.43**

Sig. (2-

tailed)

.000 .000 .000

Cost of Living

Pearson

Correlation

0.327** 1 0.257**

Sig. (2-

tailed)

.000 .000 .000

Quality of Life

Pearson

Correlation

0.43** 0.257** 1

Sig. (2-

tailed)

.000 .000 .000

Note: n = 188 respondents; *p< 0.05, **p <0.01 (2 - tailed)

4 CONCLUSIONS

According to the result of hypotheses testing, we can

infer that city farm can save the cost of living in

Taiwan, organic products can forward urbanites’

physical and psychological health, and Taiwan

ICEBM Untar 2018 - International Conference on Entrepreneurship and Business Management (ICEBM) Untar

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urbanites take cost of living and quality of life as an

important part of their life.

For forwarding quality of life and health

condition of Taiwan busy urbanites, we start the

business by using a strategy of diversification. We

design a schedule of organic city farm, an organic

and herb hand-made pizza mobile diner, and a bistro

enterprise respectively. The bistro business will have

organic and herb ingredients of cuisine, tea, cake,

biscuit and cookies. We learn from some researches

that local green product could reduce carbon

emission around 40% per year and cut our energy

bills quite a lot. It is a good news to promote quality

of life of Taiwan urbanites. Hence, our group direct

a financial plan to raise money as soon as possible

for the start up around NTD 5,000,000 in order to

pay the initial cost. Once more, we spread the

business concept to Taiwan community and instruct

the processes free to some community or

organizations that is interesting to our start-up. We

are willing to work for Taiwan environmentally

friendly and even for the world in the future.

There are some alternate business blueprints,

such as sachet, perfume, soap, shampoo, lotion and

moisture, etc. that will be our product list for

remaining the goal of carbon emission reduction as

well. In addition, meal delivery service, home

cooking service and local master chef will be

provided during special holiday occasion. Local

master chef is a unique occupation in religious

festival and wedding banquet in Taiwan. We plan to

get involved in the activities mentioned above and

enhance our publicity more.

In general, we have acquired the result that city

farm can save the cost of living in Taiwan, organic

products can forward urbanites’ physical and

psychological health, and Taiwan urbanites view

cost of living and quality of life as an important part

in life. We, city moms, will take more care over

organic products and cost of living for our family as

a start and are willing to promote health and quality

of life of Taiwan urbanites as the following step. It is

no doubt that this is an urgent movement to produce

green products presently and the community impact

will be used to settle it. We hope an extreme goal

toward the environment and air-quality protection

can be achieved eventually.

REFERENCES

Brown, K., &Jameton. A. L. (2000). Public health

implicatons of urban agriculture. Journal of Public

Health Policy, 21(1), pp.20-39.

Chen, C. F., Tsai, Y. F., &Hsiao, Y. H. (2005). A Study on

the motivation, participation frequency and

satisfaction of city farm participants in Taichung.

Tourism Management Research, 5(2), pp. 157- 171.

Jo, H., Lee, S., &Choe, Y. (2014). Home meal

replacement market segmentation: A food-related life

style. Agricultural & Applied Economics

Association’s 2014 AAEA Annual Meeting,

Minneapolis, MN.

Kindig, D.A., Asada, Y., & Booske, B. (2008). A

population health framework for setting national and

state health goals. JAMA, 299(17):2081–2083.

Nugent, R. (2000). The impact of urban agriculture on the

household and local economies. Journal of Public

Health Policy, 21(3), pp.67-97.

Namdar, A., Naghizadeh, M. M., Zamani, M., Yaghmaei,

F., &Sameni, M. H. (2017). Quality of life and general

health of infertile women. Health and Quality of Life

Outcomes,15(139), pp.1-7.

Reeve, B. B., Hays, R. D., Bjorner, J. B., Cook, K. F.,

Crane, P. K., Teresi, J. A., Thissen, D., Revicki, D. A.,

Weiss, D. J., Hambleton, R. K., Liu, H., Gershon, R.,

Reise, S. P., Lai, J., & Cella, D. (2007). Psychometric

evaluation and calibration of health-related quality of

life item banks. Medical Care, 45(5), pp. S22-S31.

Rosemarie, K., Sniezek, J., Zack, M. M., Lucas, R. E., &

Burns, A. (2010). Well-being assessment: An

evaluation of well-being scales for public health and

population estimates of well-being among U.S. adults.

Health and Well Being, 2(3), pp.272-297.

Wikipedia, attached from

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compost.

ANNOTATIONS:

1. Hydroponics: Hydroponics is a subset of

hydroculture, the method of growing plants

without soil, using mineral nutrient solutions in a

water solvent. Terrestrial plants may be grown

with only their roots exposed to the mineral

solution, or the roots may be supported by an

inert medium, such as perlite or gravel. The

nutrients in hydroponics can come from an array

of different sources; these can include but are not

limited to byproduct from fish waste, duck

manure, or normal nutrients (Wikipedia).

2. Aquaponics: Aquaponics refers to any system

that combines conventional aquaculture (raising

aquatic animals such as snails, fish, crayfish or

prawns in tanks) with hydroponics (cultivating

plants in water) in a symbiotic environment. In

normal aquaculture, excretions from the animals

being raised can accumulate in the water,

increasing toxicity. In an aquaponic system,

water from an aquaculture system is fed to a

hydroponic system where the by-products are

Fostering a City Farm to Start an Organic Enterprise

149

broken down by nitrifying bacteria initially into

nitrites and subsequently into nitrates that are

utilized by the plants as nutrients. The water is

then recirculated back to the aquaculture system.

As existing hydroponic and aquaculture farming

techniques form the basis for all aquaponic

systems, the size, complexity, and types of foods

grown in an aquaponic system can vary as much

as any system found in either distinct farming

discipline (Wikipedia).

3. Home Meal Replacement: In American terms,

HMR is similar to ready-to-eat meals purchased

at grocery stores and delis. Beef and pork –

especially processed products – play major roles

in the arrangement of these meals.

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