The Little Engine Who Could: How a Small Village is Creating Green Jobs

I just got back from visiting another province, Chiang Mai, here in Thailand. I went to observe an organic farming project that my friend Mike worked on and came away very impressed.

Mike's Thai counterpart, Pe Chai, effectively "greened" his community's entire economy by finding a way to make organic farming profitable and then organize all of his neighbors to do it too. As a result, he was able to create a organic farmer's union that represented 83 families and with enough farm product bulk to export their goods directly to Europe and Asia without the help of a middleman, which increased the average family's profits by over 50 percent.

Also, the profits from the organic farming business has increased the tax base of the community. Therefore, more money has also flowed into daycares, school, local health clinics, elderly groups, and other community assistance programs.

Moreover, just about every job in his village is based on organic farming. There are the actual farmers who grow and harvest the corn, rice, peanuts, etc. and then they have a bunch of small food manufacturers that make banana chips, peanut snacks, and other small packaged goods. They also invested in their infrastructure by building a brand new storage facility and rice mill. His village's local economy is booming and he is doing his part to help the environment.

This is an example of the power of using community organizing to create value, and not simply extract something or redistribute the same resources. Pe Chai took a community strength (farming) and applied it in a new way to meet a specific need in the marketplace (organic foodstuffs) to create even more value (essentially grow the pie) for his community to export to the world.

Oh! I have pictures this time too!!


Organic lettuce heads in the field


Pe Chai outside of the banana chip manufacturing
plant.


Mike outside of the new storage facility


The brand new rice mill

The Language Barrier to Trade

I've been working on an eBay business at my school for a couple of months now and I think my school is not as supportive anymore. My students don't seem as engaged and the teachers and staff are too busy with their other responsibilities.

It's becoming clear to me that the reasons for this are two-fold: 1) the English language barrier in dealing with eBay policies, e-commerce, and customers is too much to handle, and 2) the school has their own program to work through, which leaves very little time for any other commitments. Therefore, I'm adjusting my strategy to work with interested students on an individual basis where they can learn at their own pace.

However, my test run with the eBay business at the school does spark larger questions within my mind. I openly wonder, how much does the language barrier contribute to opportunity costs within the real Thai economy? Seeing as though the economy is largely dependent upon exports, this makes me think there are probably some real missed chances at increased earnings for people.