What can we learn from these coffee and rice farmers?
On a scorching morning in late July, the temperature rose to upwards of 100°F in Northern Thailand. I was there with a tourism group, which escorted me to the glorious, remote hills of the Doi Inthanon district to witness the production of two of my favorite staples: coffee and rice. On today's agenda: learn about the Karen Hill tribe’s sustainability habits and their way of life, and, hopefully, carry some of their habits with me back home to New York. After all, this small, close-knit community has lived in the mountains for generations, surviving — and thriving — only on nature’s resources.
Upon arriving, I was warmly greeted by a middle-aged community member dressed in a colorful woven tunic and long sarong. When he extended his hand to shake mine, I noticed that his hands were muddied, an indication of his early morning in the fields, perhaps harvesting rice or collecting coffee beans.
In this self-sufficient village of about a thousand inhabitants, rice and coffee are planted, tended, harvested, and processed by hand without sophisticated machinery or the knowledge that might come from a formal agricultural education.
Thai farmers cultivate more than 1,000 species of rice that grow in various climates and vary in nutritional value and fibrous makeup. It has long been a staple crop. Rice cookers do not exist here — instead the grains are tightly packed into bamboo leaves and cooked over a log fire for a few minutes before they are ready for consumption (leaves included).
As for coffee, it takes three to four years before the coffee is ready for harvesting. I watched a tribe member roast green beans until blackened, then lay them out to dry under the sun before grinding them to a fine powder to be filtered and then turned into a rich cup of coffee.
Recently, Karen Hill tribe farmers (also known as the Karen people of Doi Inthanon) have been moving into new cash crops, such as soya and garlic (as well as their traditional rice and coffee), which can leave them vulnerable to market fluctuations. The success of their crops is intrinsically linked to the Karen Hill tribe’s deep understanding of their land and soil. For generations, they have employed “functional conservation,” which, my new friend tells me, means coexisting with nature and protecting and taking care of the forests. In other words, the tribe works to adapt to their present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own.
But, as global climate changes impact the quality and temperature of their soils, the Karen Hill tribe is being forced to reevaluate some practices, which in turn has challenged their financial stability as they face difficulties producing products at fair value, according to Eh Paw, Karen Hill Community Organizer and Sustainability Advocate. While the warm, humid climate can be ideal for some crops, increasing drought and flooding can be damaging, even deadly. Heavy rains can wash chemicals into the community’s drinking water, or destroy crops. Drought can mean insufficient drinking water and crops that wither.
“We as the Karen Hill Tribe have been living in the forest since birth for generations within our family,” says Eh Paw. “But now we are facing the issue of global warming and the introduction of products and developments that harm nature. We must not take nature for granted, but instead adapt our production processes of coffee and rice based on climate changes.”
I caught up with Eh Paw a year after first meeting him. Climate changes have led the tribe to adapt and reprioritize their needs. The presence of El Niño, a climate pattern of warming sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern regions of the Pacific Ocean, is causing drought; without moisture, the rice fields cannot produce. When it does eventually rain, the timing is later than prior years, cutting into harvest time of some of the other crops the tribe needs to survive.
Eh Paw shares how the tribe is doing what they can to ensure that there’s enough arable land for the future in the face of high temperatures, severe droughts, and heavy flooding. For instance, he tells me, farmers are not growing rice in the off-season, in order to spare water when possible. And the tribe is collecting rainfall during the rainy season through watersheds, though they know it will take more than a few storms or even a wet season to break the dryer-than-usual conditions they have been experiencing.
“We need to continue producing rice so that we can survive. Our priority right now remains protecting the forest and watersheds so we have continued livelihood,” Eh Paw tells me.
Disconnected from social media platforms and without access to the world outside their communities, the tribe hopes that by communicating with tourists who visit their communities, they can relay how deforestation, pollution, and overfishing in other parts of the world damages local natural systems and directly impacts them.
“We as a society need to change our ways, but we need to understand how nature impacts us and how we impact nature,” Eh Paw says.
In other words, even for those of us who live far from these farmers, it matters how and what we eat and how and who produces food for us. This includes using organic farming practices instead of pesticides and fertilizers, and conserving water so that soil quality and crop yields improve. Eh Paw and his tribe continue to prioritize the quality of their crop, opting to use their original plant seeds instead of genetically modified seeds.
“We believe that GMOs will have a larger impact on the environment and biodiversity. With our original plant seeds, we don’t treat them with chemicals or fertilizers but we use natural compost … We know that the original plant seeds are compatible with the environment, so we don’t want to change the quality of our crop.”
Eh Paw and his tribe also avoid using packaging from non-organic materials and instead opt for recycled cardboard and paper packaging when they have enough crop to sell to the market.
While the Karen people continue to adapt to extreme weather events, there are ways to support them from afar. A coffee lover like me can support local non-profit initiatives like the RainTree Foundation, which empowers Karen Hill tribe farmers and other different hill tribes in Northern Thailand to earn reliable income from their crops. Look for a “Made in Thailand” sticker on product packaging, which makes it possible to trace back the origin of the products. And for those who have a trip to Thailand on their bucket list, add the Doi Inthanon district to your itinerary.
To aid the Karen Hill Tribe, visit Karen Coffee today.
