Tilled Under

Oh, the glory of returning phosphorous to the soil! and classic Thai marching band music!

Enjoy this short one - a reminder not to burn your straw!

A visit to Kudchum

While direct trade is becoming popular among small-scale coffee producers and independent roasters in the U.S., the term is taking on a meaning of it's own here in Northeastern Thailand. It may be the case that direct trade is more beneficial to coffee growers in the Global South, but only time will tell. Fair Trade has already accomplished a lot for small-scale producers' groups and perhaps direct trade is a next step. It would be a shame for direct trade to be something that competes with Fair Trade for socially-responsible consumers, given that both approaches are working towards similar goals. Yet this post isn't meant to be a discussion of direct trade vs. Fair Trade. Fair Trade continues to be the standard for international export with rice farmers' cooperatives here in Isaan, but domestic, direct trade is coming to be seen as a new option for organic farmers.
We recently visited with the Non Yang farmers' group in Kudchum, Yasothon Province, who are now selling their organic rice directly with a network of consumers in Bangkok. The farmers' in Kudchum are also members of a Fair Trade certified cooperative, which exports to European markets. But this new form of direct trade, in which the famers use a small, community-operated rice mill (photo above), package and ship rice directly to urban consumers, may prove to be a valuable way of generating additional income. This approach is like a combination of direct sale and Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), though the consumers' network is facilitated by the Sustainanble Agriculture Foundation in Bangkok, and farmers are currently only selling rice to within the network (vegetables are sold locally at their Green Market, a program similar to ours here in Surin).

As fellow members of the Alternative Agriculture Network (AAN), we support their domestic direct trade efforts. While Rice Fund utilizes the Kao Hom store here in Surin, our network needs to develop a diversity of ways to reach urban consumers. We need to reach people in our local, urban communities through green markets and educational campaigns, as well as consumers in large urban centers like Bangkok. Expanding alternative markets can help prove the viability of sustainable agriculture and fair systems of distribution and consumption.

P Ubon Yuwa (photo above, center, with a Non Yang farmers' group member) said during our visit to Kudchum, "Thai people are like frogs, waiting in the water for their food to come - It doesn't matter what it is. We eat food from far away, we don't know what was sprayed on it or how it was produced. The little fish we like to eat, they all come from Laos." At first thought, a statement like this might make one doubt the future of Thai consumerism, but the growth of alternative systems like domestic, direct trade, organic shops and green markets indicates a new type of consumption. Thai people are increasingly concerned about their health and the way their food was produced - this concern can be tranformed into confidence through continued support for alternatives and efforts by the AAN to continue educating the public about our food system.

Above are some photos from our visit. The Non Yang farmers' group has opened several training centers to teach organic farming techniques, and their fields are models for year-round vegetable production. Though there are about 400 families in the village, only about 20 families practicing sustainable techniques. In turn, the majority of villagers buy cheap vegetables from local markets year-round, though they are otherwise able to produce local varieties vegetables themselves. Older couples remain self-sufficient, but the eating habits of younger kids tend to focus on chinese vegetables bought at the market.

While one might think that buying vegetables at a local market is not such a bad thing, the problem is that these preferred vegetables - like cabbage, different lettuces, and chinese kale - are grown year-round using significant amounts of dangerous pesticides and herbicides (though monocrops grown in season also require spraying). Many of these vegetables are also produced in other regions of the country, or imported from Laos or China. Recent blood testing showed that 70% of villagers had unsafe levels of chemicals in their blood. Yet some villagers maintain, "I'll keep eating delicious food until I die." Cheap, non-local vegetable continue to go fast at the market and trucks and motorcycles continue to deliver them right to villagers' homes.

Beginning next month, SFS will be collaborating with the AAN to support a local food research project in Non Yang village. We plan to work with the community's youth group to make a short, documentary film about local food and village consumption as well as organize a group of villagers to ecducate and exchange about these issues. These efforts will be directed at creating a plan, a food alternative for villagers. The project will certainly be challenging, but as Non Yang's experience with direct trade and urban consumers in Bangkok - and the success of green markets, regionally - we can develop a process to educate farmers about consumption and create change within the community.

