Thread: Thailand’s maize mega farms: The cost of feeding the world’s appetite for meat

Thailand is Southeast Asia’s largest protein producer. As demand for meat grows, the forests and mixed-crop landscapes of the northern region have turned into maize mega farms to supply animal feed. Change is needed, say experts.

VIDEO Thailand’s mega maize farms: The cost of feeding the world’s appetite for meat | Video - CNA

IN FOCUS: Insatiable global meat appetite leaves Thai farmland scarred, rural communities in the dust

The road that rises and curls around the high ridgelines of Doi Inthanon - Thailand’s tallest mountain - can almost touch the clouds.


As the tarmac drops back to earth, the terrain languidly flattens, forming fertile valleys ideal for growing food - rice and vegetables like pumpkins and chillies.

But in the span of a generation, the area has turned into an industrial agriculture zone focused largely on a single crop: Maize.


“When I was young, it was all forest. Some people raised buffaloes, some collected mushrooms and bamboo shoots. We used to play around and pick vegetables to eat like snacks. We didn’t have to buy anything,” said Suthat Thephin, a farmer for about 30 years.


“But now, it’s all changed. The places where we used to play are gone and have become someone else’s farm.”

In Mae Chaem district, about 125 km west of Chiang Mai, the soil is now drained of life, crunching sharply underfoot.


Deep cuts of erosion run down hillsides like contour lines on a map.

Blackened corn cobs are the evidence of what was grown here a couple of months ago.


Maize is the fourth most grown crop in the country, prevailing in certain parts of the north and north-east. It is the dominant monoculture in the surrounding region too; in Myanmar’s Shan State and northern Laos.


By examining satellite data, the non-government organisation (NGO) Greenpeace found that 1.88 million hectares of forest in the Mekong Basin was converted for maize cultivation between 2015 and 2023, a figure dominated by these three regions.


All three areas serve the animal feed industry with direct or indirect links to Thailand.


Suthat is the sculptor of the landscape here, but she is far from being the architect. The industrial-scale changes that have swept over swathes of northern Thailand are part of the country’s efforts to scale up its economically-mighty meat sector.

MORE IN FOCUS: Insatiable global meat appetite leaves Thai farmland scarred, rural communities in the dust - CNA

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