On Wednesday, March 29, the Pattaya City Expats Club (PCEC) featured speakers on two topics. Pascal Deville, Nutritionist, with the assistance of Regis Vincent, Aquaponics Hardware Asia (AHA) spoke about the aquaponics farming project they are creating in Pattaya. The second speaker was Journalist Patrick Mattimore providing his insights on whether the Press can be objective in their reporting.
Pascal has been in the food supplement industry for 27 years, including 16 years as a nutrition coach and founder of the Pattaya Nutrition Club in 2007. He operates the Health Hut shop with his latest project, in conjunction with AHA, being an aquaponics farm in the Pattaya area.
Pascal explained that aquaponics refers to the combination of aquaculture and the cultivation of plants hydroponically through a system that replicates the same natural ecosystem found in rivers and ponds. In nature, fish feed on plants and bacteria converts fish waste into nutrients on which plants grow. It is a continuous process that produces plants without the need for chemicals or pesticides. He then pointed out the benefits of products created through aquaponic systems including providing the healthiest and freshest possible products which are tasty and full of nutrients. Further, it is very fresh as the food is produced locally where it is consumed avoiding nutrient depletion due to storage and transport time.
Pascal then called upon Regis who went into detail on how to set up an aquaponics farm, both commercially and domestically. He noted that AHA is a technical expert with over 7 years of knowledge and experience acquired in their laboratories and production units. Regis described how the aquaponics farm is being developed by Pascal with their assistance here in Pattaya as well as other projects in Asia. He noted that AHA provides technical assistance in designing, building, starting up, and operating commercial aquaponics farms. Further, they also assist those that wish to set up a domestic system for their own house, garden, or any other place.
To view a video of their presentation, visit the PCEC’s YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Kt9-v4L47Q. Although not part of the presentation, visit: https://www.pattayamail.com/latestnews/news/human-help-network-pattaya-win-first-prize-for-aquaponics-project-427439 for the Pattaya Mail’s very recent article about Pattaya’s Human and Health Network receiving first prize for their aquaponics project.
It was a very different subject presented by Patrick Mattimore. His topic was “Can the press be objective?” As a journalist himself, Patrick is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) and has written commentaries for a variety of publications, daily newspapers, professional magazines, and weeklies.
Patrick said that Objectivity is often defined as something based on facts and not influenced by personal beliefs or feelings. He then commented on the difficulties faced by journalist in trying to be objective and explains how objectivity can be strived for by journalists, but never fully achieved. To illustrate his point, he noted that there are diverging views between the European and American press and how there have been several changes in the SPJ’s Code of Ethics since its inception in 1926 relative to being objective in reporting.
He then described some of the differing views on what objectivity means. He mentioned that the marketplace has a great influence on how the “facts” may be presented as most news organizations are profit motivated and thus cater their readers in the marketplace. He provided some examples on how bias can be introduced into a news report by simply changing a word used which can alter the readers’ interpretation of the facts being presented. To view Patrick’s presentation, visit the PCEC’s YouTube Channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-O7Y_QnT30.
After the presentations, MC Ren Lexander than mentioned some upcoming events before calling on George Wilson to conduct the Open Forum portion of the meeting where the audience comment and ask questions about Expat living in Thailand. To learn more about the PCEC, visit their website at: https://pcec.club.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-O7Y_QnT30&t=2s.
