Asian Agriculture Fellowship

Final Report

2008-10-24T11:14:00.001-05:00

Eisenhower Fellowships Program Report
Hope Pugh Pjesky
2008 Eisenhower Agriculture Fellow to Japan, Malaysia and Thailand

A Journey Through Asian Agriculture
Looking At Food Safety, Defense and Traceability
And International Agricultural Trade Policy

I feel honored and blessed to have been chosen as the 2008 Eisenhower Agriculture Fellow. My fellowship was a life changing experience that will influence my views about agriculture policy for the rest of my life. I hope to share what I have learned with as many people as possible. I also feel very lucky to have been the first Agriculture Fellow to visit Asia and the first USA fellow to visit Japan. People in Asia seem to be closer to their food than in many other parts of the world. Getting out into the country and seeing actual production was a priority for me. I had a wonderful experience and got to see and experience many different kinds of farms during my fellowship. My topics of study were Food Safety, Defense and Traceability and International Agricultural Trade Policy (and how these two things interact). Because I was the first Agriculture Fellow to visit Asia, I wanted to get a good, overall impression of agriculture in these countries in addition to studying my individual topics. I also needed to develop an understanding of the people and culture in each country in order to understand their views on these issues. I learned a great deal during my short time in these countries but there is so much more to be explored. This report will outline some of the impressions I have following my travel.

Many Similarities

Obviously there are many things about Asian agriculture that are very different from agriculture in the United States, but there are also many similarities. In fact, I suspect that you would find many of these similarities all over the world to differing degrees. The first one is the rising age of farmers. As I am sure you’re aware the average age of American farmers continues to rise with each census. Sixty percent of Japanese farmers are over 65 years of age. It wasn’t until my last couple of days in Japan that I finally visited some farms that had a younger generation involved with the operation. Malaysia has the same problem; most of the individual farmers in Malaysia are quite old. However, with the boom in the palm oil business there is a new wave of young people studying majors that will allow them to work for one of the large palm oil companies in either the production or processing of the oil. Thailand has the youngest farmers of the countries that I visited, but I am told that many of them are relatively new immigrants from the surrounding countries. Many long term Thai residents have moved away from the farms in favor of the cities.

Another common theme is the lack of an available labor force. Many people might think that there would be plenty of people willing to do farm labor in Southeast Asia, but in each country I heard about the difficulties that they were facing in finding enough labor to work on farms and in processing. In Japan, there were some temporary laborers from China and South Korea. In Malaysia and Thailand, many of their workers were from Indonesia, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Nepal. In many cases I was told that labor was the limiting factor in expansion.

Rising input costs, especially when it comes to fuel and fertilizer, is another universal concern. The huge increase in energy costs that we have seen over the last few years has had an enormous impact on agriculture. We are having the same issues here in the United States, but can you imagine having to import almost all of your animal feed including hay. Not only is the price of feed increasing rapidly but the freight costs to ship it great distances from North America, South America or Australia are also increasing with the price of fuel.

In each country I also saw a recent movement toward building an agritourism industry, value added/direct marketing businesses and regional brands promoting local foods. These are trends that I have also observed in Oklahoma in recent years and I believe that this is happening around the world. In a time where most of agriculture is getting bigger by necessity, these activities are an opportunity for small farmers and ranchers to prosper while staying small if they are willing to do the extra work. This niche marketing has been very successful for many people and I hope it will help the people I met in this part of the world have a successful future.

The last similarity that I will mention is urban encroachment. Farmers all over the world are having the same problems with urban dwellers moving to the country and building a house next to their farm which has in many cases been there for several generations. This would be fine if the new neighbors didn’t then expect the farmers to do things differently because it smells or there is too much dust. In the worst cases these new neighbors try to shut the farm down completely. Private property rights are in jeopardy everywhere.

Food Safety, Defense and Traceability

One of the things I was interested to learn in Japan was what drives the apparent hypersensitivity relating to Food Safety and Traceability. Do consumers really want all of the detailed traceability information that we are told they demand? How many of them actually access this information through their mobile phones or the internet? The answer is almost none. As far as I could tell there is no hard data on the number of consumers accessing this information but every food company representative I asked admitted that they think almost no one looks at the traceability information.

The hypersensitivity relating to Food Safety and Traceability is driven by the political parties and the news media. Just as we have seen in South Korea in recent months, food and agriculture are used as political tools in Japan. The opposition political party in Japan knows that accusing the current government of not being vigilant enough about protecting the safety of the food supply will get a lot of press coverage and further their political cause. Also the news media in Japan reports on some issue relating to food safety every day. Everyone cares about food so it sells newspapers and airtime. The demand for traceability from Japanese retailers is an attempt to reassure the consumers that the food is safe.

The belief is that farmers should want the consumer to know that they produced the food, if it is a high quality, safe product. Of course what consumers don’t understand is that implementing a complete, farm-to-fork traceability system is very expensive and time consuming. This would be acceptable if the retailers and consumers were willing to pay more for products with traceability but when I asked if they were, I usually heard laughter. Many of the companies that I spoke to whose products are exported to the Japanese market have decided that it is worth incurring this additional cost for access to the market. Implementing and maintaining traceability systems for some commodities that spend their entire life cycle on one farm (ex. Vegetables) is relatively easy compared to commodities that pass through several farms during their life cycle (ex. Beef) or are comingled for storage (ex. Grain). As the retailers push for complete traceability becomes stronger in the future each industry and exporting company will have to decide if access to the Japanese market is worth the extra cost associated with traceability.

To be fair to the Japanese, they do have some legitimate reasons to be more sensitive about food safety. Their government hasn’t always handled food borne illness outbreaks in an efficient and timely manner and in some cases, may have been dishonest with consumers. Also, there have been instances of Japanese food processors substituting ingredients and producing and distributing fraudulent products. Food safety has become an emotional and ethnocentric issue for the Japanese. After the recent incident with poison Chinese dumplings some consumers turned against all imported food, not just imports from China. When it comes to making policy decisions even government scientists quote opinion polls to justify their decisions instead of sound science.

I heard a great deal about Good Agricultural Practices (GAP), Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP), Good Distribution Practices (GDP), Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) and International Organization for Standardization (ISO) Standards in all three countries. In Malaysia and Thailand most of the focus was on the export market, their domestic consumers and retailers aren’t demanding this information yet. Of the above acronyms I was most interested in GAP. Many of the exporters that I talked to in Malaysia and Thailand spoke of the costs and challenges of meeting EUREPGAP standards so they can export to EU countries. There are several variations on GAP now, which include EUREPGAP, Global GAP and Japan GAP.

AEON, Japan’s largest retailer, has instituted its own version of GAP. AEON GAP has thirteen control points including, Worker Management, Varieties, Seeds and Rootstocks, Irrigation Water Management, Site Management, Soil and Substrate Management, Fertilizer Management, Pests and Disease Management, Cultivation Management, Post Harvest Treatment, Environmental Concerns, Protection and Management of Workers, Record Keeping and Traceability and Reflect on Consumer’s Voice. As you can see, they want to have control of every facet of producing the food and all the details must be reported to them to ensure that their standards are met. There are also regular inspections by AEON staff that must be passed in order to sell any food product to the retailer. They have their own traceability system called “Green Eye” that consumers can use to access all of this information. In many cases the standards don’t seem to make much sense. I was told by one vegetable importer that the pesticide standards only deal with how many times you spray not how much you spray each time. Anybody who farms knows that this doesn’t make sense and could cause mismanagement in order to meet the standards. The pesticide standards are also somewhat ironic because I was told that Japanese farmers use seven times the amount of chemicals per land area as anywhere else in the world. We all want safe food but it amazes me how many levels of arbitrary regulations must be met that have no real impact on the quality and safety of the food.

Because Malaysia’s population is over half Muslim almost all of the food that is sold there must meet Halal standards. The focus of the traceability industry in Malaysia is Halal traceability. I met with the Halal Development Corporation. Their mission is to make Malaysia the worldwide leader in Halal products. Many American companies have been frustrated by the lack of uniformity regarding Halal standards in different countries. In order to dedicate a line in a beef slaughter plant to Halal production for example the resulting product would need to be shipped to several countries but right now every country seems to have different rules regarding Halal. At my last meeting in Malaysia, which was with a traceability company, I was told that there is a movement to establish an internationally recognized Halal standard. If this happens I think there will be opportunities for American beef in this growing market.

