Drought and desertification threaten farming traditions in northern Thailand. But some have discovered that the humble cricket may hold the key to restoring the earth.

The chirping of crickets forms the natural soundtrack to life in Isaan, Northern Thailand. Here, harvest is seen as a circular exchange between people and land. Buddhism and animistic traditions remind communities that survival depends on tending the earth so that it may, in turn, sustain them. In Dansai, the village is headed by two mediums through whom agricultural wisdom is channeled from the spirit world. These mediums perform rituals that reaffirm the community’s bond with nature. 

But Isaan, known as the breadbasket of the nation, is now at the forefront of Thailand’s environmental crisis. Sparse rain limits the dissolution of nutrients in the soil, while floods wash away topsoil, further degrading the already fragile land.

Crickets offer a new solution. For generations, crickets and other insects have supplemented the Isaan diet. Now farmers are adapting to using cricket frass, derived from exoskeletons and the waste of farmed crickets, to replenish lost minerals in the soil. A natural, organic fertiliser, the crickets that have fed them now also feed the land. This long term project on film explores the role of traditional wisdom in the face of modern challenges.