11月3日の振替休日は、久しぶりに家で録画していたビデオをまとめ見しました。その中でテレビ東京の「カンブリア宮殿」の再放送がとても興味を引きました。On the 3rd November, which was a substitute holiday, I watched a bunch of videos I had recorded at home for the first time in a while. Among them, I found a re-run of "Cambrian Palace" on TV Tokyo that really caught my attention.
というのも、その中で、内子という愛媛県の農村の主婦たちが始めた道の駅（フレッシュパーク「からり」）は、もともとは葉たばこ耕作をしていたのですが、たばこの消費が低迷し、葉たばこ作りを止めざるをえなり、町の存亡をかけた対策として直売所がスタートしました。One such roadside station (Fresh Park "Karari"), which was started by housewives in Uchiko, a farming village in Ehime Prefecture, originally grew tobacco leaves.
As tobacco consumption declined, they were forced to stop growing tobacco leaves, and so they started a direct sales store as a measure to protect the survival of the town.
それまでは、自分たちで作った農作物は、農協を経由して販売しており、自分たちは作るだけで、その先はわからないのが当然のこととされていました。それが自分たちで売るとなれば、リスクも大きく、夫たちは「そんなお金にもならないことはするな」と反対されたそうですが、それを押し切り、あるいは夫に内緒で、直売所まで運び込み、消費者の手に取ってもらい、売られていく様子を見て、今までにない農業の喜びを実感したそうです。Until then, the crops they had grown themselves had been sold via the agricultural cooperative, and it was taken for granted that they only produced the crops themselves, and had no idea what would happen next. Selling them themselves would entail great risks, and her husbands were opposed to the idea, saying, "Don't do something that won't bring in any money." However, she pushed through, or even without her husband's knowledge, and took the crops to the direct sales store, where they were picked up by consumers and sold, and saw them, which gave her a realization of the joy of farming like she had never experienced before.
そんな農家の主婦たちが、次々と新しい商品を開発し、20年経った現在まで脈々と「道の駅」として発展させていました。私も福島県の中山間地で生ま、葉たばこ耕作によって現金収入を得ていた農家で育ちましたので、葉たばこ作りの辛さや、ありがたさをわかっているつもりです。The wives of these farmers have developed new products one after another, and for the past 20 years, the station has continued to develop as a roadside station. I was born in the mountainous area of Fukushima Prefecture and grew up on a farm that earned cash income from tobacco cultivation, so I think I understand the hardships and gratitude of tobacco leaf production.
しかし、現在は日本全国で葉たばこ作は激減しており、その後、葉たばこ作りをしていた農家の人たちが、どのような生活をしているかについては、あまり知るところではありませんでした。However, tobacco leaf cultivation has now drastically decreased across Japan, and not much is known about what kind of lives the farmers who used to grow tobacco leaves are now living.
今回の「カンブリア宮殿」で内子の例（主人に使えるだけの農業から自立し感動できる農業）を知り、とても感動させられました。I was deeply moved by learning about Uchiko's example on this episode of "Cambrian Palace" (from farming that was merely beneficial to her husband to becoming independent and inspiring).
それから、「押し切り」という農機具が、まだ使われているのを見て、すごく懐かしかったです。I was also very nostalgic when I saw that a farm tool called an "oshikiri" was still being used.
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