This block totally confirmed for me that I
want to be a farmer… all I want to do and learn about is food. Food food food!
I just love it! So yes, I was in complete love with everything we did on this
course. Here is a play-by-play of the highlights, but basically what we did was
travel around to different places and learn about methods of sustainable
(economically, socially, and environmentally) agriculture in communities in
Northern Thailand.
1) Pig
Harvest.
We spent a few days at a project site in Northern Thailand that
focuses on education of sustainable food production in the Northern Villages.
There we had a pig harvest where we killed, butchered, cooked and ate a pig
from start to finish. I have a lot more to say about this experience than I
will let on right now, but it was really incredible for many reasons. I think
everyone in my group had a different experience, but I will tell you about
mine.
Before
we began we were asked to think about the moment that we went from thinking
about the pig as an animal to thinking about it as food: it was always food to
me. Even when we visited in beforehand and it was walking around and oinking, I
thought of it as food. I surprised myself with this a little bit because I am a
real pig-lover at heart, but this experience really just confirmed to me that I
think of animals as food, and I believe they exist to be eaten.
Basically
what we did was hit the pig on the head to make it unconscious (one of my
friend, Michael did this), then carried it over to a bamboo mat where my other
friend Kari stabbed the heart and we bled the pig. From there we shaved its
hair, cut it open, removed the intestines and brought the meat up to carve and
cook with. This was a really hard experience for some people, but also very
humbling. Where we all sat around and decompressed at the end of the day,
talking about how it made us feel to see something die, how the pig must have
felt, if we thought the process was humane or not… our Thai instructor
reflected that there was nothing strange to about the day to her, that in
Thailand people kill pigs all the time. (Yeah, they do!) People around the
world kill animals every day, so they can eat. It made me feel a little bit
guilty of our emotions, and really caused me to let
go of all other factors and opinions that stand between me and killing animals.
People do it to stay healthy and feed their families, it’s that simple. But
this is just my personal opinion, I highly respect those who have big hearts
and use them to feel sensitive towards suffering beings.
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Our Pig, after being bled
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2)
Staying with a celebrity in the village of Mae Ta.
Basically, I went to
paradise. Our class went to stay in a village that is almost entirely
self-sustainable after they switched from practicing industrial monocrop
farming to polyculture organic farming. 20 years ago these farmers were in
millions of Baht worth of debt, and my host father one day decided that he
wanted to see if organic farming was more profitable- and it was. I stayed with
the hero of the village! He went around teaching all of his friends how to farm
organically, and started a cooperative and network of community support in the
village. Today around 100 families in this village grow all of their own food
and feel themselves and their neighbors, as well as earning a living from
selling the rest of their food at a market in Chiang Mai. This village radiates
health, happiness and resilience! My host sister Pi Pui is currently
researching how to save seeds from the crops they grow in order to decrease
their reliance on outside organizations even further. I want to say I will live
here someday, or at least live in a place kind of like it… . The hardest part,
though, was thinking about how much harder it is to farm this way in the United
States. For Thai farmers it is less expensive to farm organically because they
don’t have to spend money on fertilizers or pesticides, and the growing season
is year-round.
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Getting ready for the market
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3)
Selling at the market with my family.
After our last night staying the
self-sustainable wonder village that it Mae Ta, we woke up at 3:30 am and
traveled to Chiang Mai to sell with our families at the Organic farmers market.
One of my favorite parts of this day was bonding with my host mom, helping her
take money, and bag produce, and talking to the customers in Thai… it was just
so cozy, I felt so safe and pure standing next to her and helping distribute
such healthy food. We were wrapped in a blanket of cool but humid darkness for
about 2 hours selling from 5-7 am under the lights of the pavilion. There was
just such community there, it really touched my heart. The best part is that we
did a price and quality comparison of the products at the organic market versus
the Thai version of Walmart. And guess what? The organic market products were
on average 1/6th of the price, and almost always came with better
quality and selection. (!!!!!!!) Whaaaaat??? #GoawayUSA
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Selling produce with out Mae, all from the farm <3
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4) Learning
about Agroforestry.
Have you ever heard of it? I hadn’t… but now I have, and
it’s AWESOME. Basically, it means
utilizing a forest for food by growing native plants and trees and harvesting
them with enough time for the supply to replenish itself. It’s taking advantage
of the natural edible biodiversity in Thailand (which is very diverse). We
hiked through 4 villages practicing agroforestry where again, the people are
happy, healthy and resilient! Hiking between the last two villages was my
favorite part- the hills literally rose up around us offering food in the most
beautiful shapes and patterns- we hikes for 3 miles through hills and hills of
food. The first village we went to we took a walk around the community forest
with the village headman, Mr. Bueler. I have never seen such a physically
enthusiastic food man in my life! He was around 70 years old. This man was about food through and through. He
frolicked through the land practically clicking his heels with delight passing
around food for us to sample, and thanking the earth for its bounty. He swung
from vines, threw fruit in the air, and danced about making the sound effects
of the forest. If this isn’t health, I don’t know what is…
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The hills are alive, with the sites of food!
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5)
Snuggling. I’m a little bit shy to admit how much of a highlight this was for
me, but being on a program of 28 people, it can be a balance to both experience Thailand, and also get to know everyone. There are so
many people that I love here and am trying to get to know better, and one of
the things I loved about this course was that we had time together, so we
snuggled, and it was great.
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Wooster snuggle! We had an awesome mosquito net that cradled us to sleep every night.
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Pictures:
