DEC 2, 2016

'i Study These Pea Flowers To Help Combat Global Warming'

I was born and raised in rural Thailand. As a child, my dad took me to his work everyday. At the time, he worked as an agricultural engineer in the driest part of Thailand. He helped design irrigation systems for local fruits and vegetables.

Each day, as I visited the agricultural fields at my dad's work, I learned more and more about plants. I also experienced how plants and agriculture are indispensable to the livelihood of Thai people, especially to the poorest communities.

Growing up, I wanted to take my passion for plants to places. I became increasingly interested in plants of the 'pea' and 'bean' family. Why? I learned of their incredible ability to harvest atmospheric nitrogen and convert it into 'natural fertilisers'. This is a system with immense potential to improve our agricultural and environmental systems, yet most people have never heard of it.

During my last university year studying plant science, I decided I wanted to know more about these 'pea plants'. I designed my dissertation project to look at the nitrogen-fixing ability of various species of peas and beans. During these laborious but fascinating months of my dissertation work, I found out things about this plant family that amazed me even more.

I wanted to share the importance of this plant family to the public, in a non-technical and relate-able way, so I spent the next several months filming pea flowers in the wild and producing a short-documentary to explain what these plants actually are and why they are so important to humans and to the environment, especially in the serious face of global climate change.

More info: indiegogo.com