CIEE Human Rights Report Release

CIEE and ENGAGE have posted the working draft of the "Voices from the Margin: Surin Organic Agriculture" Human Rights report on to the Wiki page. Please take a look at the report to learn more about the current situation regarding the loss of indigenous rice seed varieties and the environmental health impacts from the spraying of chemical pesticides and herbicides in Tamor Subdistrict. During the Fall 2008 Semester, CIEE Khon Kaen students came to work with villagers on improving an existing report on human rights violations in Surin. Using the ESCR framework, the students completed the reports in about one month and presented them to the National Human Rights Commission with representatives from affected communities throughout Isaan. These reports will be useful tools in the future efforts of communities like SFS farmers here in Surin.

Southern Exchange

Thursday morning brought 40 cold, yet encouragingly excited farmers and researchers from Patalung Province, Southern Thailand to the sala in Donlengthai village. This week has been the coldest all winter and certainly a tough time to come for a group of people used to 80 degree weather all year-round. As members of the Alternative Agriculture Network (AAN), they came to learn and exchange about rice seed-saving and planting techniques with farmers from the Tamor Natural Agriculture Group, who are also AAN members. Over the past two seasons, SFS members in Tamor have gained a lot of experience using SRI techniques in growing rice to preserve specific varieties and expand others for sale.
The first session featured some instruction from P Jansee on SRI basics (using our new whiteboard!). After a coffee break, we moved things outside and into the sunshine, exchanging about each group's experiences with seed-saving and organic certification processes. Providing information for the Patalung farmers' group about organic certification was an important part of the exchange, because when farmers can clearly and confidently explain such a time consuming and involved process to other farmers, knowledge and confidence can move quickly into action. The Patalung farmers' group is already pursuing organic techniques, so the next step is to approach certification.
P' Yae and P' Pakphum (in the above photo) also had a lot of great information and thoughts to share with the group. One thing that P' Yae said really stood out: "saving rice seeds is important because they are community property; they are farmers' property. This issue is about Intellectual Property Rights and creating a base of information and records of our work and knowledge. Companies have a right to Intellectual Property, but owning this information about rice seed varieties can help if companies try to claim it." The threat that agro-industrial seed companies like Monsanto pose to small farmers is a real one. Given a double net income on seeds in the last quarter, Monsanto will continue to look for markets to control and other seed companies will follow in competition. If farmers are unable to protect the genetic diversity they've created in their own fields, who's to say that their fields won't become another extension of the mono-crop (increasingly GM) "free market" of agro-industry? Given this context, it is increasingly important for small-scale farmers' groups like the members of SFS to have the ability to grow and save local varieties of rice seeds. Farmers in the AAN will continue to exchange knowledge and seeds in order to create a strong alternative to the corporate-controlled system that is expanding throughout Thailand.

Kids makin' Art

The end of last week brought on a fun combination of youth and art. Despite the exceptionally cold weather, all the kids were excited about their new projects. Thursday afternoon's Alternative School got the Jalurn Suk School students' creative juices flowing with open sessions to draw their own "views of nature." We just wanted everyone to be free to draw things in their communities that they thought were beautiful or interesting. Our usual time was shared with the interns at the local health clinic, so the students only had 30 minutes to create their masterpieces, but things worked out great and everyone got to learn about important public health issues and hygeine along the way. Here are some shots of our young landscape painters:




Though most of the works featured a few standard elements - rice paddies, coconut and banana trees - I have to say that each finished piece was really beautiful. It was in the details that you could see some of our Alternative School activities were rubbing off - paddies with vegetables growing in them (not just rice!) and fish in the ponds. One piece even focused on the technology you can find in our local environment: tractors, harvesters, and even road-pavers (where the local government budgets are headed, apparently). Thursday made me see that these students are really interpreting and conceiving their villages' ecology. After we showed off the art, the students' got to play the water sharing game that teaches kids about AIDS:

Sunday brought together the Kids Love Nature club in Tabthai village for their first day of shooting their "Local Food Film Project." After heading to Bangkok for the "Youth and Local Food" event and getting together a few times to do our usual club activities, we recently decided we would make a video about local food - the foods that village kids can harvest and plant themselves, in their community - and use it in the SFS local food campaign. I handed over the video camera for the day and let everyone get started. Our first day of filming was in the community forest, hunting birds and picking wild herbs and fruits - here's a clip of their burgeoning film genious:

