July Wrap Up

The past week has been a busy one here at SFS. On the 25th, we had a meeting with Eric Tung from Root Capital - a nonprofit social investment fund interested in providing pre-financing for our farmer's cooperative, Rice Fund Surin. Come harvest time every season, Rice Fund searches for adequate funds to pre-finance the purchase of our member's organic rice. If we are able to work things out, Root Capital can provide a significant portion of our working capital at a low interest rate, with guarantees through Rice Fund's purchase contracts. This kind of support is a secure and innovative way to grow the cooperatives business and access more markets abroad.

On Saturday, the 26th, a group of farmers from the Korean Peasant League (KPL) visited the Green Market and then came to Donlengthai village. Their visit was made possible by the networking efforts of La Via Campesina and Thailand's Alternative Agriculture Network (AAN). Farmers Pakphum Impaen and Paw Hoon exchanged with them in Donlengthai about their alternative agricultural techniques, including organic fertilizer methods, and planting green beans along with rice in the paddies. SFS members explained how they plant rice and work with other members of their group on different projects. The Korean farmers stopped planting by hand almost 30 years ago, but are still very interested in organic farming methods and were surprised by the way things were done in the village.

The Pangaea Project also returned to Tabthai village on the 26th, to spend two final days with the villagers. On the 27th, they sat in on an exchange between KPL farmers and Tabthai villagers, as well as gave a final presentation on their experiences with agriculture in Thailand. The students discussed the impacts of chemical farming on a societal level, in the ways that increasing debt or the inability to support oneself on the family farm can lead to working in Bangkok in construction or sweatshops, as well as living in urban slums, or potentially, near landfills.

The presentation was a useful reminder for villagers about the importance of their efforts in organic farming, as well as the implications of the use of chemicals beyond farmer's health or local environmental conservation. Several members of the Tabthai village farmer's group have had to work in Bangkok in the past, due to the increasing cost of chemical inputs and the consistently low farmgate price of rice. Their efforts with SFS and as a Fair Trade certified cooperative have helped end this cycle of debt and labor migration.

Sunday, the 27th, was the Pangaea student's final day in Tabthai village, and it ended with a beautiful celebration between community members and students. Everyone was sad to see the students leave (and some students really wanted to stay longer). It was definitely a great experience for the group!!

The students begin the bai si ceremony, in which strings are tied around their wrists to protect them from any harm as they travel away from the village.

Eric Scott, a director of the Pangaea Project, with Kanya Onsri and her family. P'
Kanya is the leader of the Tabthai village farmers' group and hosted Eric during the group's stay in the village.

Please see the rest of the photos from their experience in the Pangaea album. Students will also be posting blogs about their experiences when they return to the U.S.

Lastly, on Tuesday the 29th, Tristan Lecomte of Alter Eco France, arrived to stay with Donlengthai villagers and meet with the Rice Fund staff about the coming year. We'll be meeting with him tomorrow at the rice mill!

Slow Food Surin

At the Green Market on Saturday the 19th, SFS and the Alternative Agriculture Network (AAN) hosted their own Slow Food seminar about local plant varieties. The event offered a free sampling of over 30 different varieties of pak puan baan or "household vegetables" that you can find growing naturally around the home or in the forest.


Green Market consumers had the chance to learn more about the plants that they often see at the market, but aren't yet familiar with or know of their health benefits. Local herbalist, P' Than, led an engaging discussion and introduction to a number of the varieties:


Reconnecting urban consumers with local foods is an important goal for SFS and the seminar helped the health- and environmentally-conscious in Surin to do just that. Over the following weeks, SFS hopes that consumers will be more aware of the uses and varieties of local plants, and plant them at their homes as well as purchase them at the Green Market. Check out our gallery to see the rest of Surin's local plants.

Pangaea Visit

The Pangaea students arrived in Surin on the 16th and spent two days celebrating Buddhist lent with Tabthai villagers and learning about village life. Students are staying with SFS members that have children in the "Kids Love Nature" club, so they can see what village life is like for someone close to their age. By staying with villagers and exchanging with them about their way of life, as well as how they have created their own organic farming organization, the Pangaea program hopes to teach students about the methods and experiences of community leadership and organization. In turn, when students return home, they can share what they have learned with the Portland, Oregon community and work to become grassroots, youth leaders at home.

On the 17th, students joined up with the subdistrict parade, dancing ram, the Isaan-style of dance, and following the elephants!

Deon dances in front of an elephant with a Buddhist monk from the local temple riding on top

Laurel shares some laughs with one of the parade's most festive dancers

Living in a rural village was certainly a new experience for the students, but the group challenged themselves to be involved with farm work and help around farmers' households. On Sunday, the 20th, they joined the village "Kids Love Nature" club in making organic compost with food waste from the "Trash Smile" project. The American students and village children worked together to mix rice husks, cow and water buffalo manure, and fermented food waste to make more than 350 kilos of organic compost!