International Agricultural Trade Policy

Let me start by saying I began this trip in favor of more open trade policy and my experiences only strengthened those beliefs. In Japan I only met one farmer, a Kobe beef producer, who said he was in favor of free trade. I was very excited to hear him say “We should all compete.” He thinks people in the U.S. want Kobe beef and the Japanese want American beef and I agree completely. Otherwise all of the Japanese producers I spoke to thought that they couldn’t compete with less expensive imports. I am not sure that this is true because many Japanese consumers want domestic products and seem to be willing to pay more for them. Japan might be the only place in the world where consumers are willing to pay more for domestic food but I think it could work for their producers. I heard a lot of “Free trade is ideal” which was always followed by the word “but.” The “but” usually involved the need to protect the rice and dairy industries. One Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries official did tell me that even though agriculture doesn’t want a Free Trade Agreement with the United States many other industries do and therefore the government does. He thinks a FTA could be negotiated in as little as ten years. This would be a tough battle on the agriculture side with the Japanese intent on protecting rice and dairy but he did mention that they knew pork and beef were important commodities to us and there could be some progress on those commodities. It will be interesting to see if his prediction comes true.

In Malaysia they know that they have to trade to survive. It depends on which commodity they produce whether farmers are in favor of free trade. The poultry industry is opposed because of their high cost of production due to the need to import feed. I am not sure that they would have many problems if trade were opened up because most Malaysian consumers prefer fresh, never frozen poultry which only the domestic producers could supply effectively. Most other industries I visited were in favor of an FTA, including palm oil, fruit and tea. In Thailand, which is the only net exporting country I visited, the situation was much the same with poultry being against an FTA and most other industries being in favor. But the power of the large poultry companies in Thailand should not be underestimated. In both countries the negotiations on free trade agreements with the U.S. have been stalled for some time now. The governments in both countries seem to be generally in favor of reaching an agreement. Many cultural obstacles and issues that have nothing to do with food and agriculture are standing in the way. The fact that President Bush doesn’t have Trade Promotion Authority right now also presents another roadblock in negotiating a FTA with any country.

The Food Crisis

Food Security wasn’t supposed to be one of my topics but sometimes current events take over. I was told that I was in Asia at a critical and historic time for food and agriculture policy. The first thing I heard when I got to Japan was “We are only 39% self sufficient in food production.” No matter whom I talked to, whether they were involved with food and agriculture or not, they had a lot of anxiety about Japan only producing 39% of the food its people need. Apparently most people were just realizing that the self sufficiency rate is so low and the poison Chinese dumpling incident really has consumers on edge. Realistically, Japan could never produce all of the food needed to feed its population. There is very little land available and many, many people. Japanese consumers need to realize that other people can and do produce high quality, safe food. When I met with U.S. Ambassador Schieffer, he told me that he had recently given a speech encouraging Japan to look to other democratic nations like the U.S., Canada and Australia to supply the food that Japanese farmers can’t produce. I couldn’t agree more.

The sad part of the self sufficiency problem is that the Japanese government’s farm policy has caused part of the problem. Many years ago Japanese farmers would drain their rice paddies after harvesting their rice crop and plant either wheat or soybeans. When the rice subsidies were raised to their current high levels most farmers felt it was no longer necessary to double crop and this production was lost. This is particularly disturbing because the Japanese are perhaps most worried about the fact that they produce almost no soybeans which are the main ingredient in most of their favorite foods. Another contributor to the self sufficiency problem is the Japanese distrust of modern production methods such as genetically modified organisms and hormones. I asked the question several times “Will Japanese consumers and retailers start to accept modern production methods in order to help increase domestic production and decrease food prices?” The answer that I usually got was “We don’t know.” On the day that I left Japan, one brave Japanese company decided to find out by buying GMO corn to make starch that will be sold in Japan. It remains to be seen what the response will be from consumers but if they buy the starch this could be a breakthrough for GMO products in Japan.

The first morning I was in Malaysia the headline on the newspaper that was delivered to my room was “Facing the Food Crisis.” Obviously the food security theme had followed me when I moved countries. I read the paper on the way to my first meeting and on one page there was an article about the eleven commodities that currently have government imposed ceiling prices in Malaysia and the possibility of adding more items to the list. On the next page another article talked about the need to encourage more domestic food production. My instinct told me that these two things seemed counterintuitive. That idea was confirmed during my first meeting of the day which was about the Malaysian poultry industry. I was told that the ceiling price that the government has set for fresh or frozen raw chicken is below the current cost of production. Again government policies seem to be contributing to the self sufficiency problem. Malaysia’s self sufficiency rate is 72% which is better than Japan but could use improvement. In light of the recent election where the majority party that has been in power for Malaysia’s entire history as a nation lost control of five states, I understand them wanting to keep the consumers/voters happy. Keeping food prices low is one way to do that but it is completely counterproductive to increasing domestic food production.

Food vs. Fuel

Another current event that found its way into my fellowship was the food vs. fuel debate. This was an especially hot topic in Malaysia but it was also being discussed in Thailand. The governments in both countries were discussing establishing zones dedicated to the production of food products exclusively and other zones for energy crops. One flaw I see in this theory is all of the crops that are now considered energy crops were once food crops, such as oil palm, sugar cane and most recently cassava and they are still used for food in addition to energy production. Another flaw is, from a purely economic standpoint, it makes much more sense to produce these high value crops and buy the less expense food that can be produced more efficiently in other countries. After all oil palm can only be produced efficiently seven degrees on either side of the equator. My last argument against food production zones is that land owners should be able to produce whatever they think will work best on their land and the government shouldn’t be able to tell them differently.

I know that there has been a lot of negative publicity regarding palm oil production from environmental groups and believe me I think it would be awful to lose the natural beauty and wildlife that exists in this part of the world. The governments in these countries should be sensitive to allowing any publicly owned native forest to be destroyed but private land owners should be able to use their land as they see fit. The ability to plant crops like palm oil and rubber is a tremendous opportunity for them to make a better life for themselves and their families. From what I have seen palm oil is a highly sustainable crop with a long productive life span and all parts of the plant are used or recycled in some way. There is no waste. It is also much more efficient than most other oil crops and has one of the best conversion properties for producing biofuel. However, I was told that there is such a demand for food grade palm oil right now that not much is being used in biodiesel. Premium quality palm oil only has 1.2% fatty acid content and produces very crispy fried foods making it preferable to hydrogenated vegetable oils.

Making Small Farmers Lives Better

As I mentioned above, the ability of small farmers in Malaysia and southern Thailand to plant oil palm and rubber, which are very valuable commodities right now and will continue to be as long as petroleum prices are high, is giving them an opportunity to have a better life. Another way for small farmers in these countries to have a better life is to have a way to sell their products on the international market. In Malaysia I met with the Malaysian Agrifood Corporation. Their mission is to drive Malaysia’s food supply chain management and distribution system towards global standards in safety, quality and sustainability. They are also interested in how to empower small food producers to have the ability to band together and produce for the export market. They asked me a lot of questions about how farmers’ cooperatives work in the U.S. and I told them that I think that a co-op might be a good option to try with their small producers.

In Thailand, I visited the Royal Project Development Center at Inthanon and the Inthanon Royal Research Station. This is one of the 36 Royal Project sites. The Royal Project began in 1969 when the King visited this area and observed how the hill tribe people were living. They were producing Opium Poppy and not making much money. The King set forth a vision of a new life for the hill tribes that included a better lifestyle and didn’t include opium production. Today there is no opium production in Thailand, instead the hill tribe people produce over 350 different fruit, vegetable, flower and fish products that many people thought could not be produced here. The station is on a mountain and the high elevation makes it possible to produce plants that usually grow in colder climates. Plants have been imported from all over the world and a lot of research has been done on which ones grow the best. This is the only project in the world to get rid of opium production, just think how wonderful it would be if similar things could happen in Afghanistan or in Columbia with cocaine production. They showed me their food safety and traceability systems. Most of the products are sold domestically but some are exported to Europe so they meet all of the EUREPGAP requirements. They also supply the vegetables and fruit for Thai Airways in-flight meals. I got to talk to a farmer who produces celery and Chrysanthemums. He told me that he is rich by Thailand standards. He has about 1 million THB (33,333 USD) in annual sales and about half of that is profit. The average income for this area is 80,000 THB.

The Royal Project is a government initiative and only hill tribe people can participate, the next day I visited KC Fresh which is a private company that contracts with local growers in a similar operation. Each farmer has only about 1/6 of a hectare of land and they work in groups with one member of the group owning a small packing house and managing the planting decisions and chemical use. KC Fresh has a technical consultant who oversees the groups and makes sure that they meet all of the EUREPGAP requirements so that their products can be exported to Europe. She has many challenges in educating these growers about all of the regulations but she feels that she is helping them to have better lives and I agree. They seem to be better off than other Thai farmers.

