Watch a video report of MSU researchers at work in Thailand and Laos.
Jamie DePolo, Office of Biobased Technologies, is accompanying Jay Samek and David Skole during their research trip.
July 20, 2009
And now the work begins
Today was the longest Monday I've ever experienced – about 36 hours worth all told, much of it spent on airplanes returning home. I have more than 60 pages of notes from interviews with government officials, scientists and farmers in Thailand and Laos, plus interviews with Dave Skole and Jay Samek of the MSU Carbon2Markets program. More >>
July 17, 2009
MSU research scientist Jay Samek’s wife is originally from Laos, so when he’s here he tries to make time to visit his mother-, sisters- and brother-in-law. He’s invited me to participate in the boci ceremony his mother-in-law has arranged. Boci is a Buddhist ceremony to offer blessings for for things such as safe travel, good health and prosperity. More >>
July 16, 2009
Laos is very beautiful but much less developed than Thailand. The country has more farmers, but doesn’t have the community structures (like the Inpang Network in Thailand) to connect the farmers to markets for their products. More >>
July 13, 2009
At Serm’s Place
Khun Serm Udomna is 71. He’s been a farmer his whole life and is one of the founders of the Inpang Network in Kut Bak in the Sakon Nakhon Province of Thailand. He has almost 300 species of plants (including trees) on his 10-acre farm, plus crabs, fish, birds, spiders, frogs and cows. His family of 12 get all they need from what he grows, including food, firewood, building materials and medicinal herbs. More >>
July 12, 2009
I’m riding in the bed of a small pick-up truck with 14 Thai girls, most of whom are about 9 or 10. We’re riding to look at fields planted with jatropha seedlings provided by the MSU Carbon2Markets program.
More >>
July 11, 2009
Farming in Thailand is incredibly hard work, at least to my eyes. I know that all farming involves heavy manual labor and long hours in the sun, but spending four hours on a tractor seems like a vacation compared to the bending and stooping and sloshing through the mud that goes into rice production. I don’t think I can ever eat rice again without having this image flash through my mind. More >>
July 8, 2009
Counting carbon: Allowing developing countries to participate in climate mitigation
When the Kyoto Protocol was ratified and went into effect, it placed limits on carbon emissions in what are called Annex 1 countries – the 40 or so developed nations such as the Canada, Australia and almost all European countries. The protocol’s emission limitations didn’t apply to developing nations such as Thailand. More >>
July 8, 2009
Usa Klinkhom, professor at Mahasarakham University in Thailand, or “Dr. Usa” as everyone calls her, is a national expert on Thai biodiversity, but it wasn’t necessarily what she set out to study. When the Green Revolution came to Asia, she saw the forests in northeastern Thailand being clear cut to make way for fields of cassava and other crops that farmers thought would bring them a lot of money quickly. More >>
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