Hi there 👩🌾👨🌾 ,
We are Nok and Kampon, the founders, farmers and makers behind Happy Earth Farm - a small organic farm in Thailand where we make body care goods entirely from what we grow. We are so glad you are here!
For almost 20 years, we have been working on this land and turned a once industrial farm into a certified organic farm. Throughout this journey, we have learned so much not only about ourselves but also about the interconnectedness that all creatures share with one another on this planet Earth.
You could say that our journey began in 2005 when our daughter was born and we returned back to our family farm, but the truth is, it all started long before that, when words like climate change or zero-waste lifestyle did not exist.
LIVE...
Years before starting the farm in 2005, we both were working at local Non-Profit Organizations in resource management, forestry and alternative agriculture promotion for several years. We got to work with the hill tribes in Chiang Mai on projects that prevent deforestation. We worked with villages in the North East of Thailand to protest against the construction of a dam. We organized protests against the government’s policy to build an electric plant in the South of Thailand. We interviewed community leaders on the impact of environmental policy and organic farming. We saw how government policy and industrial development have had an impact on the local community, health and the environment first hand and we are motivated to do whatever we can to protect what we have.
Unfortunately, money often wins over the people and most of our effort went in vain. We felt a disconnection between people and the environment and we were defeated over and over again.
With growing frustration with the government policy, capitalism and the deteriorating state of health and environments, we felt like something needs to change.
When our daughter was born in 2005, we realized that we could not wait for anyone to change the world for us, but we need to change it ourselves. So, we decided to create the kind of life where we can truly be self-sufficient while reducing our ecological and environmental footprint at the same time.
LEARN...
Luckily, we have a family farm in Uthaitani. After quitting our jobs, we all moved back to the farm in the hope that our daughter could grow up in the most natural environment possible.
Despite the rocky start turning a once-industrial farm into an organic farm, we started to implement regenerative farming principles to grow food on our land. Believing in the interconnectedness of all life forms on earth, we see our farm as a whole ecosystem where we need to work with the “life force” of Mother Nature to heal the earth and grow food without the use of chemicals. Not only do we avoid any pesticides or herbicides on our land, we also try our best to use only our farm’s own resources in growing food. For example, we make our own fertilizer from chicken poop. We rely on the farm’s biodiversity including bugs and bees to protect our orchard from harmful insects.
It was not an easy journey, especially when our family didn’t understand what we were trying to do. Many times, we had to stand up for our own beliefs. Many people were looking down at us and said it sounds good in theory but it’s a different thing in practice. After a few years, one day we felt like we couldn't do it anymore and really thought of giving up. At that point we started to look around us and hear birds chirping and bees buzzing on our field. Our rice, sesame and all our plants looked like they were all thriving happily together with all the different creatures on our land. That’s when we realized that all our time and effort was not at all lost. We were able to restore the vitality of the land and all lives on it. We were making Mother Earth happy. That’s why we named our farm ‘Happy Earth’.
At around the same time, we also started to learn about different herbs and the traditional healing wisdom from the locals. Stories from the past told us how people used to clean their bodies, how limes are great for hair and scalp and how people would pat their face with rice water before going out. The more we learned about it, the more we were inspired to replace our usual chemical body care products by making ones of our own. In part, because we want to preserve these folktales for the future generations. At the same time, we felt like we could no longer trust the profit-seeking corporations to have our best interest in mind.
GROW...
Within 5 years, we managed to get an IFOAM organic certification for our farm, and we were able to replace all the chemical body care products with ones of our own. At the same time, our farm started to bear more fruits than we could finish.
Instead of just selling our crops to middlemen as cash crops like other farmers, we decided to use them to share our story, spread the philosophy of living in harmony with Mother Earth, and inspire change from within.
Thanks to grandma and many old folks who shared with us stories of how they used to care for their body combined with our knowledge of medicinal herbs and homemade body care products, we were able to come up with a line of products that are totally free from chemicals by using only what we grow at the farm. And we consider them the gifts from our land to the world.
Through these gifts, we hope to bring back the old ways of living and take people on a journey to self acceptance and reconnect everyone to Mother Earth once again.
Hopefully by sharing this journey with you, we can inspire you to join this journey to live, learn, and grow together with Mother Earth.
Thank you for reading this far. You can learn more about our products, check out our Instagram profile or sign up to our Newsletter for the latest updates.
Sending beautiful rainbows and butterflies from our farm your way wherever you are,
- Nok & Kamphon.
Kind words of encouragement
