Living as a "lifestyle farmer" may just be love, inherited and ever-changing. - Mr. Abe, Abe Farm

The Origin of the "Livelihood Farmer": Neither Industrial Agriculture nor Trendy Farming

In Niigata City, Niigata Prefecture, lives Kentaro Abe of Abe Farm, who cultivates a variety of fruit trees, including grapes and peaches.

With the motto "good food good mood," Abe is always cheerful—genuinely cheerful. Yet, having a past as a DJ, he is a deeply complex and fascinating human being.

Abe describes himself as follows:

"I was born not as an 'industrial farmer,' but as a 'livelihood farmer.'"

I understood this to mean that his family was not one "born to make a profit from agriculture," but one that "guarded their fields in order to survive."

Starting from this sentiment, Abe's story expands into family history, the memory of the land, and his own ever-changing self.

Born into a "Livelihood Farmer" Family Since the Post-War Era

The Abe family has a history of preserving their land during the post-war land reform, transitioning from a position akin to "landowners" to ordinary farmers.

"My grandparents became farmers just to keep the family home intact. That’s why I wasn’t born as an 'industrial farmer,' but as a 'livelihood farmer' from the start."

A "livelihood farmer" is a family that protects their fields in order to live.

It is a way of life focused not on crops that bring in money, but on growing "what is necessary to survive on that land."

Furthermore, the Abe family also has the distinction of being 14th-generation pear farmers, and it seems the first generation was the author of the "oldest pear cultivation manual in Japan."

However, their family precept is unexpectedly as follows:

"Fruit growing is a gamble. Keep it to the scale of a 'hobby'."

Crops dependent on nature carry significant risks. Therefore, one must not do too much "just for a living."

This perspective continues to flow at the root of Abe's values.

The Opposite World of "Industrial Agriculture" Learned in America

When he was young, Abe trained at a farm in the United States.

"There are no 'livelihood farmers' in America. What you have are 'immigrant industrial farmers.'"

He says that what he saw there was a world where agriculture is run by large-scale operations and capital, unfettered by the land. This is not hard to imagine. He says that the contrast was shocking.

"I was born into a family of livelihood farmers, but society was maturing in the direction of industrial farmers. I felt that at some point, I, too, had to move toward the 'industrial side.'"

However, while desperately searching for that path, he returned once again to the origin: "family love."

Love Is "Inheriting and Constantly Changing"

The most essential core of Abe's words is the value that "family love is still 'love,' even if the form is distorted."

"Even if my father's ideas were wrong, I think that was his form of love."

"Whether it’s violent love or ideal love, they are all the same in the essence of 'love'."

And then, Abe shares:

"Changing yourself is also a form of love."

He says that when he got married, had children, and accepted his "inevitably changing self," he realized that "this, too, is love."

Could this set of values be what flows at the bottom of the operations at Abe Farm?

Love is truly difficult, isn't it? Listening to Abe's story, I could do nothing but nod, and I was then invited to join him for lunch.

It was truly delicious, and I am filled with gratitude.

Agriculture Is a "Strict Game" and Simultaneously an "Art Form"

Abe compares agriculture to a "game that is fun because there are limitations, even if it is painful when it is too free."

Like a DJ's setlist, the "limitations" of each year's climate, conversely, stimulate creativity.

Furthermore, he views agriculture this way:

"If you can't make a living, you're an artist. But even so, you have to carefully choose who you work with."

This means balancing the "responsibility of producing food" with the "sincerity of working with people."

Continuing to Weave the "Story" That Is Abe Farm

The land his grandparents protected. The values of a livelihood farmer. The culture he encountered in the outside world. Family love. And his own personal change.

Everything blends together, and Abe's farming lives on as a continuous story.

"I will go on changing. I think that, too, is a form of the love I inherited."

The world you see after receiving love and accepting your own changing self must surely be beautiful.