Government Influence over Production Decisions

I used to think that when someone from another country asked me about subsidies and government influence on my operation it was because everyone thinks we American farmers get huge subsidies. Now I realize that at least in some cases it is because they do in their country. I was amazed at how much influence the government has over production decisions in Japan and Malaysia. In addition to large subsidies and tariffs for certain crops the Japanese government also provides subsidies to not produce certain crops. The farmers can still plant certain other approved crops on the same land. The milk price is set once a year by the government and has nothing to do with market demand. All imported wheat is bought by the government and any profit that the government gets from reselling it along with the high tariff is at least partially redistributed to domestic farmers. When Japanese farmers build new facilities they can get a subsidy from the national government for 50% of the cost and from the local government for 25% of the cost but in order to qualify they may need to build larger, fancier facilities than they really needed. All of this money being pumped into the farming industry in Japan might be explained by the fact that a vote in a rural area is worth more than a vote in an urban area and there are many very powerful rural politicians. One thing that surprised me is the average income in rural Japan is higher than in urban Japan.

Conclusions

I have always been in favor of moving closer to free trade and letting the free market economy work. After my fellowship I am even more dedicated to these principles. Of the countries I visited I think the agricultural industry in Thailand is probably in the best shape overall. They are a net exporter and don’t have any self sufficiency problems. I attribute that to the fact that the Thai government hasn’t tried to have too much influence over agricultural production decisions. One professor told me that it was probably lucky that they have never had a good Minister of Agriculture. He said if they did he would have probably messed everything up.

Recently eight of the world’s top economists met at the Copenhagen Consensus Center to apply economic and cost-benefit analyses to major policy challenges. They were asked to answer the question, “What would be the best ways of advancing global welfare, and particularly the welfare of the developing countries?” Of over 30 proposed solutions, completion of the Doha Round of trade policy negotiations with substantial reductions in import tariffs and domestic subsidies was rated number two. I guess I am not the only one who thinks that freer trade would be good not just for American agriculture but for the world.

Thank You

My fellowship was an incredible experience and my life will never be the same. I wish to thank everyone at the Eisenhower Fellowships and all of my Program Administrators. You all helped make my fellowship the best it could be. Along my journey from being “Hope san” in Japan to “Miss Hope” in Malaysia and finally “Khun Hope” in Thailand there were so many people that made me feel at home and welcome. The hospitality that was extended to me is beyond description. I hope to have many opportunities to share my fellowship experiences with any interested group and with the news media. This experience will also influence the policies that I help to develop and support through the many agricultural organizations I am involved with and I will be looking for more opportunities to influence these issues. You can read more about my fellowship on my blog at http://asianagriculture.blogspot.com/. I also look forward to being an active member of the Eisenhower Fellowships alumni network and hosting fellows in my state, as well as continuing my involvement with the Nuffield Scholars program.

Thammasat University

2008-05-20T10:07:00.001-05:00

This morning I flew back to Bangkok and after lunch I met with Dr. Nipon Poapongsakorn, Dean of the Faculty of Economics at Thammasat University. He had done some research on the possibility of a U.S. – Thailand Free Trade Agreement several years ago. We both agreed that without the president having Trade Promotion Authority the possibility of an agreement is slim. However, he thinks that U.S. beef and wheat could have a lot to gain if an FTA was signed. Since these are the two commodities I produce I was glad to hear this. Some sticking points in the negotiations might be our sugar quotas and intellectual property rules. With food prices high and the increased production of energy crops like cassava, sugarcane and oil palm a free trade agreement is more likely from the Thai side and the government is in favor of one. We had a really good discussion.

Tomorrow I fly home and it is really late here now. I will get almost no sleep as it is so I better end this for now. I will post at least one summary after I get home and have time to think a bit.

Phang Nga Agriculture

2008-05-20T09:57:00.009-05:00

Monday was a national Holiday that translates as Buddha Day so not much was going on. We visited a rubber farm. Rubber is a major crop here but most farms are relatively small and run by one family. The trees are tapped early in the morning since the rubber runs better in cooler temperatures. The first picture below is a rubber orchard and second one shows a family processing the day’s rubber. Later in the day we visited a farmers’ cooperative that processes the liquid rubber for its members. We also stopped at some small vegetable farms that grow chili peppers and cucumbers for the local market the third picture is of the cucumber field. Our next stop was at a Muslim community, in addition to producing rubber they also have a small hydroponic greenhouse and produce salad greens for the resorts in Phuket. The greenhouse is shown in the forth picture and was added after the tsunami to diversify their production. The same farmer took us by boat to see their aquaculture operation. They have frames that float in the mangrove forest area and there are mussels and oysters hanging below the frames. This is not a good time of year for this enterprise because there is too much fresh water mixed in with the sea water from all of the rains. The fifth picture is of some mussels. On our way back we stopped to talk to a sea gypsy. Sea Gypsies live in their boats. As you can see in the sixth picture he is cooking on board his small boat. Many sea gypsies were lost in the tsunami and they now have some houses on land but they prefer to be on their boats.

I realized that I haven’t shown any pictures of the resort I stayed at in Khao Lak. The first picture is of the nearly deserted beach and the second one is of the large, fancy pool complex that I had all to myself. The Khao Lak area to back to normal after the tsunami, now they just need the tourist to come back.

Phang Nga Bay, Monkeys & Turtles

2008-05-20T09:45:00.009-05:00

On Sunday morning we went to Phang Nga Bay. We took a long tailed boat through a mangrove forest until we came to the cave that is shown in the first picture below. We went through this cave and came out in the bay. We moved through the bay and by the many limestone islands that are in it. This is an absolutely beautiful place. I don’t have words to do it justice. The second picture is of Panyee Island. It is one of the very few inhabited islands in the bay. The residents are Muslim fisherman whose ancestors emigrated from Indonesia in search of good fishing. We stopped here for lunch on our way back. Next we stopped at a large boat that is home base for sea canoes. I got in a canoe and was given a tour of the bay. The third picture is of another canoe going through the first limestone cave. This cave is quite large but there are several others that you have to lay down in the canoe to fit through and if you were much bigger around than I am you couldn’t fit at high tide (which it was when I was there). The forth picture is the entrance to one of these caves. I think this is the one where you enter and surrounded by limestone walls with only enough room for a couple of canoes inside. I thought this was the coolest place but I guess some people might get nervous even though you can see the sky above you. After I returned from my canoe tour we continued through the bay to the island that is featured in the James Bond movie “The Man with the Golden Gun.” The fifth and sixth pictures are what is now known as James Bond Island. We briefly stopped here and then returned through the bay stopping for lunch at Panyee Island. I also did some shopping. If anyone wants some pearls this is the place to buy them. They are really inexpensive here.

Our next stop was Suwaan Kuhar cave temple. There is a golden reclining Buddha inside a cave at the temple but the real attraction is the large group of Long Tailed Macaques that live here. Khun Sunthorn bought some peanuts for me to feed them. They are suppose to take them out of your hand but one large male decided that he didn’t want to share with the others so he climbed me and took the bag and sat on my shoulder while he ate.

Next we visited Phang Nga Naval Base. It is home to a Sea Turtle Conservation Center. The center raises young sea turtles to give them a better chance at survival. I saw and held all sizes of turtles. The one pictured below is one of the middle sized ones. I think it was about 8 months old. This was an incredible day and there are many more pictures on the SnapFish site, click on the Fellowship Photos link.

This was supposed to be the end of the day but Khun Sunthron invited me to visit his farm which is a long drive across the mountains that run down the middle of the peninsula. On the way we passed through Khao Sok National Park, which is an incredibly beautiful place, the mountains here are stark limestone outcroppings just like the islands in the bay. The landscape seems otherworldly. I couldn’t get any pictures because it was getting dark. We visited Khun Sunthron’s farm. He has oil palm that is just starting to produce and in between the palms are banana trees. The bananas will be removed soon to give the palms more room as they mature. I didn’t get back to the hotel until very late. It was a long day but it was also one of the best days of my life. I will come back here.

