1.Plan for GM crop field trials revived - Bangkok Post
2.Advice on GMOs for the prime minister - GM WATCH (in Bangkok Post)
GM WATCH comment: The Thai Government is flirting wih GM crops once again.
This time the attempt to get GM crop trials going is even more foolhardy than 3 years ago when we supported Thai consumer groups and environmentalists by pointing to the potential negative economic impact - see item 2.
Since then, of course, that impact has more than been confirmed by the plight of the US rice industry - a direct result of GM trials. China too is having rice exports rejected - again as a result of contamination arising out of GM trials.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7827
Ironically, Thailand is one of the main countries to achieve a competitive advantage from its rice industry being GM free - something farmers and exporters are extremely anxious to maintain.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7337
Still more ironically, when Thailand previously trialled GM papayas, it too triggered an ongoing contamination problem as well as lost exports.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4295
http://www.greenpeace.org/news/details?item_id=547563
As we note in our letter (item 2), there seems to be a fever that sweeps through political leaders leaving them believing they must succour the money-losing biotech industry or suffer a competitive disadvantage. The economist and biotech-industry specialist, Joseph Cortright calls it the "bad-idea virus".
And it's not just about economics, as vital a matter as that is for developing world countries and their farmers. Thailand's Ag Minister asks, ''Can anyone tell me how exactly GM crops are harmful?'' (item 1). Someone should give him a copy of Jeffrey Smith's new book, 'Genetic Roulette' which carefully documents over 300+ pages all the studies pointing to the health risks of genetically enginered foods. For the consumer GM foods offer nothing except additional risks. And by boycotting them, consumers not only protect themselves and their families but help to protect Third World farmers and the environment.
Last time around, when the now deposed Thai Prime Minister said his country's GM moratorium should be abandoned, his decision was overturned by his own Cabinet following a powerful campaign of opposition by Thai farmers, exporters and campaigners.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4268
Let's hope for Thailand's sake that the current military appointed administration is also open to such democratic pressures.
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1.Plan for GM crop field trials revived
Draft guidelines to go to cabinet next month
PIYAPORN WONGRUANG Bangkok Post, 4 May 2007
http://www.biothai.org/cgi-bin/content/news/show.pl?0451
The Agriculture and Cooperatives Ministry has revived a plan to conduct field trials of genetically modified crops. Minister Thira Sutabutra yesterday said he had told the Agriculture Department to draft guidelines on how the open-field trials should be conducted to ensure the environment and human health were not affected.
The department is expected to complete the transgenic crop trial framework by the end of the month, and the ministry would ask cabinet for approval of the draft next month, he said.
GM crops must pass three levels of biosafety tests - laboratory, greenhouse, and open field trials - before being endorsed for mass production.
Mr Thira said experiments on GM crops in the country had so far only been at the greenhouse level.
Open field trials were necessary if scientists wanted to know the possible impact of GM plants on the environment.
Field trials and commercialisation of GM crops were put on hold under a cabinet resolution in 2001, shortly after the spread of GM cotton which raised fears among the public of the adverse impact of GM plants on human health and the environment.
In the past six years, the ministry, which oversees experiments and planting of GM crops, has repeatedly tried to lift the ban, but failed due to opposition from environmentalists and farmers.
Protests against transgenic crop growing resurfaced in 2004, when GM papaya grown at an experimental field inside the department's research station in Khon Kaen were found in non-GM papaya plantations nearby.
Scientists say that genetic engineering technology will help reduce the use of harmful farm chemicals and fertiliser.
Mr Thira said the ministry decided to press ahead with field trials of GM crops because some neighbouring countries have been working on the technology and had yielded research outcomes that could put Thailand at a competitive disadvantage in the farm sector.
He said that many farmers suffered low farm yields from disease and pest outbreaks, which could be corrected by GM technology. ''We care about farmers, and we are not working on this issue without reason,'' he said.
Adisak Sreesunpagit, the Agriculture Department chief, said the department would try figuring out how the open field trials should be conducted.
He said the trials should be conducted under tight controls, while the experimental fields should be located away from other farms to prevent the plants from spreading into conventional crop areas.
If cabinet approves the trial, the potential crops which could be planted would be papaya, tomato, chilli, and pineapple, he said.
Mr Adisak said it was unreasonable to ban GM crop field trials.
''Can anyone tell me how exactly GM crops are harmful?'' he said.
Witoon Lianchamroon, director of BioThai, a non-profit organisation promoting biodiversity, said the ministry had not yet shown the public how it could stop GM crops spreading to conventional farms.
He said the ministry should drop the idea for the public good.
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2.Advice on GMOs for the prime minister
POSTBAG
Bangkok Post, 28 August 2004
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4913
We are writing to express our dismay at the news that you intend to give the green light to GM crops in Thailand. Your doing so risks grave harm both to Thailand's standing in the world and to the marketability of Thai agricultural produce.
We strongly support your exporters, farmers, consumers and civil society groups who are warning you that this is not in the interests of Thailand.
You have talked about the need for Thailand to jump aboard the biotech train before it's too late. This makes us wonder what you have been led to believe about where that train is heading? Were you told, for instance, of a recent report from one of the world's leading business advisory firms, Ernst & Young, showing that publicly traded biotechnology companies in the US are estimated to have suffered cumulative losses of more than $41 billion in the last decade or so?
Were you told that the economist and biotech-industry specialist, Joseph Cortright has described as a "bad-idea virus" the fever that sweeps through political leaders leaving them believing they must succour the money-losing biotech industry or suffer a competitive disadvantage?
Cortright's research on the biotech industry leads him to conclude: "This notion that you lure biotech to your community to save its economy is laughable."
Outside the developing world, GM crops are in serious retreat, as witnessed by Monsanto's recent announcements that it will: Stop all further efforts to introduce GM wheat globally; stop its GM canola breeding programmes in Australia; withdraw its cereal programmes from Europe. Other GM firms, like Bayer and Syngenta, have suffered similar setbacks.
You have said that Europe has opened its doors to GMOs but that is certainly not the view of countries like the US, who are trying to export GM crops to Europe. That is why the US is pressing ahead with its WTO action against the EU.
In fact, the EU has just brought in the world's most stringent rules on GMOs. Many European food companies and supermarkets also have policies of not allowing GMOs in their products.
This is the reason why the biotech industry, with the unprecedented backing of the US government, is trying to push its dubious wares in countries in Asia. Countries like Thailand have become the principal targets of a desperate industry.
GM crop supporters have doubtless told you that you are in danger of falling behind in Asia's "biotech race".
But look more closely and you'll see that that is nonsense. Monsanto has already pulled out of GM in Indonesia, where it is under investigation for corruption.
China's political leaders appear at best ambivalent about going further down the GM route because of increasing evidence of consumer hostility while experts like Prof Dayuan Xue warn that GM crops have brought no "significant benefits" to China's many small farmers.
One particularly intractable problem for your farmers and exporters is that GM contamination is difficult to contain or avoid, and the costs of trying to do so can be prohibitive. In addition, no studies have been conducted on the long-term effects of GM crops on the environment or on human health.
We therefore ask you not to base your decision solely on the advice of biotech advocates and the demands of Washington and corporations eager to export seeds and products to Thailand that are unwelcome elsewhere in the world. We ask you not to ignore the rights of your farmers and consumers just because of the hype and pressure that is coming from the US and the biotech corporations and their local supporters.
We ask you not to put at risk Thailand's excellent name for quality agricultural produce. And, most of all, we ask you to consult your farmers and consumers about whether they want GM crops.
JONATHAN MATTHEWS
Director, GM Watch
www.gmwatch.org