Bringin' home the bacon ... er ... rice.
Most of what I know about farming I learned in Thailand from mountain people, or hilltribes: Lahu, Karen, Palaung, plus one rogue North Carolinian. They grew up doing natural farming out of raw necessity. Even if they wanted to use chemicals, they couldn’t afford them. In the hills, in their day, you learned about nature and how to farm her or you didn’t live. Period.
For my day job, I’m a sustainability consultant. That’s what I’ll call myself until someone suggests something catchier. I’m an independent contractor, employee to no one. I’m a writer, research, teacher, trainer, guide and fixer … and now a farmer. I work in all six countries of the Mekong Region: China, Burma, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. I’m based in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
I’ve worked on environmental and social issues in the Mekong Region for the last ten years. I’m most comfortable working at the grassroots, so language is important. I’m quite fluent and literate in Thai and can get by pretty well in Chinese and Lao. When I get to Burma and dust off my college Burmese, I can do okay there, too. It’s the nature of my work that pulling out a little ice-breaking Shan, Karen or Hokkien Chinese is useful – as long as I’m not asked to actually be able to speak those languages. After a week in Hanoi or Phnom Penh, I can struggle by on the street with Vietnamese and Khmer, and I’d be pleased to have an opportunity to really learn those languages.
While I have no aspirations to be an expert or specialist in anything, I did spend five good years as a part-time researcher at Chiang Mai University. During those years, I honed my interests and experience in the places where ecology and justice intersect, including environmental journalism, grassroots research, watershed management, sustainable tourism and agroecology. I helped found Fair Earth Consulting, Co. Ltd. in 2007.
As a researcher and independent consultant, I’ve worked with several UN agencies and donor funded projects. While it’s nice to use their money for good work, I’ve never had much interest in pursuing a career with any such big organizations. That goes ditto for government, big companies and universities. We can work together with any of them, within reason, but not for them. The best thing about the job has been the people I’ve had a chance to work with and learn from. You’ll have a chance to meet some of them on this website, and hopefully in person. Mostly, I like to work with farmers and people who work with farmers. Because of that, and the languages I’ve learned, and my passion for the land they farm, I can work well in the “field.” The field, in this context, can mean knee deep in mud in the paddy, scrambling up an oak-pine ridge in the mountains, bouncing along in the back of a truck on the worst road in the world, or crouching in a village market haggling over the price of bamboo shoots.
My work has led me to many remote corners of the Mekong Region, aka mainland Southeast Asia. I sailed to the mouth of the Irrawaddy River with Burmese journalists to learn about conservation of mangrove forests and saltwater crocodiles. I traveled up the Nu River into Tibet to learn about dam building in one of Asia’s last great wild rivers. In Laos, I stood near the bank of the Mekong as the land tumbled into the river’s flood, helping villagers to understand why the river was eating their farmland. I dived the coral reefs of southern Vietnam, trekked through the extinct volcano of Mt. Popa in Burma’s Arid Zone, and drank rice whiskey with forest dwellers in rugged mountains of northern Thailand. In Cambodia, we stayed in the homes of Khmer villagers as part of an innovative project turning forest woodcutters into ecotourism operators. In the mountains south of Hue, we interviewed a Vietnamese wildlife poacher-turned-forest ranger who can make more than 50 different bird calls for the amazement of ecotourists. In a corner of Laos bordering both Thailand and Cambodia, I talked with rattan harvesters about their trouble getting decent money for a very hard job.
My experience in the Mekong Region gives me the ability to help a wide range of visitors – journalists, scholars, donors, students, do-gooders of all stripes – to interpret the forests, farms and villages they meet in the region. My writing and project management experience, working with diverse stakeholders, enables me to consult for a wide range of organizations sincere about sustainable development in the Mekong Region. That goes both ways, too: we can connect farmers who need help with people who feel the need to help. Not with charity, but through exchange of food, information, ideas, investment funds and friendship.
We started Fair Earth Farm for many reasons. Among other things, it is a good venue to learn, discuss and practice sustainable food and development. About a half-hour drive from Chiang Mai city, we want the farm to serve as a bridge for people interested in exploring the area. And a bridge for the farmers to get a better deal for their time on the land. A lot of great things are emerging all around us in the world of sustainable food. That’s true in my immediate neighborhood. The people and places for sustainable food around Chiang Mai are many, fascinating and hopeful. But they can be hard to find. We can help.
