SOI PRACHA UTHIT 76, THUNG KRU — The nearest road stops at Khlong Bang Mot, about 300 meters short of where the concrete grid of southwestern Bangkok gives way to a 4,300-square-meter agricultural enclave.

SAFETist Farm features about 110 plant varieties, more than 1,000 fish in its closed pond and no road access. Here, alongside a canal where residents still travel by boat, wooden piers and hand-built greenhouses replace asphalt and high-rises.

Fourteen people live on the farm full-time.

They grow their own vegetables, run air conditioners on solar power and fix what’s broken themselves. They cap monthly spending at 500 baht for food and 380 baht for utilities, with the farm covering other shared infrastructure.

“Look, look, look at that gourd … do you see that big red chilli? Show him. Take a picture,” co-founder Wilaiwan Prathumwong said as she toured the property. “We get excited over stuff like this,” farm manager On-uma Sadeen told Soiciety, admiring the oversized pepper.

The project began as an experimental move away from corporate life, built around food and health, eco-tourism and community outreach.

Some residents work full-time at the farm — including On-uma and programming manager Thawatchai Sirasang, who each earn 6,000 baht a month — while others hold outside jobs and return to the farm to live.

“We wanted to test whether this kind of lifestyle in a city is liveable,” Wilaiwan said. “And we’re learning that it is. We’re saying the sharing economy is doable, and it’s a better way.”

The team aims to turn this canalside plot into a model for low-cost, community-based living — one they eventually want to take beyond Thailand.

They don’t yet consider SAFETist a model that others can simply copy. They described the people living there as “unusually committed.”

The farm’s founders have known each other since 2009 as volunteers under a collective called Siam Araya, doing community service on weekends while holding regular jobs. Wilaiwan said the arrangement never sat right with her.

“It’s like we sold our souls to capitalism, you know?” she said. “Monday to Friday, we can’t decide our own lives — we have to finish our work so we can get paid. But our real spirit lives on the weekends, when we want to do something useful for society and the country.”

They discussed collaborating for years, but nothing materialized until a friend they considered “healthy” died of cancer in 2019, which shifted the group’s focus toward food.

None of them had farming experience. Wilaiwan grew up around rice fields in Sisaket, where her parents farmed, but said she never expected to live that way herself.

“I used to think going back to farm life was impossible,” she said. “I liked it. I just couldn’t imagine I’d actually live that way.”

The group tried a few ventures first.

One was a coffee shop on Pracha Uthit 47. Another was an Ekkamai restaurant built around herbs as medicine. It opened in February 2020 and shut down within a month after COVID-19 hit.

They moved to the current site later that year and leased it for 20 years. They spent about six months traveling Thailand to study organic farming.

The move coincided with the pandemic, which reshaped what they were building.

“When COVID-19 hit, everyone was hoarding,” On-uma said. “That’s when we realized food isn’t just about safety but also about security. That’s when we knew this was the answer.”

She added: “(Our mentor) said the future will bring more crises and only coming together as a community will be the answer. So we talked and realized food safety alone wasn’t the answer; we had to build a sustainable community.”

SAFETist integrates the surrounding neighborhood into its tours, bringing visitors to a nearby coconut farm or arranging canal trips on converted electric boats piloted by residents.

“We don’t have to do everything ourselves,” Wilaiwan said. “That’s already part of who we are. We want to build friendships, build connections. So we present the whole canal, the whole community, not just us.”

Turning that experiment into something sustainable, however, has meant learning how to run a business. On-uma said the shift to that mindset has been one of the hardest parts, as everyone came from volunteer backgrounds.

SAFETist earns money in three ways. Vegetable subscriptions account for about 20% of revenue, which alone covers full-time staff. Paid tours and learning programs bring in about 70%. Donations make up the remaining 10%.

“We never used to think about any of this,” On-uma said. “But once you’re in business mode, you have to think about how to take care of people, how much revenue you need to hit. At the same time, we still want to hold onto that civil-society spirit.”

The group’s first attempt at a business model was informal. Under that earlier system, each resident paid 500 baht a month to hire another resident to farm full-time. They also turned raw vegetables into ready-to-cook packages to sell.

That covered basic costs but wasn’t a business, Wilaiwan said. The farm brought on a consultant in their third year, pushing them toward the current model.

Vegetable subscriptions range from 750 to 2,350 baht per month. Delivery, capped at 240 baht for a 30-kilometer radius reaching as far as Punnavithi, occurs on Sundays and Mondays. The program has 15 customers, with a goal of 100.

Tours are customized to each group’s interests. Wilaiwan said families show the most visible change during a visit: kids put down their phones, and parents notice.

Older visitors tend to buy potted vegetables. Foreign tourists, she said, often react to the canal itself, a version of the city many didn’t know still existed.

Annual revenue is about 1.2 million baht, offset by fixed monthly costs of about 50,000 baht. Any surplus funds construction.

Separate from the farm lease, the group is paying installments on a 1,600-square-meter plot it bought next door to build 18 houses. Total spending on the farm over six years has passed 10 million baht, Wilaiwan said.

“Every baht we get, we have to put toward structures,” she said. “As soon as we get the money, we build a bathroom. As soon as we get more, we build a greenhouse.”

That explains the poles sitting in an empty swamp, waiting for houses to go up, and the multi-purpose room next door, still waiting for its bathroom.

They have also applied for outside grants to supplement revenue. Their consultant told them they need at least 250,000 baht a month to stay financially stable, On-uma said.

SAFETist’s priority is to finish the houses. Once the construction is done, Wilaiwan said the group plans to spend less time on the farm itself and more time traveling, carrying what they’ve learned to other provinces — and eventually other countries.

“All 77 provinces should have a model like SAFETist Farm,” On-uma said.

Wilaiwan’s longer-term vision is more specific: a foreigner doing yoga on the farm, someone working on a PhD who spends two months digging soil and growing vegetables alongside them.

“The whole world has to come here,” Wilaiwan said. “When someone’s looking for a co-living or self-sustaining model in Bangkok, in Thailand, the answer is: it’s here.”

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