Khamkhian believes that the villagers’ constant battle with poverty and hunger results from their being caught up in the mainstream, greed motivated economy. He encourages the villagers to be self sufficient by raising their own vegetables, digging familyfishponds, and growing fruit trees, instead of producing and selling a single crop like tapioca or eucalyptus and buying food from outside the village. Near his forest monastery, he gave a plot of land to one family to try organic vegetable gardening without the use of chemical fertilizers or pesticides, and the experiment was successful. To broaden the villagers’ perspectives,