Tsunami Survivors

2008-05-20T09:37:00.007-05:00

On Saturday morning I flew to Phuket. I was picked up at the airport by my tour guide Sunthorn Thongprasert. On the way to Phang Nga he told me about the tsunami that happened in December 2004. Phang Nga was the hardest hit province in Thailand of the 5,395 people who died in Thailand 4,225 were in this province. Khun Sunthorn lost his fiancée, they were to be married the following May. He wasn’t able to find her remains until a year later when they were identified through DNA testing. There is still a significant number of people that have not been identified and the Thai government is still taking good care of the remains which have all been DNA tested in case there can be a match in the future.

Our first stop after lunch was the fishing village of Baan Nam Khem. This village is on a cape that sticks out into the sea and was one of the hardest hit areas. We first stopped at a lot in town where there are two large fishing boats sitting in a dry lot. The first picture below is of the Krisana Sakorn, since the tsunami it has been renamed The Blue Angel. On the day of the tsunami it was sitting at the dock with the engine running because it was about to go to sea. There was one Burmese sailor on board and when he saw the wave coming he tried to head out to sea. Instead the 59 ton, 73 foot long boat traveled over a kilometer into the middle of the village. Along the way a man was able to grab hold of one of the tires on the side of the boat while holding his three year old daughter with the other arm saving them both. This boat did not destroy a single house or take a single life before coming to rest in this lot. Right next to The Blue Angel in the same lot is the Sri Samut, now known as The Demon. On the day the tsunami struck this red fishing boat was also at a dock and didn’t have anyone aboard. As the tsunami carried it inland it destroyed houses and cars and is estimated to have killed over one hundred people. It destroyed more lives and property than any other boat on that day. It has been moved to this lot from its original location in town and the Thai government has purchased both boats as a permanent memorial. We visited the pier and took a small boat over to an island that lies just off the coast. The second picture below is of some of the small fishing boats that local fisherman still use. There are also many larger fishing boats and a large boat that is used to mine tin. This area used to be a tin mining area but now the boat travels to Indonesia. We walked down to a shop that is run by some tsunami survivors. I bought a pearl bracelet and ring from a lady and her husband showed me around the memorial museum. He was on a fishing boat when the tsunami hit. As his boat was swept inland he was able to pull several people aboard, saving their lives. His wife and one year old daughter were swept into the sea and were found several hours later and rescued. Their four year old son was lost. At another shop I bought a nice purse from a lady who also lost her son to the tsunami and her husband hasn’t been right since that day. We walked through the memorial. The names of the people who were lost are inscribed mostly in Thai but there are several European names and some have pictures. It is hard to even imagine what happened that day.

After we left Baan Nam Khem we went to a local market were Khun Sunthorn insisted I try Rotee (I don’t know if that is spelled correctly) which is a desert that is made by frying a thin layer of pastry with an egg mixture and in this case bananas wrapped inside. After frying it is covered in sweetened condensed milk and sugar. The first picture below is a Rotee vendor. These folks are Muslim. There is a significant Muslim population in this part of Thailand. Khun Sunthorn grew up Buddhist; in fact 14 years ago his father became a monk. His fiancée was Muslim and after she was killed in the tsunami her parents asked if he would like to become their son. He was so moved by this offer that he accepted and converted to the Muslim faith. Now he has two sets of parents. Our next stop was at a spot that is quite a ways inland in Khao Lak where a huge police boat came to rest after the tsunami. This boat was on patrol that day and there were several police officers on board all of them survived except one who fell overboard. The second picture below is of this boat. Then we stopped at another market where Khun Sunthorn bought several kinds of fruit for me to try. I am starting to feel like Anthony Bourdain from No Reservations on the Travel Channel. The last picture is of the busy market.

Food Safety Community

2008-05-16T05:50:00.005-05:00

This morning I went to the Ministry of Public Health and met two of their staff and then we drove to Samut Songkhram Province. This is the smallest province in Thailand and it sits right where the river meets the sea. It is an interesting area. The food production includes seafood, fruit and sea salt. This area has been designated as a Food Safety Community by the Ministry of Public Health. This project involves producers, distributors, consumers and government organizations. There are projects to educate each sector and make this area a model in Food Safety. One of the highlights of this trip was Amphawa Floating Market. I had heard about the floating markets but this is the first one I have seen. The vendors sell food from small boats in some cases cooking it on board. We were there about 2 p.m. and the market doesn’t really open until 4 p.m. but there were a few vendors. The first picture below is of some of the ladies who were open for business. In the morning we visited a local fruit farming area and went to a facility that has many purposes. It is a center where local farmers are educated about production and food safety and it is also an agro-tourism facility with a home stay facility being added right now. The farmers in this area grow organic fruit mostly Pomelo and Coconut. The second picture is of some pomelo and the third is of the shop where I bought some coconut sugar. Coconut sugar reminds me a little of the maple sugar candy they make in Virginia where I grew up. The farmers here make their own compost and if I understood correctly they use molasses in it. They also use smoking vinegar as a natural insecticide.

Farm Chokchai

2008-05-15T07:59:00.004-05:00

On Thursday I traveled 2 hours northwest of Bangkok to Nakhon Ratchasima Province where I visited Farm Chokchai. This farm was started in 1957 by a gentleman that came from a successful rice trading family but he wanted to do something different. Inspired by movie westerns he traveled to the U.S. and studied animal science. He returned and bought his first 100 acres in this area. This was a big risk because at that time the area was still very wild with many tigers and the land had to be cleared. Even today the main ranch is right next to a National Wildlife Sanctuary and the largest National Park in Thailand. He first tried raising Santa Gertrudis cattle but they didn’t work well here, so eventually he shifted to dairy cattle and the farm has been a dairy for 36 years. Over the years it has expanded to 8,000 acres on 5 ranches. They currently have 4,000 cattle and would like to expand to 5,000. Over the years they have developed their own breed of cattle that is now 86-90% Holstein but also has influences from American Brahman, Santa Gertrudis and a breed that lives in India and Pakistan. These cattle are better adapted to the climate in Thailand. They often have visitors from the surrounding countries that would like to purchase some of their cattle to start a new dairy. Unfortunately, many of these people have no knowledge regarding dairy production, so if any of you want to manage a dairy there may be an opportunity for you in Asia. The first picture below is of a herd of heifers grazing on Ranch #3. This is a beautiful place.

In 1999, the founder’s son took over the company and decided to start an agro-tourism program. They now give farm tours complete with Wild West shows. The Thai people are really fascinated with the American West and apparently it doesn’t matter that they are dairy cattle. Mr. Chokchai also owns both Thoroughbred race horses and Quarter Horses as well as several other species of animals and many breeds of dogs which are part of the farm tour. They also have 3 steakhouses, one on the farm and 2 in Bangkok. They don’t produce the beef. They contract with another rancher to do that. They also have two other restaurant concepts the steak hut and the burger hut. The restaurants are currently the most profitable part of the business. They produce their own dairy products and have 3 dairy stores. They hope to expand the retail side of the business soon. There is a good demand for milk right now, partly because Australia has been in a drought and has cut back on production. In 2004 they opened Farm Chokchai Camp, a boutique camping and activity package. This camp is in a beautiful setting in the back of the main ranch. It is expensive by Thai standards so mostly multi-national companies and international schools use it. The package includes an ice cream workshop (where you make ice cream and can take it home when you leave), a farm tour, a morning walk to the top of a hill along with a picnic breakfast and a night ATV ride with a view of the stars. The accommodations are tents but they are nicer than some hotel rooms I have been in, with air conditioning and Wi-Fi internet. It also includes 3 gourmet meals. The bathrooms and showers not attached to the rooms but they are really neat, open to nature but still private and luxurious. This would go over really well in the U.S. The second picture shows the tents.

KC Fresh

2008-05-14T08:50:00.003-05:00

Today I visited KC Fresh. This is a company that produces fresh vegetables and fruits for both the domestic and export markets. Specifically they produce many Chinese vegetables and tropical fruits. I first visited a packing house and farm run by one of the farmers that grows vegetables for them. I saw Ung Choi (Chinese Morning Glory) being harvested which is the first picture below. We also visited fields of Basil and Lemongrass. There are several growers in this group and they all bring their produce to this lady’s small packing house. She also manages the planting to ensure a steady supply of product. They are very careful about food safety including testing their irrigation water to make sure there isn’t any contamination. The second picture shows a post that has the land and block number on it so that the products can be traced back to the small block where they were grown. The company treated me to lunch at a local restaurant where we tried some of their products. Everything was really good. After lunch I met with Carin Joubert. She is a Technical Consultant originally from South Africa. She makes sure that all of the requirements are met so that they can export to England, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria, Hong Kong and Japan. Over the years she has worked in many countries around the world. We discussed the challenges of working with the Thai farmers who only have .6 hectares of land on average. Many of her biggest challenges have to do with language problems; they don’t have words for many of the technical words we use in dealing with food safety. I really enjoyed talking to Carin and we had a wonderful discussion. She feels that she is making a difference in these farmers’ lives and I agree with her. This is a very interesting operation.