Everyone is jumping on the tractor to ride over to the resevior, look for more edible plants and hunt some birds. We're hoping to have the video done within the next few months, so we can present it at the next "Youth and Local Food" event and then use it in a local food campaign here in Surin. Between drawing landscapes on Thursday and starting our "Local Food Film Project" started on Sunday, we've been able to help facilitate creative expression that is important for kids. Local schools offer very little in terms of art class, so allowing kids to take charge of these small projects hopefully will help them see how rich their local culture and environment is for creativity.

Surin Green Consumers Club Field-trip

On Sunday, December 28, SFS and the Surin Green Consumers Club hosted the second annual "field-trip" to visit Green Market vendors and SFS members in Tamor sub-district. This event is an example of the kind of relationship we are striving to create between local producers and consumers. By providing several avenues - the Green Market, the Raan Kao Hom organic rice and herbal product shop and our "Smiley Garbage" program - a constituency of supporters, of "Green Consumers," has come together for various events and get-togethers throughout the year. Their annual visit to our members' fields, however, is a special opportunity to get out and see how organic farmers grow their crops, raise livestock and prepare the sweet snacks that so many consumers have come to love. Plus, everyone got to go home with free, pick-your own produce!

The "field-trip" creates new connections between producers and consumers, but also re-affirms existing ones. Urban consumers can feel confident that their food is produced safely and organically - they just come out to the farms! People are increasingly concerned about where their food comes from and how it's produced and we feel that this kind of relationship-building is a kind of certification itself. SFS farmers' food isn't just organic or their rice just Fair Trade, it's also "community food security friendly" and wanting to be eaten by local consumers who care about their health and the livelihoods of producers. This event is a symbol of the small-scale, local food system at work here in Surin. The vendors at the Green Market are transparently producing and directly selling healthy food as part of a movement for food security and fair trade.

Thai Health Promotion Foundation visit

Happy New Year 2552/2009! SFS is now back to work after a little break for the holiday. This post features the visit from the Thai Health Promotion Foundation on December 19th. The Foundation - referred to as ส.ส.ส. in Thai - is one of our biggest supporters, and this was their board of director's first visit to our organization. After a morning meeting that introduced some of our programs in more detail and invited feedback from our visitors, we took our 30 visitors out to Tamor subdistrict to meet with some of our members. The morning also featured our "Farm to Market" video, which got everyone excited about visiting the farms.

The afternoon trip to meet with farmers answered a lot of their questions and was a great opportunity for the farmers themselves to express their ideas and experiences in sustainable agriculture. Lunch in Tabthai featured Kanya Ongsri's organic pork and Tilapia, which everyone enjoyed especially after getting to see her fish ponds and pig pens.

The Foundation's support for the work of NGOs like SFS represents a truly progressive approach to public health. They view sustainable agriculture - which includes organic farming practices, rice seed saving and programs like our "Smiley Garbage" - as deeply connected to the health of Thai citizens. While the Foundation is probably best known for it's anti-smoking campaigns, their support for sustainable agriculture, especially in this part of Thailand, is an important part of their vision. They understand that a small-scale farmers' ability to provide safe, healthy food for his family as well as the local community is an essential part of Thailand's public health infrastructure.

The value of SFS' work is something best understood when you can exchange about it directly with a farmer. Coming to their fields and learning about their techniques, seeing that no chemicals are used and the local ecology is conserved, is an important educational experience, even for the most experienced public health workers or doctors. I think the photos below do justice to everyone's feelings when getting to step into Samrat Thong-iam's fields a few weeks ago.

There is something really beautiful about people coming together around safe, healthy food. Maybe this time has to do with everyone coming together in the fields in which it is grown, or that some of those people are instrumental in generously supporting small organizations to enable more farmers like Samrat Thong-iam to pursue a sustainable livelihood. SFS looks forward to a new year of working together with the Thai Health Promotion Foundation. Together, we'll continue building alternatives for small-scale farmers and urban consumers.