An Organic Tale

Mami Osler


A long time ago there lived a father farmer in the village of Purple. The father worked very hard to support his family. He grew various kinds of fruits and sold them to make his living. He had a small fruit stand in front of his house, and village people came to buy seasonal fruits every day. He grew strawberries and cherries in spring, watermelons and peaches in summer, grapes and pears in fall, and oranges and persimmons in winter. The farmer was not rich, but he had enough money to live happily with his family.

As time went by, the father farmer became old and decided to give his farmland to his two sons. The older son was named Shingo and the younger son was named Keigo. The farmland was divided equally for the two sons. The father farmer told his sons to be hard workers and told them how to grow fruits successfully.

Both Shingo and Keigo started to grow fruits as their father told them. They worked all day to tend their farmland. Each year, they both had enough harvest to sell, and Shingo and Keigo each had a little fruit stand in front of his farmland. Several years later, both Shingo and Keigo got married and built their houses next to their farmland. Shingo's house was built on the left side of the farm and Keigo's house was built on the right side of the farm.

One day, a man from the village of Yellow came and said to the brothers that he could sell them special chemicals and machines to help them grow their fruits faster and bigger. Shingo did not like the idea of using chemicals and machines to grow his fruits against the help of nature. However, Keigo thought if he could grow his fruits faster and bigger, he could make more money and become rich. Keigo spent all of his money to buy the special chemicals and machines. The machines were to sprinkle special fertilizer over the fruit plants so that the fruits would grow faster and bigger.

Keigo's business grew, and more and more village people came to buy Keigo's fruits because of their variety and size. With the help of other chemicals and machines that Keigo bought from the man from the Yellow village later, he was able to grow strawberries in winter and oranges in early summer, while Shingo only had certain kinds of fruit in each season. Shingo's fruit was not big as his brother Keigo's, but it still tasted the same as his father's sweet and moist fruit. Some of the village people were still Shingo's good customers for a long time. Since Keigo was able to sell many fruits in one day, he was able to reduce the price of his fruit and still make a lot of money. However, Shingo had to raise the price every year because he did not have enough customers to support his living.

As time passed by, people in the Purple village started to notice something. People who bought fruit from Shingo's fruit stand tended to remain happy and healthy. On the other hand, people who bought Keigo's fruit for a long time tended to be sickly. They even noticed that the taste of Shingo's fruit was better than the fruit from Keigo's stand. People started to call Shingo's fruit "organic fruit" because he used only natural help to grow his fruit. Many people stopped going to Keigo's and began to buy more fruit from Shingo, and they stayed healthy. Although Shingo's fruit was more expensive than Keigo's , people were willing to pay for the fresh organic fruit.

In addition to that, people started to have problems with water. People in the Purple village used to drink water from the water hose or any faucet, or even from the creek that ran through the village. Now, because of the chemicals and machines that Keigo had been using for a long time for his business, the water of the Purple village had become polluted. People could not enjoy the natural taste of water in the village any more. People started to blame Kengo for not having fresh clean water in the village any more.

Keigo's only son, Kyogo was eager to reestablish his father's failed business and fame, and went to study to the Brown village. There, Kyogo learned how to purify polluted water and make it taste better. Kyogo went home and started to sell purified water in bottles. Many people in the village bought Kyogo's purified bottled water. Kyogo was able to help his father and made the village people happy. These organic foods and this bottled water became the symbols of the Purple village of today.

A long time ago, people did not use the word "organic" when describing a type of food. Now more and more organic food stores have become popular. We did not see people buying and carrying bottled water very much a little more than a decade ago. I remember the statement my father made at that time: "I can not believe there are some people spending their money to buy bottled water to drink." Now I know that he is one of the people who buy bottled water. Organic food and bottled water have become symbols of the current world.