The Royal Project

2008-05-14T08:43:00.007-05:00

On Tuesday I visited the Royal Project Development Center at Inthanon and the Inthanon Royal Research Station. This is one of the 36 Royal Project sites. The Royal Project began in 1969 when the King visited this area and observed how the hill tribe people were living. They were producing Opium Poppy and not making much money. The King set forth a vision of a new life for the hill tribes that included a better lifestyle and didn’t include opium production. Today there is no opium production in Thailand, instead the hill tribe people produce over 350 different fruit, vegetable, flower and fish products that many people thought could not be produced here. The station is on a mountain and the high elevation makes it possible to produce plants that usually grow in colder climates. Plants have been imported from all over the world and a lot of research has been done on which ones grow the best. This is the only project in the world to get rid of opium production, just think how wonderful it would be if similar things could happen in Afghanistan or in Columbia with cocaine production. They showed me their food safety and traceability systems. Most of the products are sold domestically but some are exported to Europe so they meet all of the Europe GAP requirements. They also supply the vegetables and fruit for Thai Airways in-flight meals. I got to talk to a farmer who produces celery and Chrysanthemums. He told me that he is rich by Thailand standards. He has about 1 million THB (33,333 USD) in annual sales and about half of that is profit. The average income for this area is 80,000 THB. The first picture below is of some workers peeling carrots before quick chilling them for transport. The second picture is their aquaculture operation that produces Rainbow Trout, which is a high value item in Thailand. The third picture is of a lady spreading fertilizer by hand in one of the “plastic houses” on the operation where I talked to the farmer. The forth picture is one of the beautiful flowers they produce for the domestic cut flower market and the fifth picture is of a young lady packaging some long stemmed roses for sale. The last picture is a view of some of the many plastic greenhouses on this mountain.

OSU Links & Zoo

2008-05-12T11:35:00.011-05:00

Today I visited both Maejo University and Chiang Mai University. The Presidents of both universities are graduates of Oklahoma State University and Dr. Bob Terry was advisor to both of them. When I arrived at Maejo, I was greeted by a large sign that says “Home of the Cowboys.” President Thep was out of the county but I met with three members of their agricultural production faculty. We discussed Food Safety and Traceability and International Trade. They answered several questions I had about Thai agriculture and we had a really good discussion. Here are some interesting statistics. 20% of Thailand exports are agricultural. 60% of the Thai population is involved in the Agri-Food industry and Thailand is the #1 exporter of rice, rubber and canned tuna. The Vice President for International Affairs treated the professors and I to lunch at an International buffet. Next I went to Chiang Mai University and met with President Pongsak Angkasith. We talked about his time in Oklahoma and he told me that a group from his university is on their way to Oklahoma right now with Dr. Terry. Maybe I will get to meet them when I get back. After the meeting I went to Chiang Mai Zoo which is right next to the university. This is a really nice zoo and it seemed that the animals were posing for pictures. I am a big kid when it comes to zoos – I love them. Check out the pictures below and there are more on the SnapFish site, click the Fellowship Photos link on the right side of the page.

Tonight I plan to go to the Chiang Mai Night Bazaar which is held in the streets that surround my hotel. Things are really cheap and I love all of the Thai art and jewelry.

Chiang Mai Tour

2008-05-12T08:07:00.008-05:00

On Sunday I took a one day tour. The first stop was an elephant camp. There are many of these camps in this area. The elephants that used to work in the logging industry are now employed in the tourism industry. We rode the elephants up the hill from the camp and stopped a few times to buy bananas to feed them. I rode the largest elephant, the only male in the group. He was very hungry and would stop often and put his trunk back over his head for a banana. He kept me and the Thai gentleman who rode with me busy feeding him and occasionally the mahout (elephant trainer) had to encourage him to move along. Below is a picture of one of the baby elephants at the camp, the second picture shows some of the other people feeding their elephant and the large elephant in the foreground of the third picture is the one I rode.

Next we went bamboo rafting down a river. This was fun but I could have done without being splashed with the river water by the local people who were resting along the river. We had lunch at a local Thai restaurant and then we went trekking through the jungle to a Mien hill tribe village. The hill tribes are a historically migratory people who have no nationality. This particular tribe was originally from central China but now reside in Thailand, southern China, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam. From the village we trekked on to a beautiful waterfall and took a rest there. Below is picture of the waterfall.

From the waterfall we went down the other side of the mountain to a Karen hill tribe village. This tribe is originally from Myanmar and now lives in both Myanmar and Thailand. The first picture below is a view of some of their rice fields. Their houses are built on stilts and the animals live downstairs, the second picture is of some of their pigs. The women of this village weave beautiful silk scarves and table linens. I bought two scarves and a table runner. The third picture is of one the ladies and her weaving equipment.

After I got back from the tour I went to the Sunday Walking Street. They shut off a street and vendors set up stalls of merchandise to sell to the local residents and tourists. I found a really good Italian restaurant on this street and had dinner. It rained on and off and I was very tired so I didn’t buy much but there are some really nice crafts and everything is really cheap.

Chiang Mai Sightseeing

2008-05-12T07:56:00.004-05:00

On Saturday morning I flew to Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand. After eating lunch at my hotel, I caught a taxi to Wat Phra That Doi Suthep. (Taxis here are small pickups with an enclosure on the back and two benches.) The Wat (temple) is very beautiful. It sits on top of a mountain overlooking the city and has a wonderful view. Unfortunately, it started pouring rain just as I arrived and started up the steps, so I got soaked. In one of the pictures below you can see the water running off of the roof in the foreground.

When I got back to the hotel I walked down the street to a restaurant that my guidebook recommended. It is called Chiang Mai Saloon and serves Mexican food and steaks. I had fajitas and they were very good. Below is a picture of their sign. I couldn’t resist buying a shirt with the cowboy riding the bucking elephant.

My last outing of the day was the Chiang Mai Night Safari. This new tourist attraction has animals from all over the world as well as a lighted musical fountain show with lasers. The trams take you by the animals and they shine a light so you can see them. It was impossible to get any pictures because of the limited light but it was an enjoyable evening.

KU Kamphaengsaen Beef Producer Co-op

2008-05-09T08:35:00.006-05:00

My day didn’t start until 11 a.m. today which was nice because I have been starting at 7 a.m. most other mornings. Apparently today was a government holiday in Thailand that loosely translates as Agriculture Day. There is a ceremony were a cow/buffalo is allowed to choose between many different items to eat and depending on what she chooses there is a prediction about the crops for the coming year. In another ceremony the King or Prince spreads some of the country’s best rice seeds and later farmers try to pick up as many as they can to bring them good fortune. Unfortunately, nobody told me about this until it was over as I would have liked to attend.

Today I had a translator for the first time in Thailand. Her shortened name is Ja and she is a veterinary student at the university we visited. I really enjoyed visiting with her on the way to and from our meeting. We traveled to Nakhon Pathom Province to the KU Kamphangsaen Campus Beef Producer Cooperative. By the way KU stands for Kasetsart University not The University of Kansas. The university has developed a breed of cattle that is well suited to Thailand’s tropical climate. They crossed the native cattle with Brahman and then crossed the offspring with Charolais cattle. The new breed is 25% Native, 25% Brahman and 50% Charolais. They call it Kamphangsaen. After developing the breed they started building a network of farms to raise these cattle. There are Cow-Calf, Stocker and Feed Lot phases and the individual producers are members of the cooperative. In addition to being paid for their cattle based on carcass score when they sell them to the co-op they also share in any profits the co-op makes at the end of the year. The first picture below is of one of their T-Bone steaks. The second picture is of an RFID ear tag that is used in their national tracing system. Foot and Mouth Disease still exists in some parts of this country, mostly near the borders, so it is important to know where cattle are coming from. The members also keep detailed health records on each animal. The co-op is growing fast with about 800 head slaughtered in 2006 and 1622 head in 2007. Demand continues to grow in Thailand but they cannot export because of FMD. The third picture below is a steer at a feed lot farm; their steers are about 3 years old when they go to slaughter. They also run their own restaurant on campus. When you enter their location there is a large sign over the gate that says Cowboy Land and has a cowboy on a horse roping a steer. There are also signs for Texas Steak and the last picture is of the entrance to the restaurant, notice the cowboy and Indian décor complete with teepees. We ate at the restaurant and I had a ribeye steak it was good and tender but it was cut very thin by U.S. standards.

