비닐하우스의 두 얼굴: 생계의 터전인가, 방치된 사각지대인가 > K-wave Trends

The recent fire that occurred in Angang-eup, Gyeongju-si, Gyeongbuk clearly revealed the physical vulnerability of greenhouses. The fire instantly engulfed greenhouses and containers, and even struck a nearby melon farm, causing extensive property damage exceeding 40 million won. Fortunately, there were no casualties, but in another fire that occurred in Hoengseong, a first-degree burn accident occurred due to carelessness while using a torch, and the risk of fire in farm facilities has reached a critical point. Green greenhouses are built with combustible materials that are structurally very vulnerable to fire, and because electrical equipment and heating equipment are often inadequately maintained, they have structural limitations that inevitably increase the amount of damage despite the firefighting authorities' efforts to extinguish the fire.

In addition to safety issues, what is holding farmers back is rigid farmland laws and building regulations that do not keep up with reality. As in the case of Gwangju Metropolitan City, the fact that even storage space for agricultural materials essential for farming is stigmatized as an 'illegal facility' and ordered to be demolished clearly shows the gap between the voice of the agricultural field and the law. The space in farm huts is small and insufficient to accommodate agricultural machinery and materials, and the financial burden on small farmers is too great to build formal warehouses. Farmers are simply asking for the minimum convenience for farming, but the administrative authorities are focusing on crackdowns based solely on principles, resulting in a breakdown of farmers' will to settle down.

The shadow of greenhouses does not just end in the economic hardships of farmers, but is also encroaching on the lives of migrant workers who support their labor at the lowest levels of our society. As novelist Kim Sum's work 'Strawberry Theory' illuminates, many migrant workers are consumed only as 'labor force' without being guaranteed humane housing rights in greenhouses. The tragedy of a migrant worker who died in the cold at a farm in Pocheon in the past exposes the horrors of human rights violations that occur when greenhouses are reduced to both workplaces and the poorest accommodations. Although they are an essential entity that makes up for the low birth rate and aging population in Korean society, they are still under the shadow of discrimination due to lack of verbal communication and unfair treatment.

Vinyl greenhouses can become warehouses that imprison not only living people but also traces of our history. It is shocking that the precious prehistoric artifacts excavated from the Legoland site in Chuncheon have been left under a black tent in a greenhouse rather than a museum for nearly 10 years. Due to financial difficulties in the development project, the creation of the promised heritage park has been postponed indefinitely, and the precious relics are at risk of being damaged in an empty lot overgrown with weeds. This proves that greenhouses have gone beyond their original agricultural purpose and have become a symbolic place that shows how our society ignores and neglects historical values.

Like this, greenhouses have multi-layered problems such as the physical risk of fire, the realistic barriers of administrative regulations, the alienation of human rights of migrant workers, and the neglect of historical value. Expanding firefighting infrastructure for fire prevention is an urgent task, but policy flexibility is needed to understand the poor farming environment that farmers face, rather than simply forcing facility improvements. In addition, the improvement of social awareness of treating migrant workers as equal persons rather than machines must go hand in hand with the responsible administration of local governments to move neglected relics into intact museums. Green houses must now go beyond simple production facilities in rural areas and become a measure of welfare, human rights, and cultural responsibility that our society should pursue.