Toyota Tomato

I got all confused in third grade when Ms Van Breemen talked about "truck farms." Even though I had my own corn and tomato patch in the back yard, and a huge farm behind us, her description of the truck farms in her native Southern Maryland made it sound like huge trucks drove around with dirt in the beds, and crops were planted right in there, so as to drive the fruits and veggies to the market without the trouble of being planted in the ground. 

I have always been too much the literalist. But then, look at what's going on in Thailand, where taxi cabs are sporting rooftop gardens!

These are not cabs that are going anywhere, though, sadly, due to the COVID.  They are parked for now. The two big taxi cooperatives, Ratchapruk and Bovorn, only have 500 cars left carrying people around Bangkok, with 2,500 cabs idle at various parking lots around town.

So, some workers made bamboo frames and stretched black plastic trash bags across them.  Adding soil to the tops, they then planted tomatoes, cucumbers and string beans.

It turns out, the main point, beyond growing salad stuff, is to draw attention to the sad state of taxi drivers and operators so badly affected by coronavirus lockdown measures.

There just aren't enough fares available, with people not going many places, and even though the cab companies cut the daily rental fee on the cars in half, drivers weren't making their daily nut, so they parked and walked.

“Some left their cars at places like gas stations and called us to pick the cars up,”  recalled a taxi company official.

Recently, Thailand has been seeing almost 15,000 new infections per day, after a peak of 23,400 in mid-August.  All told, the country has confirmed 1.4 million cases and over 14,000 deaths.

The taxi companies are in debt $60.8 million for the purchase of these vehicles, and so far, their government has offered no financial assistance.

These makeshift gardens are certainly not going to bring in $60.8 million. Staffers, with nothing better to do, are tending the crops. 

“The vegetable garden is both an act of protest and a way to feed my staff during this tough time,” says a cab company official. “Thailand went through political turmoil for many years, and a great flood in 2011, but business was never this terrible.”

We can only hope that this produce will help to feed some of the affected people.