Sustainable Study Trip Pictures

Here is a link to my pictures from my Sustainable Study Trip ( The order is all out of wack, so start from the end and work up, sorry):
Pictures

February 27, 2008

Recently, I went on a Sustainable Study Tour to Issan ( The North East of Thailand) with a local farm ( Pun Pun Farm). Although this sounds quite cliche it was quite a life-changing and eye-opening experience. In so far, my view of agriculture has been quite market based, looking more at ways in which farmers can increase their income, which in turn we believe increases their individual welfare. After going on the Sustainable study tour, I'm not certain anymore whether focusing only on ways to bring farmers more money does in fact increase their well-being. On my trip, we focused on self-sustaining communities and individuals and the process in which they have been able to achieve this type of personal sustainability and in turn a greater well-being. Before I continue, let me give insight into what exactly the tour was and the history of Issan.

Pun Pun farm is located about an hour away from Chiang Mai, nestled against a National Park. The farm was started by a couple ( a thai man -Jo- and a american women -Peggy-). Jo grew up in Issan and had seen the effects of the Green Revolution on his family and himself. On a trip to the US, Jo found out about earthen building and brought it back to his family farm. At first people were taken a back by his techniques and didn't believe that his buildings would stay standing, but they did. Word got out about what Jo was doing and he then spent a fair amount of time touring around Thailand teaching earthen building techniques. Jo and Peggy started their farm, first as a place they could live subsistently and secondly as a place of education (focusing on earthen building, sustainable living and seed saving). On the Sustainable Study Trip, we visited an organic Fair-trade rice coop owned and started by farmers, a handful of Asok communities (subsistence communities based on Buddhist principles) and individual subsistence farm. Almost all of the places we visited had in some way incorporated earthen building (ie adobe, straw bale, waddle and dob). Almost all of the people we talked to, had once been part of the conventional agriculture network but at some point had reached a point where they could no longer depend on that systems to sustain them.

Issan, is by far one of the most inhospitable places in Thailand. The soil is very sandy, the weather is extremely arid and dry, availability of water is low and unpredictable therefore allowing only one season of rice growing (which in turn has made the people notoriously poor). All in all, Issan is a quite an inhospitable place for agriculture. When the green revolution came to Thailand ( about 50 years ago), it boosted production in Issan but quickly the effects of the chemical inputs were apparent. What that means, is that the Green Revolution Technology (ie conventional agriculture methods) was entirely unsustainable. Many farmers were in severe debt, some were suffering from illnesses which were products of chemical exposure, many were more or less starving and caught in a system of agriculture that pulled them into a downward spiral. The communities that we looked at, were a product of farmers and communities hitting rock bottom and remembering that although when they were children, they were poor, they were not starving and they were not drowning in debt. The organic and sustainable movement in Issan began out of those realizations of farmers, in many cases they banded together to create organic markets or individuals decided to live subsistently in order to escape the system that was only bringing them down. I felt empowered listening to the farmers we visited, hearing their stories and in many ways re-writing my view of how I believe we should be living our lives.

There is an underlying concept in this world that the only good life is that which mirrors the western world, that of consumption and monetary wealth. I have grown up in a very alternative thinking family but before this trip I didn't realize how stuck I was in believing that my happiness was rooted in the products of the western world and how unself-reliant my life is. It was almost as though a light went on in my head and I realized that so much fear in my life is derived from my inability to sustain myself and my lack of certainty that i will be able to create the comfortable life I have come so accustom to. I'm not really sure what my new found understanding means or how I will in fact incorporate into my life ( or for that matter if I have successfully communicated to you all about what is going on in my head) but I ask those reading this blog to take a moment and think about your own life and maybe only for one second question your own reliance on the western way and what it might take to make your own life or the lives that sustain you, more sustainable.

February 9, 2008

Yesterday, I came back to Chiang Mai after a four day trip with my parents to Siem Riep and Ankor National Park. To say the least, it was a very educational and breath-taking trip. Before leaving for Siem Riep, I knew very little about the Khmer Rouge and the history of Cambodia. Now after spending a little time there, learning about the history and seeing the current condition of the people living in Siem Riep, I am frustrated that there is such little education in the US on this topic. I will try to paint a little picture of what Siem Riep is like, to give you all a little understanding of why I feel this way.

Siem Riep is about 150 km from the Thai border, yet it is in a state that is completely the polar opposite of what I have experienced here is Thailand so far. First off, the stretch of road from the airport that leads in the city of Siem Riep is covered in fancy, beautiful, luxurious hotel complexes but mixed between these complexes is poverty. The city of Siem Riep is a place of contradictions just as the road from the airport is. Because of the large flow of tourism, the city itself (or at least the area I was in) was quite beautiful. Ankor National park is a 15 minute drive from the city and it was obvious that the tourist industry did all that it could to pick foreigners up at the airport, drive them to their beautiful havens, take them to see the ruins without ever having the see the actual city of Siem Riep or the people that live in or around it. Tourism in a city like Siem Riep is both a blessing and a curse, foreign money is being brought into the country but at what cost to the people who live there and to whose hands is the money flowing into? The US dollar is the main source of currency in the tourist industry because the Cambodian riel is worth very little (4,000 riel to 1 dollar). Later we also learned that most of the fancy hotels have been built by foreign companies and besides the jobs that they create and the small tax they pay to the government none of the money made in these hotels is seen by the Cambodian people. Things are also complicated by the fact that the Cambodian government is quite corrupt (some members of the Khmer Rouge still hold political office) and provide very little assistance to the people. It is also necessary to keep in mind that it has only been 10 years since the fighting ended and that Cambodia is only starting to find its footing. To say the least, this is a very complicated situation.

My parents and I stayed in a guest house in the old city owned by Ponheary and her brother Dara, both of whom lived through the Khmer rouge and afterward because they were able to speak English, were able to get a foot into the new tourist industry. Dara ended up being our guide for our tours to Ankor National Park and he was definitely an invaluable source of history and information both about Ankor National Park and the Khmer Rouge. We spent 3 days going around the park looking and exploring through gorgeous ruins, to name a few the infamous Ankor wat, Ankor Thom, the royal temple, Terrace of Elephants, etc...... Ankor National Park is definitely one of those places that one should see before they die. Although the national park was breath taking, it was also heart breaking because outside of every temple there were children and adults hassling you to buy little trinkets, post cards and guide books and they would literally follow you until you walked inside the temple and if you bought something then they would all flock to you. I’m not really sure why but it made me really uncomfortable and somewhat frustrated (at whom I’m not sure).

On a lighter note, Ponheary with the help of a foreigner started a foundation a few years ago, that supply, as of now, 5 schools with uniforms, supplies, and at least one meal a day every other month for every student and extra money for the teachers. The foundation has also raised money to replace school houses which were initially funded by the government and are now in desperate need of repair. On our last day in Siem Riep, we visited one of the schools and for me it was a very powerful experience because after 3 days of seeing a lot of people in need and feeling quite helpless to help them, it was uplifting to witness change and to see that there were people trying to change the situation of the people in Siem Riep and that there was a direct way that I could contribute.

On Wednesday, my parents and I flew back to Bangkok, and I felt oddly relieved to be back in Thailand.

Here are the links for some of my pictures:

Link 1

Link 2