The Germans are lucky! Because of Europe’s rules about agriculture, pesticides, and imports, many Thai farmers or food producers who use organic methods are able to export products there. Organic farming is still not too common in Thailand, but those who do it are able to make a nice little profit.
When we lived with our host family in central Thailand, with our developing Thai language skills we were able to discover over a number of weeks that they participate in the export economy. Our host father owns 23 fields of baby corn, grown organically. Every day, truckloads of corn are harvested and brought in a pickup truck to the front of the house. Workers from the surrounding houses come to peel the corn by hand, earning a wage of 2 baht per kilo of peeled corn.
After the corn is peeled, our host parents sort it into three categories: beautiful, less beautful, and not beautiful. Kun Por drives the beautiful corn up the road to the packing plant every evening. The less beautiful corn is sold in Bangkok markets. The not beautiful corn is eaten at home.
We visited the packing plant several times, which was fun. We got to see all the different organic vegetables grown in the area, including asparagus, okra, and chilies. We also watched as the workers used special hand machines to wrap the properly arranged corn in plastic. We were told that the final product is shipped primarily to Japan and Germany.
Last week, we had three trainees from the newest group of Peace Corps Thailand volunteers come to stay with us for a couple of days, to see what the life of "real volunteers" is like. We took them to visit some local income generation projects north of our town, including the dried banana operation that we saw last November. The bananas had been temporarily displaced by huge piles of drying ginger, which smelled absolutely fantastic. The ginger is grown organically in another northern province, then purchased in bulk and brought here. The ladies in the photo are washing every piece by hand before it is sliced and laid out to dry in the sun. Our guide told us that, indeed, it will be shipped to Germany! I say again, those Germans are lucky!
When we lived with our host family in central Thailand, with our developing Thai language skills we were able to discover over a number of weeks that they participate in the export economy. Our host father owns 23 fields of baby corn, grown organically. Every day, truckloads of corn are harvested and brought in a pickup truck to the front of the house. Workers from the surrounding houses come to peel the corn by hand, earning a wage of 2 baht per kilo of peeled corn.
After the corn is peeled, our host parents sort it into three categories: beautiful, less beautful, and not beautiful. Kun Por drives the beautiful corn up the road to the packing plant every evening. The less beautiful corn is sold in Bangkok markets. The not beautiful corn is eaten at home.
We visited the packing plant several times, which was fun. We got to see all the different organic vegetables grown in the area, including asparagus, okra, and chilies. We also watched as the workers used special hand machines to wrap the properly arranged corn in plastic. We were told that the final product is shipped primarily to Japan and Germany.
Last week, we had three trainees from the newest group of Peace Corps Thailand volunteers come to stay with us for a couple of days, to see what the life of "real volunteers" is like. We took them to visit some local income generation projects north of our town, including the dried banana operation that we saw last November. The bananas had been temporarily displaced by huge piles of drying ginger, which smelled absolutely fantastic. The ginger is grown organically in another northern province, then purchased in bulk and brought here. The ladies in the photo are washing every piece by hand before it is sliced and laid out to dry in the sun. Our guide told us that, indeed, it will be shipped to Germany! I say again, those Germans are lucky!
4 comments:
re the ginger washers all bundled up because it's cold, or because they're trying not to get too gingery?
Oops. That was supposed to begin, "Are the..."
It was actually quite hot that day. The workers are bundled up to protect their skin from the sun. Thai people hate having dark skin!
Because central Thailand is heavily irrigated, our host family is able to plant and harvest corn year-round. There are 23 fields owned by our host father, so there's plenty of area to cover. The corn is picked by hand, so it's a slow process.
Very cool. I knew your host family was a farming family, but I don't think I realised that they were organic farmers! Neat neat neat!
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