Betagro

2008-05-08T21:55:00.007-05:00

On Wednesday evening I went out exploring for a restaurant to have dinner. As I walked down the very busy street that my hotel is on I came upon an elephant. Elephants were historically used as labor in the timber industry and other industries in Thailand. Now they are out of work and some are reduced to having their owners beg tourists to pay to feed them. I have no idea where this young elephant lives the rest of the day, as this is a very congested part of Bangkok.

On Thursday morning I went to meet Dr. Arayan Trangarn at the Betagro headquarters. Betagro is a privately owned company that is also involved in the poultry and hog integration industry here in Thailand. They also have some operations in China, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia. The owner of the company is a Chinese gentleman who immigrated to Thailand many years ago and started with nothing. He first started a feed mill and then expanded into the poultry and swine industries. They are involved in many of the same operations as the CP Group but they don’t really seem to have a competitive relationship. Betagro actually benefits from some of the lobbying activities and influence that CP Group has. We first met with the CEO of the company and then we traveled to Lopburi Province to their Food Complex 1. They chose this location because it is near the corn production area of Thailand but they still have to import a lot of their feed ingredients from other countries. They are now considering locating any new plants they build closer to the port because of the increase in transportation costs. When the Avian Influenza outbreak occurred in Thailand they were impacted and had a cull a large number of birds. Since then there have been many changes to their operations. In hindsight Dr. Trangarn thinks it has been a positive thing for the company. In addition to instituting more advanced practices and more security on their farms, they have also had to build new plants to further process their chicken thus adding value to their products. They currently export these cooked products to the EU and Japan. They were the first company to use an electronic traceability program in Thailand. It is all computerized and is quite impressive in the detail that they can access. Consumers can not access it over the internet yet but they do have what they call “Spy on Me” terminals in some domestic supermarkets where some of the information can be accessed. These terminals also give recipes for how to cook the products, which consumers seem to be more interested in than the traceability information. The traceability system at this plant requires 20 full-time employees and costs more than 1 million Baht per year and that number would at least double if it included all of the other parts of the production process. We toured the further processing plant and it was a very sanitary facility and I had to put on a lot more protective clothing and wash my hands many more times than I would to tour a plant in the U.S. The major difference that I noticed was that they were doing a lot of hand slicing and cubing of the product. Labor here is cheap and so they can do this kind of time consuming processing. However there is a shortage of labor and they would like to open another plant to produce more skewered products for the Japanese market but they aren’t sure they can find the workforce. Even though labor costs are low the cost of feed still makes producing chicken in Thailand more expensive than in the U.S. so they are not sure that they would support a Free Trade Agreement. As always no photos were allowed in the plant.

On the way back to Bangkok we made an unscheduled stop at a huge wholesale market. This one was much cleaner than the one I saw in China with the Oklahoma Agricultural Leadership Program Group. The meat section still wouldn’t meet U.S. standards. Below is a picture of one of the poultry vendors and another of a fruit stand. The bottom picture is of some of the fruits that Dr. Trangarn bought for me to try. Clockwise they are a Rose Apple, a Rambutan, a Mangosteen, Lychees and Longans.

Bangkok Produce Merchandising Public Co.,Ltd.

2008-05-07T03:33:00.005-05:00

This morning I met Dr. Wanchai Pholprasertku with the Department of Livestock Development and he escorted me to Saraburi Province to Bangkok Produce Merchandising Public Co., Ltd. They are a division of the CP Group which is a huge multi-national company that is involved in many industries including telecommunications, real estate, motorcycle manufacturing, medical supplies and retail but its origins are in agriculture and food production. They have operations in Thailand, China, Indonesia, India and Turkey and export around the world. This facility is a chicken processing operation with both a fresh chicken facility and a further processed plant. They produce every possible chicken product that any country could want. Because of Avian Influenza they can only export cooked product. Although they have had no cases of AI in their fully enclosed, climate controlled poultry houses, there have been cases in Thailand and so there is a ban on the export of fresh poultry. They showed me a video about the on-farm production side of the business and it appears that they use all of the same advanced technology that is used in the American poultry industry. They produce their own feed; have their own breeder hens, hatchery, broiler farms and processing facilities. I was given a tour of their further processing facilities and slaughter facility. They are both just as sanitary as, or more sanitary than, the Tyson plant I toured in Oklahoma. Although at the Tyson plant we walked through the production floor and at this plant they have a glassed in walkway where you look into the plant, so you don’t get quite as close up of an experience. In addition to meeting every possible food safety and good manufacturing standard they also meet Halal standards so they can export to Muslim countries. As far as I can tell this means they stun using electric shock making sure the chickens aren’t stunned to death and they have a Muslim do the slaughtering. Their products are completely traceable back to the farm. As with all processing facilities they don’t allow pictures so the only one I have to offer is this one of the many ready-to-eat products they produce.

Thai Food Safety Meetings

2008-05-06T05:19:00.001-05:00

This morning I met with my Program Administrators for Thailand, Paul Wedel and Patcharee Pinitsuwan (Khun Lek) with the Kenan Institute Asia. Then I met with two government agencies this afternoon. The first one was the National Bureau of Agricultural Commodity and Food Standards (ACFS). They were established in October 2002 with the mission of protecting the benefits of trade on agricultural commodities and food products of Thailand as well as safety for consumers both in and out of Thailand. ACFS is assigned to be responsible for regulating the agricultural commodity and food standards. They seem to be making good progress for such a young agency. Many of the issues they have dealt with have to do with the seafood industry and pesticide residue issues in produce. Next I met with the Department of Agriculture Food Safety Division dealing with fresh fruits and vegetables. Their mission is very similar as they monitor food safety issues in exported products. 2004 was designated as the Year of Food Safety and they believe that there has been a lot of improvement since then. Both agencies are promoting Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) and HACCP. Tomorrow I get out of the city again, which I am looking forward to since I am not a city person.

Ayuthaya

2008-05-05T06:15:00.010-05:00

This morning I was picked up for a tour of Ayuthaya. The bus first arrived at the Bang Pa-In Summer Palace, built during the Ayuthaya era. The palace is beautifully decorated in both traditional Chinese and European style. King Rama V traveled extensively and brought back many European influences to the Palace. Below is a picture of the Thai Pavilion, my favorite part of the palace, and a herd of elephant topiaries.

Next we arrived at Ayutthaya, the Ancient City, which was the former Thai capital for over 400 years. Nowadays the glory and the beauty of the grand palace and temples of its past has vanished, leaving merely a glimpse of ruins, despite this it is a good reflection of the past. We saw a combination of both the ruins and the remaining historical attractions.

We first stopped at Wat Maha That. Over 600 years old, Wat Maha That was the heart and soul of the Ayutthaya people. It was almost completely destroyed by the Burmese during the Thai-Burmese war. Below is a picture of the famous Buddha head inside the trunk and roots of a tree. After the Wat was damaged during the war it was looted and the heads of all of the Buddhas were stolen. Somehow this one was hidden under this tree and eventually became part of the tree. The second picture is of one of the few remaining Buddha statues with ruins in the background. There are many more pictures on the SnapFish site, just click the Fellowship Photos link on the right side of the page.

Our next stop was Wat Na Phra Mane. It remains in perfect condition, as it was used as the Burmese headquarters. The splendid Golden Buddha, dressed in regal attire, was placed in the temple along with the three thousand-year-old green stone carved Buddha. Both are considered as extremely valuable national relics. A picture of the Golden Buddha is below.

Our last stop in Ayuthaya was Wat Lokayasutharam. This Wat has a mysterious past, whereby its origins are unknown. The temple enshrines the Largest Reclining Buddha Image which was built during The early period of the Ayutthaya region. Two other ancient temples, as well as the ruined site also surround the compound area. Here is a photo of the reclining Buddha.

We next boarded a boat for our trip back to Bangkok. We were served a delicious buffet lunch. Throughout the journey I was able to watch the Chao Phraya River banks scenery and had a clear view of the life of the inhabitants that dwell along the river, and the unforgettable scenery of children as they greeted us as we went by, making it an altogether worthwhile experience.

