Movement 102

trade
Eo wHAT oro I nlo BEHtltD mE
label? That there is never a black
and white answer. Partly because
Thai farms are incredibly complicated;
what with bartering, subsistence
consumption of food, employment outside
of the farm, and the gathering of resources
from forests around the village (even if they
are part of a National Park). When I
incorporated all these sources of income,
Rural farmers and artisans
undervatue their labour
costs. This attitude is a
resutt of the traditional
Thai tife that focuses on
famity, giving and kindness.
the alternative agriculture and fair trade
farmers were, on average, economically the
best off on a farm basis (although they
relied heavily on off-farm income), but not
on an area basis, due to their larger farms.
This finding made me wonder if the growing
population and increasing land hunger in
Thailand will result in farms too small to
allow alternative agriculture to be
economically viable.
Although the economic comparisons
were not completely conclusive, the social
comparisons were much more so. With
educational, health and safety benefits for
farmers practicing alternative methods, and
receiving support from fair trade groups.
Conversely, the conventional farmers said
that the artificial agricultural chemicals they
used led to anger, bad moods and worry. My
own observations led me to conclude that
many farmers didn't know how to use these
chemicals safely, as some containers didn't
have any instructions to folloq and even if
they did, they weren't always followed.
Environmental benef its also stemmed
from alternative agriculture and fair trade.
These included more integrated farming,
more wildlife, and the use of less chemicals,
and more alternatives (which included
sticky, yellow plastic bags, traditional and
modern herbal concoctions and other
ingenious approaches - although I did
wonder about the likely success of some of
them). I had to assume that these
alternatives were more
environmentally friendly
than artificial chemicals,
although I could find no
literature to back this
assumption. The photo
behind the headline
shows an example of
less integrated conventional
farming-amonocrop
of strawberries. The
comparison between this
and the diversity of crops
on alternative plots was
obvious.
Although benefits stem from fair trade
and alternative agriculture, I found a
number of worrying problems that need to
be addressed. These included dependency
resulting from outside financial support.
One example of outside support is shown in
the photo below where an alternative
agriculture and fair trade stall is located in a
Buddhist temple grounds. Although the
products sold were supposed to be fairly
traded, the woman pictured insisted on
giving me some wild mushrooms. ln her
opinion, they had been picked from the
forest, and had therefore not really cost
anything. (The Thais I were with insisted that
to be polite I should accept the mushrooms
free of charge). This was an attitude that I
found to be common amongst poor, rural
farmers and artisans, as they not only
undervalue their labour costs, but also the
costs they incur in the process of taking
their produce to market. ln some ways this
attitude is a result of the rural, traditional
v A Thai mushroom se//er she felt the wild mushrooms had cost her nothing.
Thai life that focuses on family, giving,
kindness and many other attributes that I
found so appealing. Unfortunately the
current international trading and business
system does everything to destroy this way
of life and the people involved in it, and
nothing to support such communities and
attitudes - not only is this true in Thailand,
sadly it is an international trend. ln the
research sites this trend is also combined
with the changes associated with rapid
modernisation. As farmers are increasingly
bombarded with advertising for consumer
products, their patterns of demand and
consumption change. ln orderto be able to
fulfil their increasing demands, and the
increasing costs associated with the
collapse of the Thai economy in 1997,
farmers require higher levels of cash
income. The temptations, and often
necessity, of high short-term incomes from
conventional farming remain, even though
risks are high, and rewards very uncertain.
Nevertheless, my time in Thailand leads
me to conclude that alternative agriculture
and fair trade provides the farmers studied
with an opportunity to improve their lives.
And although I now understand the
complexities surroundi ng these approaches,
I continue to buy fair trade and alternative
agriculture products, in the hope and belief,
that they will be helping small-scale
producers in some way. And that my
purchase will be a very small part of the
growing movement, and demand for
changes, to overcome the current
inequalities in the international trading
conditions. /k
Miriam Renner is a graduate of Newcastle
University. She is currently involved in
researching and writing a report on climatic
change and the associated socio-economic
impacts affecting Canadian forests.
{ For an academic version of this research
see lipsey.re.ualberta.ca and sp-9&06.pdf.
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