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Stop the Smoke 2019 Fundraising



We’re donating 20% of proceeds from 28 - 30 April 2019 

to help Warm Heart Foundation raise $13,000 USD. their goal is to convert 5% of corn fields (800 hectares) in Mae Chaem city to biochar fertilized coffee fields. this will reduce greenhouses gases, as they are not slash & burn harvest fields.

Did you know that this year in March, the North of Thailand had the worst air quality in the entire world?

The North of Thailand (and surrounding countries) have historically burned their fields to clear up debris after crop harvests. In the past couple years this has been getting worse, due to the increase in corn fields which are used for animal feed stock.

The process of burning debris from fields after harvest releases tonnes of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere (carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, hydrocarbons) all of which settle in the Chiang Mai mountain valley, leading to the problem of particulate matter (PM 2.5) which makes the air unsafe to breath, causing many health problems for the local population and increases global warming.

In Mae Chaem for instance 60,000 tonnes are burned releasing 375,000 kilograms of PM 2.5 particulates into the air. 375,000 kg is equivalent to the smoke of 26,828,732,400 cigarettes.
In 2017, Warm Heart Foundation created a pilot program to reduce the greenhouse gases emitted from burning by introducing a simple barrel incinerator which farmers can use to burn their field waste. A byproduct of this type of burning is less carbon particles released into the air and the carbon biochar product left over can be used or sold as a compound in natural fertiliser.
But they’re still burning? Yes, but the carbon is trapped in solid form instead of being released into the air. That carbon can be used in fertilizers.In-depth series on biochar here.
In 2018, Warm Heart Foundation taught farmers how to create biochar based fertilizers and compost. They used these organic fertilizers were used in corn farmers test plots against more conventional method of using chemical fertilizers. These test plots were successful and word has spread, which created an incentive for farmers to use their waste products to create biochar, instead of simply burning their fields after harvest.

Now Warm Heart Foundation is doing a fundraiser to help farmers replace their corn crops with higher value coffee, bamboo and native trees to help stop the burning problem all together. Coffee unlike corn or rice, do not need to be replanted after harvest, so this avoids burning all together.
They plan on converting 800 hectares of corn crops in Mae Chaem to coffee. That’s 5% of the total amount of land in Mae Chaem used for corn fields changed over to coffee.

They’re looking to raise $13,000 USD
to accomplish this goal, and we’d like to help.

Feel free to donate directly to this campaign here:

https://www.crowdrise.com/o/en/campaign/stop-the-smoke-2019

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