Ael and I come from very different backgrounds. My family was typical of the post-war suburban middle class in North America. My parents were committed to the 9 to 5 job and the pursuit of security and comfort through affluent consumerism. I went to school to prepare me for just such a life.
In contrast, Ael, as a young child, was raised by her grandparents in a fairly remote Isaan (Northeast Thailand) village. In those times, it was never easy for the rural people to earn the money with which they might buy manufactured goods, but that doesn't mean that their lives were impoverished or miserable in any way.
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| Fishing from a home-made traditional boat. |
They had land, favorable natural conditions and, above all, they possessed the knowledge and skills required to provide themselves with nearly everything they really needed, directly from their natural surroundings. A great variety of tasty and nutritious foods could be grown or foraged. People knew how to make most of the basic things that were essential for their lives.
They built their houses from local materials, made boats, carts and implements, wove mats from reeds and produced fabrics from tree cotton or silk. Because they walked or rode bicycles to get around and used water buffalo to cultivate the fields, they had little use for petroleum fuels.
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| Weaving a mat |
I think there was a certain dignity and deep satisfaction in the knowledge and ability it took to thrive in close cooperation with nature this way. Ael has fond memories of those times and she still retains valuable knowledge of this older way of life.
Subsistence farming has a discouraging sound to it, suggesting "meager subsistence", barely surviving, but it really means consuming what we can grow and choosing to grow what we like to consume. It means taking responsible control over how the food we eat is produced.
Subsistence farmers cultivate a wide variety fruits, nuts grains, and green vegetables, as well as raising animals, birds and fish for food. They also grow fiber and wood crops for clothing, housing, utensils and fuel.
Knowledgeable subsistence farmers are deeply motivated to provide their families with goods in sufficient quantity and of best possible quality for nutritional, practical, and aesthetic value. They will produce foods grown organically in rich, living soil, without toxic pesticides or synthetic fertilizers.
Sometimes, when neighbors offer us produce for sale, Ael might ask whether "chemi" (synthetic fertilizers, pesticides/herbicides) have been used to grow it. Typically, the answer is, "No, we don't like to do that. We eat it ourselves!"
Now, while a declaration of this kind may not be strictly true, I think this anecdote reveals an important issue because the other side of the statement is: "if we don't plan to eat it ourselves we are not particularly concerned with possible contamination".
That's the problem. Commercial farmers who dedicate most or all of their land to growing a single cash crop care little about the subtle qualities of their product. They need to produce the largest possible quantity of a particular salable commodity that need only meet market standards. If synthetic fertilizers and chemical pesticides will help maximize their farm output, there are ample ways to justify using them. They tend to produce commodities which they would not like to consume themselves.
It's a serious flaw in the prevailing system because, with the money farmers get from the sale of their crops, they can only buy goods produced under these same commercial conditions and therefor of the same questionable quality.
Farmers here in Thailand who plant their whole land with sugar cane clearly don't plan to feed their families on sugar alone for the coming year. They intend to sell all the cane and use the money earned to buy everything they need to live. An important part of what they need is food, of course, but they will also be able to buy many things that just can't be produced on the land. Nobody, not even the most sagacious gardeners can grow a television set or a cell-phone or a motorcycle directly from the land.
If these manufactured things are truly desirable, obtaining them requires participation in the commercial marketplace. The "specialization and trade" strategy does indeed result in a dazzling abundance of cheap and complex consumer products.
There is immense pressure on Thai people to shift from a diversified subsistence economy to a specialized commercial economy. They have been moving in that direction for a few generations now, but Thai society is still in transition.
Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej is currently the world's longest reigning monarch. He has been far more than just a ceremonial figurehead for the state. He has worked sincerely and very diligently to improve living conditions for the people and he is greatly esteemed.
His "Sufficiency Economy" program is an attempt to show farmers how to participate safely in commercial production while maintaining adequate subsistence resources for independence.
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| Sufficiency Economy Plan |
The plan involves raising diversified horticultural crops and livestock for home consumption while cultivating cash crops on a portion of the land. It also advises large ponds for water conservation and irrigation.
The King's philosophy is meant to help farmers cope with the perils of market fluctuations and unreliable weather conditions.
On our land, Ael and I are taking an approach which is largely consistent with the sufficiency philosophy, but we are fortunate in having no need to raise cash crops so that we can concentrate more on restoring biodiversity and conserving endangered plant species.