Trevor got really into the mix!

After the compost was thoroughly mixed, P' Nok taught everyone how to make Tamarind facial soap. The soap is inexpensive, simple and easy to make. Once the soap was dry in the afternoon, everyone got their own little bar:


To see the rest of the images from the Pangaea visit, check out the Picasa Album

From the 21st to 22nd, the Pangaea students worked on a community project to support SFS' local food initiative. The group will work to track the ingredients of a typical meal and see how locally and sustainably the farmers are eating. They visited members gardens to see where different vegetables come from and taught English classes at the local school that focused on English food words. From the 23rd to 25th, Pangaea will be in Kong Chiam, on the border with Laos, to see where the Chi River and Mekong River meet. They will return on the 25th to finish their community project and present it to the community.

Biodiesel!

As gas prices here in Thailand rise, Surin Farmer Support members are looking to develop alternatives for powering their tractors. Sunday the 13th we were in Tabthai village to give a seminar on making biodiesel. This blog entry will talk about the first two steps in the process. Farmers use recycled cooking oil from their homes and from the Green Market. Below is Paw Heeah, the "village biodiesel advisor," getting the cooking oil ready to start the process:


First, while the cooking oil is being reheated to about 50 degrees Celsius, about a teaspoon of sodium hydroxide is mixed with 200 milliliters of methyl alcohol.

Second, once the cooking oil has cooled, one liter of oil is mixed with the sodium hydoxide/methyl alcohol mixture, and shaken for 30 minutes.

P' Nok explains these steps to the "Kids Love Nature" club and some SFS members:

This is what biodiesel looks like when its ready for use:

After the seminar was over, Paw Heeah took a few of the kids for a ride in his biodiesel-powered truck:

The rest of the process will be explained after our next biodiesel-making session. For now, here are some pictures from Sunday in Tabthai village.

Tomorrow, we'll begin hosting a group of teenage students from Portland, Oregon that are participating in the Pangaea Project, a nine-month leadership development program. They will stay with families in Tabthai village, helping them work in the fields, as well as sitting down with them to exchange their experiences. Thursday and Friday are also important Thai holidays, Hatien and Kao Pan Saa, which mark the beginning of the monk's retreat into the temples, a period also called Buddhist "lent." There's rumor that elephants will be out in Tambon Tamor, as part of the celebrations. I hope that the visit will be a great experience for the visiting Pangaea group.

Local Food Campaign meeting at the Green Market

On Saturday the 12th, SFS held an afternoon meeting with the Green Market vendors to discuss what varieties of pak puan baan or "neighbor vegetables" to bring to the seminar on July 19th.



These plants are unique because they grow naturally in the communities' forests and around their homes. Many of them are considered herbal medicines and have numerous health benefits. For example, sadao or Thai Neem, can aid digestion, treat skin disorders, repel insects and be used as a toothpaste.

lep krut

The plan is to display about 30 different varieties of plants and prepare 9 different food dishes for tasting and sale. Vendors will tell consumers about the uses and benefits of the different plants. Often these plants are sold fresh to consumers, but many people who come to the market aren't yet familiar with their tastes and uses. Next Saturday will be a good opportunity to teach more people about the benefits of these plants!

Surin Farmer Support

Welcome!

Surin Farmer Support (SFS) is a non-governmental organization (NGO) that works to support sustainable agriculture and community development in Surin Province, in the northeast region of Thailand. SFS works with about 400 small-scale rice farmers (10 to 30 rai or 3 to 12 acres) to develop an alternative agricultural system that promotes sustainable livelihoods, community food security and environmental conservation. SFS farmers' groups train farmers in organic methods and help maintain organic standards.

The majority of SFS farmers are also members of Rice Fund Surin, a Fair Trade certified rice cooperative that sells rice domestically in Surin at the Raan Kao Hom (Jasmine Rice Store) and exports to markets in the U.S., Europe, and Asia. One of SFS' biggest initiatives is the Surin Green Market, in which farmers sell directly to consumers every Saturday in Surin City. SFS also works closely with Thailand’s Alternative Agriculture Network (AAN), which coordinates campaigns on agriculture and trade policy reform.

Other projects include:

• Educational campaigns on rice seed varieties and plant diversity to help connect consumers to the farmers' network
• A local food campaign to educate consumers about the environmental and economic benefits of eating local, organic foods
• A community biodiesel project to promote self-sufficiency and recycle cooking oil
  
• The "Smiley Garbage" project, which takes food waste from Surin city and turns it into organic compost for use by SFS members
• A micro-lending service to members to help them pay off mortgages on their land and invest in new land purchases
  
• The "Kids Love Nature" group in Tabthai village, where children meet to learn about their local environment and the farming practices of their parents

We've started this blog to promote our work and provide up-to-date information about SFS projects. As a small organization, our initiatives are consistently in need of funding support. If you are interested in donating to Surin Farmer Support, please contact sfsfarmer@hotmail.com