Bangkok Sightseeing

2008-05-05T06:07:00.011-05:00

My first stop of the day was Wat Pho Thai Massage School. I had heard that getting an authentic Thai massage is a must and this is the best place to do it. A one-hour full body massage only costs $12. The massage school is inside Wat Pho, the modest hero of Bangkok’s holy temples. Wat Pho features a host of superlatives: the largest reclining Buddha, the largest collection of Buddha images in Thailand and the country’s earliest center of public education – the massage school. The first picture below is the decoration above a doorway at the Wat, this is typical Thai ornamentation. The second picture is the head of the Reclining Buddha, which is absolutely huge.

My next stop was Phukhao Thong (Golden Mountain). The main attraction here is the view of Bangkok from the top of the hill the temple sits on which is pictured below.

Wat Benchamabophit or the Mable Temple came next. It is made from white Carrara marble and was built in the late 19th century. There were services going on while I was there and there is a picture of the monks below.

The Thais really love their King. He is 81 years old and the longest serving monarch in the world. Tomorrow is Coronation Day; a Public Holiday to celebrate the day he took the throne. There are pictures of him everywhere and I think they are always there not just for the holiday. See the example below.

Next I visited Wat Phra Kaew and the Grand Palace. This is a beautiful place. The pictures below are of yaksha (mythical giants) who guard the area. I think some areas of the palace were closed because tomorrow is Coronation Day which is one of the few days that the King still uses this palace; he lives in another palace now so this one can be enjoyed by the public.

My last stop for the day was Chatuchak Weekend Market, which may be the largest open air market in the world. It sells everything including food, pets, clothes, handicrafts, home décor, antiques, plants and anything else imaginable. This is a shopper’s and haggler’s paradise. I am not that big of a shopper and it is really humid here this time of year so I had had enough after a couple hours.

Hello, Bangkok!

2008-05-03T08:28:00.001-05:00

I have arrived in Bangkok, Thailand. Today was a travel day, so I don’t have much to report. My accommodations here are very nice. I have a serviced apartment with a small kitchen and best of all I get to spend a whole week here before I have to pack up again. I think the longest I have stayed anywhere is three nights in a row. I feel like I have been in a perpetual state of motion but I wouldn’t have had it any other way because then I would have missed something. The trip has been wonderful so far and I am sure it will continue to be here. Tomorrow I plan to do some sightseeing. I am hoping that I can get a massage at Wat Po Thai Massage School, visit The Grand Palace and go to Chatuchak Weekend Market all in one day. Wish me luck on finding my way around. I will let you know how it goes.

Last Day In Malaysia

2008-05-02T08:47:00.006-05:00

This morning I went to the U.S. Embassy and met with Ambassador James Keith, Mr. David Shear, Mr. David Cottrell, with the USDA FAS office and Dr. Marjorie Harrison, the Cultural Attaché. They asked me a lot of questions about the things I have seen in Malaysia and my impressions about the country. We had a very good discussion.

After I left the Embassy, I went by my program administrator’s office to drop off a box of stuff that I have accumulated during the trip to be shipped home to Oklahoma. Then I went back to my hotel and walked over to the shopping center that is below the twin towers. There is an aquarium in the basement of the convention center that is between my hotel and the towers and I took time to visit it. I had a hard time getting any good pictures but below is one of a shark from the walk-through tunnel exhibit. It is a very nice aquarium. Next I went to the grocery store, or as they call them here hypermarket, that is in the shopping center. I had a special request by email from a friend who is an apple grower in Washington State to check out the produce section and guess what I found – a whole section filled with Washington Apples. Below is a picture to prove it. There were also Idaho potatoes available. Unfortunately, there was no U.S. produced meat in the very small meat section.

After lunch I went to my last meeting in Malaysia. It was with the Chief Executive Officer of a company called TraceTracker Malaysia. They are an IT Company that develops food traceability systems and also Halal traceability systems. Currently most of the interest in their systems is for exports to the EU or Japan but they think that the domestic market will eventually also demand traceability especially for Halal. We had a lengthy discussion about Halal standards and he told me that he thought that there would soon be an international set of standards for Halal that most if not all Muslim countries would recognize. I know that many American companies would like to see this happen, so that they could more easily understand what exactly is or isn’t Halal.

Putrajaya

2008-05-02T08:35:00.007-05:00

On Thursday I traveled backed to Kuala Lumpur and made a brief stop at my hotel before going to Putrajaya. In an earlier post from the day I met with the Ministries of Health and Agriculture, I included a couple of pictures of some of the beautiful buildings in Putrajaya. I was invited to go back to Putrajaya by Tan Sri Samsudin Osman the President of Putrajaya Corporation and a 1997 Eisenhower Fellow. Although he is not elected, he serves in the same capacity that a mayor would in the U.S. We met at the Agricultural Heritage Park. Putrajaya has many beautiful parks and this one is dedicating to preserving Malaysia’s agricultural heritage and educating urban residents about agriculture. One section of the park is still occupied by the rubber trees that used to cover all of the area that is Putrajaya today. I was shown how rubber trees are tapped and how small holders of rubber processed their rubber for market. The first picture below is of the tapping process. I grew up in an area where we produced maple syrup and was familiar with tapping those kind of trees however this is a bit different. When we tap Maple trees we just drill a hole into the tree, with rubber you strip a narrow band of bark from around the outside of the tree in a sloping direction and the rubber runs along the slope into a small cup. After enough rubber is collected it is put in some water with a little acid to coagulate. Then the rubber is flattened by hand and then run through a rolling machine that is much like a pasta machine until it is very thin. Next it is run through another rolling machine that scores the sheet of rubber. After it dries some more it is put in a smoke house that is fired by rubber wood. The smoked rubber is worth much more that non-smoked. I learned a lot and I think I will be seeing some more rubber in Thailand. The second picture below shows one of the rolling machines. The third picture is of a Jack Fruit tree. As I had said in a previous post I really like Jack Fruit. This is a huge fruit and I am told that they can get much larger than this. The Agricultural Heritage Park also features an orchard that has many different species of tropical fruits and spices.

Next we traveled around the city of Putrajaya looking at the beautiful architecture and well planned layout of the city. We had a wonderful dinner at the boating club dining room. And after dinner I enjoyed a sunset cruise around the lake with a lady who is now with the Public Relations department but she was the head of the environmental department when the lakes and parks were being built and was able to tell me about that process. The picture below is of one of the bridges taken from the boat. All of the bridges are unique in their design; this one is quite traditional while others are modern. A lot of thought and planning has gone into the development of Putrajaya.

I realized that I haven’t posted a picture of the Petronas towers yet. This is the fourth room I have been in at this hotel and I am finally on the side facing the towers, so here is the view from my window.

Cameron Highlands

2008-05-02T08:18:00.008-05:00

On Wednesday morning I was up early for the long drive to Cameron Highlands. The Highlands are north and slightly east of Kuala Lumpur and were named for the surveyor who first explored them. One of the oldest industries in the Highlands is the tea estates. I first visited the Boh Estate, which was established by John Archibald Russell in April 1929 and is still owned and operated by the Russell family. Boh is a well established brand in Malaysia and has at least a 50% market share in the domestic market. I got the same tour that any tourist would get at this location. Next I went to another Boh Tea facility, the Sungai Palas Tea Center and met the Estate Manager. We had a long discussion over lunch about tea production and processing and after lunch he gave me a personal tour of the tea factory. Tea plants are rooted in a nursery and transplanted to the field when they are 12 months old and about 42 cm tall. After transplanting it is about two and a half years before the first plucking. They are plucked every 25-30 days and pruned every 3 years. Tea plants can have an unlimited life span if properly cared for, some of the plants on this estate were planted by the original Dutch owner in the 1930’s and are still in good shape today. They do use mechanical harvesters now but the rows on this estate are planted on the contour and aren’t nearly as straight as the ones I saw in Japan, which makes using the harvesters more difficult. This estate produces black tea and the one I saw in Japan produced green tea. The only difference is how the tea leaves are processed. Like in the U.S. one of the biggest challenges is getting enough labor to run the estate. Even with the mechanical harvesters, 180 people are still needed to keep the place running. Most of their labor force is from Indonesia, Bangladesh, and Nepal. Below is a picture of part of the estate from their new visitors’ center which sits on a hill with a panoramic view of tea plants as far as you can see. The second picture is the finished premium product straight from the factory.

After my visits to the tea estates I had some free time to explore the Highlands. This is a very agricultural area with many farms producing vegetables, cut flowers, live plants and it is most famous for producing strawberries. The first picture below is of one of the many beautiful flowers that I enjoyed seeing during my visit. The second picture is of some of the many small shops that sell the local produce to locals and visiting tourists from all over Malaysia and Singapore who come to Cameron Highland because the 5,000 foot elevation offers some relief from the heat. Everywhere you look in the Highlands there are farms many in plastic covered greenhouses and others terraced up the sides of the mountains. The third picture is of the hydroponic production in one of the famous strawberry farms. I also visited another butterfly farm and a honey bee farm. The last picture is of one of the butterflies that actually sat still long enough for me to get a picture of it.

