To date, the major forest fire news of the Amazon may have been replaced by the flooding in the northeast of Thailand and other news. Despite the shift of the attention on this news (which I prayed that the flame had gone out), this great loss has left us many lessons to think about while witnessing the ashes of many animals and trees.
In fact, the occurrence of forest fires is not uncommon for nature. Besides, it is also important in the cycle of some forests such as mixed deciduous and dry dipterocarp forest. The grass seeds that many animals have been waiting to graze, some of them being stimulated by flames. But it is something that will happen when nature is the kind of person who ignites itself, not human
Amid concerns from people around the world about the fires of the Amazon forest, as it is known that this forest is equivalent to a "lung" of the planet, however, Brazil or the Brazilian government to be exact, seems more sluggish. They think that this is more of a cause in their own home that they tend to ignore the help from the international agencies despite the fact that Brazil as a country owns more areas of the Amazon. Many people, including me, are worried and wondering why the Brazilian government has this act toward the situation.
Until many news agencies have tried to reveal the fact that this forest fire is a result of government policies with their attempt to clear the forest and turn the area to economic value.
According to the news related to the Brazilian government policy, it is stated that Brazil is now the third-largest beef exporter in the world, and seems to be trying to hold this position attentively. In order to meet the demand for meat consumption in the world market which is on the uptrend, Brazil is trying to increase the amount of beef cattle raised. And when raising cows, animal foods such as soybeans also need to be used more. This is the reason that led to turning the rainforest into a pasture. (Admittedly speaking, I was undeniably thinking of many fields of forage on the mountains in the north of our country when hearing about this kind of stroy.)
It seems that being one of the volume of exports is already addictive in some countries, even Thailand. From childhood up until now, I have always been told in school that our country is striving to be the world's largest exporter every year. Our country is very proud of this position. Until some years, when the position was given to other countries, many Thai people or adults around me felt anxious like this setback is a deadly matter.
Let’s question back what are the rewards of people in our country despite getting this number one ranking exporter position? Thailand exports a lot of rice every year, but Thailand still has to deal with the problem of falling rice prices until having to insure and have to pledge prices all the time. Farmers sell a lot of rice every year, but they are still struggling to deal with big amount of debt from caused by agricultural investment. The attempt to grow a lot of products to maintain the first rank or to claim the number one exporter, comes with many consequences from a must to grow more rice, leading to use of pesticide and chemicals to level up the productivity. Not only that, some people who fully grow plants in their own land tend to secretly invade forest to get more farming space. This vicious cycle harms not just the health of the consumers, but also harms the nature as we can see news often about forest fires, floods or polluted water these days. I still have doubt until these days that is it right to export a lot as I don’t know if there’s a real demand. It seems like the more we export, the cheaper the price becomes. This means something must be wrong already.
Sometimes we will have to review and revisit our direction again whether to be number one on the quantity racetrack is the right thing to do or not. This does not include just rice, but also other agricultural products. If the competition does not produce good results or results are low and not worth it, should we still continue in this competition? Don't forget that food exports are not just about quantity but also quality. Isn't it better that our country, Thailand can produce agricultural products that are grown meticulously and safely, without chemicals, yet have delicious taste to many people? Isn’t it better to make the world wait excitedly to buy those kinds of products exclusively from us? This can also be the charm of rice and other cash crops from Thailand as well, isn't it?
Author
Pianchai Makmee
Independent Writer