Alongside the usual rice donations was a Slow Food "taste education-style" event, in which groups of villagers prepared local foods with local ingredients and offered samples to everyone in attendance. All together there were 25 different dishes presented! The tasting was also a small contest, in which Bennett was lucky enough to serve as a judge. Everything was delicious, especially the bamboo shoot soups and fermented fish dipping sauces (above, stir-fried snails, fried fish, shrimp paste sauce and various laab, a type of diced meat dish).
Combining the Slow Food event with the local rice seed campaign was a unique approach to attracting other villagers to organic farming and self-sufficiency in local foods, but it was still a hard sell. People expressed interest in the local varieties, but felt that it was too much of a burden to care for them and many asked the inevitable question, "where can I sell this rice?" Much of the interested audience were older villagers, talking about how they used to plant these seeds. These responses mark the significance of northeastern Thailand's agricultural transition - two main varieties are grown for sale at large mills and local varieties are viewed as interesting parts of the region's history. Yet for sustainable farmers, these varieties are seen as an important part of the future, to be preserved and planted for self-sufficiency.
But for those who want to plant local varieties, there needs to be options for sale and an understanding about home consumption as well - this is an important part of alternative agriculture here. One of last month's posts from Kudchum focused on their community rice mill and direct sale program with consumers in Bangkok - this program is an important answer to other villagers' doubts, and will need to be managed by a separate organization within the community, to help make other villagers confident in this alternative. A range of channels must be pursued to reach the market and more organic producers are needed in the community to move forward on earning more income, helping others pay off their debts, and creating a greater fund from direct sale for support in the community. There are currently 12 varieties for sale, which will be managed by a "seed-production group" to expand production to new members and manage information more clearly about production. Below, Paw Taa, a member of the AAN group, plants over 130 varieties. How do we get farmers to make the jump from growing just one or two varieties to maybe 3 or 4?
On Tuesday the 10th, P Ubon and P Supa led Paw Bunsong and Bennett to Mukdahan province and another part of Kudchum district, Yasothon, to meet with some unique farmers who worked with a Japanese organic farming master in central Thailand. First, in Mukdahan, we met with Daeng and Kaoru, a young Thai-Japanese couple who have transformed Daeng's recovered land into a diverse organic farm. Below, Daeng talks about the process of transforming his inherited land (which has been turned into a eucalyptus and sugarcane plantation while possessed by a private bank). In recent years, Daeng and Kaoru have also managed a learning center for Japanese volunteers, and hope to continue supporting exchanges between young NGOs in Thailand and Japan.
After a quick visit to the Indochina Market in Mukdahan, right across the river from Savannakhet, Laos, we headed back to Yasothon to meet with Sombat, a farmer who also participated in the Japanese program. Sombat, in the photo above, has planted a very large garden and is pursuing total self-sufficiency on his small farm. These opportunities were also supported by the Earth Net Foundation, which supports organic producers around Thailand. Meeting with farmers like Daeng and Sombat was inspiring, as their efforts represent what northeastern Thailand's new generation of small-scale farmers are striving to accomplish.
Up until the arrival of ciee students on Feb. 12th, Bennett began working with the Nonyang youth group - the name of which I have yet to translate into English. The group has put together a number of fun drama performances, but is hoping to approach local food in a more interactive and educational way. We'll be doing a "follow the food" research project, to better understand consumption in the village and work towards an exchange this spring that will focus on changing consumption to focus on local, sustainable production and trade. The group will also make a short film about their community and the Yasothon Green Market, which was featured on this blog recently. Below, interviewing a local vendor in Nonyang village and bananas from Loei Province, about 400 km from Yasothon.
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