Malaysian Poultry Industry

2008-04-29T04:11:00.004-05:00

Today I met James Ng Boon Khong with Leong Hup Contract Farming Sdn. Bhd. and ayam A1 Food Corporation Sdn. Bhd. He spent five years studying at the University of Central Oklahoma in Edmond and had looked up where Goltry is on the internet. By the way, he is not the first person with Oklahoma ties I have met here. When I went to the palm oil plantation on Carey Island, the director of their Golden Hope Academy education center went to the University of Oklahoma. It was nice to meet people who understood where I am from. James and I traveled quite a distance to one of the company’s poultry farms. It is a closed barn system much like in the U.S. the only real difference is that there is less automation since labor is less expensive here. They had recently shipped most of the chickens from this farm and had mostly empty barns. There was one barn that had chicks put in it yesterday. There is a picture of the new chicks below. The chicks have the same genetics that you would find in the U.S and the company runs in much the same way that the poultry companies run in America. One exception is that this farm is owned by the company but they do also have contract growers. Most of their ingredients for their feed come from Argentina. They sell the poultry litter to plantations for fertilizer and aren’t experiencing any of the legal issues that the poultry industry is in Oklahoma.

As I had reported in a previous post the government has set a ceiling price for chicken in Malaysia that is below the actual cost of production. However, from what I can tell it only relates to fresh or frozen chicken not to further processed products. Therefore this company is producing a variety of value added products using their poultry meat in order to survive and make a profit. At lunch we ate at a local Chinese restaurant in a relatively small town. Later this evening I have dinner with several Malaysian Eisenhower Fellows.

Penang

2008-04-28T12:13:00.009-05:00

I am sorry that I haven’t posted for a few days. I haven’t had internet access since early Saturday morning.

On Saturday morning I flew from Kuala Lumpur to Penang, which is an island along the coastline north of Kuala Lumpur. It is also its own state within Malaysia. I was picked up at the airport by my driver, Dave. Our first stop was Kek Lok Si Temple. One of the finest Buddhist temples in Southeast Asia, The Kek Lok Si Temple stands majestically on a hill in Air Itam. Built in tiers, the temple boasts the beautifully crafted “Pagoda of Ten Thousand Buddhas”. Taking more than 20 years to build, the temple is set against scenic surroundings. It features a turtle pond, gardens, shrines and sculptures. I took a lot of pictures of this beautiful place, below is one of the pagoda, which unfortunately was under renovation.

Next we went into Georgetown the island’s largest city. Our first stop here was the Seven Clans Village. This area is built right on the water and in some cases over the water near the harbor. It is where the Chinese immigrants from these seven families first settled when they came to Penang. Their lifestyles have stayed much the same and by the way Penang is the only Malaysian state to have a majority Chinese population. The area has a great view as you can see in the picture below.

Next we visited Khoo Kongsi, which is by far the grandest clan temple on the island. The forefathers of the Khoo family, who emigrated from South China, built it as a clan house for members of the Khoo family. The building was so magnificent that upon its completion in 1898, the roof caught fire, some believe, due to its resemblance to the Emperor’s palace in China. It features a magnificent hall embellished with intricate carvings and richly ornamented beams of the finest wood bearing the mark of master craftsmen from China. Below is a photo of the exterior of the hall.

We briefly stopped at Fort Cornwallis. The fort was built on the site of Sir Francis Light’s historic landing in 1786. Originally a wooden stockade, it was replaced by a concrete structure built by convicts in 1804. Below is a picture of the fort’s exterior walls. Georgetown is filled with British Colonial architecture and many heritage buildings.

Georgetown also has several ethnic districts. Little India was our next stop. Think Chinatown except with Indian shops and restaurants some of which date back over two centuries. I enjoyed a brief walk around this lively district. Below is a picture of one of the narrow streets.

The Botanical Garden is an oasis of peace and tranquility with lush green surroundings and vibrant colors of Penang’s tropical flora. But even more intriguing are the monkeys that make it home, one is pictured below.

My next stop was at the Penang Butterfly Farm. The farm is home to 3000 living specimens from over 50 species of colorful butterflies, frogs, scorpions and other insects. I really enjoyed this stop. Below is a photo of one of the butterflies.

My last stop before going to my hotel was the Tropical Fruit Farm. This agrotourism facility is spread over 25 acres of hilly terrain and contains orchards that produce over 200 tropical and subtropical fruits including durian, lychees, mangos, guavas and several lesser known varieties. At the end of the guided tour you get to sample several kinds of fruit and have a fruit juice drink. I have found that I really like Jack Fruit which I have never seen in the U.S. Below is picture of a Dragon Fruit and right next to it is a bloom that will later produce the same fruit. The blooms open at night. I tried Dragon Fruit, its flesh is a bright red and there are very small black seeds. It tastes alright but I still prefer Jack Fruit.

Next I went to my hotel which is in Batu Ferringhi, which translates to Foreigners Rock. It is on the North side of the island and is the best beach area. I ate dinner at a local restaurant called The Ship; it boasts that it has the best steaks in town and is built in the shape of a huge old ship. I did try a T-Bone and it had a good flavor, while it was quite large in diameter it was cut very thin. On the way back to the hotel I walked through the Night Market and used some of the bargaining skills I learned in China.

On Sunday, I slept in until very late in the morning and then had lunch at the hotel. After lunch I went to the pool for a while and then got a full body massage. After dinner I once again browsed around the Night Market. The picture above is sunset from my hotel room’s patio.

On Monday I met with three groups that all oppose the use of genetically modified organisms and free trade agreements. The first meeting was with the Consumers’ Association of Penang. The first two gentlemen I met with here were willing to have a back and forth discussion with me but it was apparent that the only thing we agreed on was the need for Malaysian consumers to be better informed about food safety and sanitation. Otherwise they had a lot of preconceived notions about American agriculture that simply are incorrect. I attempted to correct some of these ideas but I am not sure how successful I was in changing their minds. Later I attempted to have a meeting with the president of the organization. There seemed to be communication issues and this is the first time during my fellowship that I felt unwelcome.

I briefly visited the local chapter of the Friends of the Earth. The person I really needed to talk to here was out of the country. The two young ladies that were in the office tried to answer my questions but they were simply not the right people for the task. They did give me a booklet about why they oppose GMOs. My third meeting of the day was with the Pesticide Action Network Asia and the Pacific. The ladies who run this organization have good reasons to be concerned with many of the issues that they try to address. They seem to legitimately want to make life better for rural people (especially women) in this part of the world. Though we don’t agree on many issues, we were able to find several other things that we do agree on. I felt a lot more welcome here and we had a good discussion of the issues.

Malaysian Agrifood Corporation

2008-04-25T08:01:00.005-05:00

This morning I once again met Mr. Chan and we went to meet with the Chief Executive Officer of the Malaysian Agrifood Corporation, Azizi Meor Ngah. Malaysian Agrifood Corporation Berhad (MAFC) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Khazanah Nasional Berhad that was established in May 2006 to drive Malaysia’s food supply chain management and distribution system towards global standards in safety, quality and sustainability. I found Azizi Meor Ngah to be very personable. We had a very good discussion about their quest to improve Malaysian food production and empower small producers. He was very interested in American agriculture and in particular how our farmers’ cooperatives work. He also asked several questions regarding our government’s influence on agriculture. I told him our industry is much more based on free market principles.

Next Mr. Chan and I were joined by Pack Huang who has been coordinating my schedule while I am in Malaysia. We drove quite a distance to the other side of the mountains that run down the Malaysian peninsula to an area that the state government has opened up specifically for food production. Farmers and companies can apply to lease a portion of this land. MAFC has 100 acres here on which they have established a Papaya farm. I was unaware that papaya grew so fast. Plants that were planted in March started producing fruit in November. The papaya that they have at this location is a new variety that has been breed to have all of the best characteristics. The plants will produce for about 30 months before they get too tall for harvest and are replanted. This farm is a demonstration farm using all of the best management practices and it is hoped that the small, surrounding farmers will learn from this operation and improve their operation thus building a viable industry for export. Even now the young plants are producing two metric tons a week and one ton is being exported to England. In the future they will also rotate production with a new variety of pineapple. We tried some of the papaya and it was delicious.