Green_light_for_GMOs_in_Thailand_-_the_nightmare_begins

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> Subject:

GMW:_Green_light_for_GMOs_in_Thailand_-_the_nightmare_begins

> " GM_WATCH " <info

> Sat, 21 Aug 2004 22:09:47 +0100

 

>

> GM WATCH daily

> http://www.gmwatch.org

> ---

> FOCUS ON ASIA

> http://www.gmwatch.org/p1temp.asp?pid=42 & page=1

>

> The latest news from Thailand follows the

> extraodinary trade pressures brought to bear ever

> since Thailand introduced a modicum of GM food

> labelling and a moratorium on growing GM crops - a

> moratorium which now looks set to be overturned

>

> In 2001 the head of the Thai Food and Drug

> Administration revealed how a visiting US trade

> delegation had threatened trade sanctions against

> Thai imports, worth about US$8.7bn a year, if

> labelling went ahead. The threats to invoke Section

> 301 of the U.S. trade laws were made during an

> official visit.

>

http://www.just-food.com/news_detail.asp?art=37810 & c=1

>

> Then earlier this year, the Thai Environment

> Minister publicly objected to the U.S.'s insisting

> that Thailand grow GM crops as a condition of a

> bilateral free trade agreement.

> http://www.twnside.org.sg/title2/service117.htm

>

> Now - surprise, surprise - the Thai Prime Minister

> says he is going to revoke an earlier ban on the

> commercial use of GM crops, in defiance, as the

> article below notes, of 'wide opposition from

> farmers, environmentalists and consumer networks'.

>

> This follows the pattern of what happened in Sri

> Lanka after it introduced a ban on GM food in May

> 2001 in order to allow time for the health risks to

> be studied. At the time of the announcement sri

> Lanka's Director General of Health Services said

> that the safety of consumers was paramount and that

> the ban would remain in place until worldwide

> concerns about GM foods were settled. After intense

> pressure from the U.S. and the W.T.O., however, Sri

> Lanka's ban was indefinitely postponed.

>

> What makes what's now happening in Thailand

> particularly ironic is that Greenpeace has recently

> exposed a scandal involving GM contamination of

> papaya seeds. The seeds, which have been sold to

> Thai farmers, appear to have been contaminated by GM

> crop trials carried out at a Thai research station

> in contravention of the existing ban.

> http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4182

>

> Yet the Thai Prime Minister's response to what is

> potentially one of the worst cases of GM

> contamination of a major food crop in Asia, is not

> to tighten the existing ban but to revoke it!

>

> Interestingly, the biotech-industry backed ISAAA is

> the main financial backer of the just-launched

> Biotechnology Alliance Association which plans 'to

> promote biotechnology' in Thailand. At one and the

> same time, ISAAA has established a new Center to

> promote GMOs in India, as part of the biotech

> industry's campaign there to remove regulatory

> hurdles to the rapid introduction of GMOs.

>

> 1.Comment from Deejay Songtian

> 2.POLICY REVERSAL: Green light for GMOs

> ---

> 1.Comment from GM WATCH r Deejay Songtian:

>

> As the GM papaya contamination spreads, the Thai

> Prime Minister announces that GM crops will be

> grown....

>

> Last night I had a dream. I dreamt that I was

> walking down a crowded Soi near my office, arriving

> at my favorite Som Tam (green papaya salad) stall,

> drawn by the sound 'tum-tum-tum-tum….' As I sat down

> on a rickety wooden bench, I called out my order and

> glanced around. And my heart stopped. There were no

> people around me. Limbs covered in brown fur, huge

> wet eyes, long teeth chewing through strips of green

> papaya, fine black whiskers dripping sweat. There

> were no people around me. I was alone among Guinea

> Pigs. When I opened my mouth to scream, I heard the

> squeal of a rat. Then I saw my whiskers dripping

> sweat, the fur on my arms, claws scratching at my

> own face. As I turned to run my body was thrown

> against a wall of wire; the wall of a cage.... Then

> I woke up. My heart beating rapidly, feeling my

> face, rubbing my bare arms for comfort, I stumbled

> outside to catch my breath. And there I saw it, a

> narrow column in the newspaper lying at my feet: 'GM

> Papaya Declared Safe'. Safe because some scientists

> said it's safe. Because the guinea pigs that ate it

> hadn't died. Hadn't died yet, because we became

> them. And now the nightmare begins….

>

> Deejay Songtian, Bangkok, Aug 21, 2004

> ---

> 2.POLICY REVERSAL: Green light for GMOs

> PM authorises planting, trading of modified crops

> after testing

> Kamol Sukin

> The Nation, 21 Aug 2004

>

http://www.biothai.org/cgi-bin/content/news/show.pl?0269

>

> Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra yesterday bestowed

> the government's tacit blessing on the planting and

> trading of genetically modified (GM) crops by

> revoking an earlier ban on their commercial use, in

> defiance of wide opposition from farmers,

> environmentalists and consumer networks.

>

> In contrast to the current policy that only permits

> GM crops to be grown in laboratories for

> experimental purposes, the revision will allow for

> open planting and commercialisation of GM crops

> provided they receive approval from the Bio Safety

> Committee (BSC), the premier said.

>

> The announcement was made yesterday after Thaksin

> chaired a meeting of the National Biotechnology

> Policy Board (NBPB) at the Science Ministry.

>

> " We are not going to promote GM crops, but we will

> not slam the doors shut on their development. We

> will allow for their plantation and

> commercialisation as we do for other crops, " said

> Sakarindr Bhumiratana, NBPB secretary and president

> of the National Science and Technology Development

> Agency (NSTDA), who relayed the prime minister's

> speech.

>

> After outlining Thaksin's three basic options of

> promoting GM crops, allowing them to be planted and

> commercialised, and imposing an outright ban on

> their commercial use, Sakarindr said: " We choose the

> second option. "

>

> " The current policy caused misunderstanding among

> researchers and private biotech companies that led

> to a decrease in related research and investment, "

> he said.

>

> " The policy change is needed. Otherwise Thailand

> will fail to keep abreast of the global current in

> the GM-crop trade, " Sakarindr added.

>

> As a means of kick-starting the policy next Tuesday,

> the Cabinet will revoke the resolution it passed on

> April 3, 2001 that effectively bans any handling of

> GM crops outside a research environment.

>

> The Bio Safety Committee has been tasked with

> issuing suitable safety measures within three months

> in a bid to implement the new policy as soon as

> possible.

>

> Meanwhile the Natural Resource and Environment

> Ministry has been assigned to draft the Bio Safety

> bill within one year, while the Science Ministry has

> been granted authority over assessing the safety of

> GM crops and related products.

>

> The premier's political about-face has inflamed

> local farmers, environmentalists and consumer

> networks.

>

> " The policy is putting Thai people at risk, " said

> Witoon Lianchamroon, director of the BioThai

> Network.

>

> " How can the government place its trust in the Bio

> Safety Committee when it has long been known as a

> paper tiger? It has no legal power to enforce the

> rules and therefore cannot make private companies

> adopt its guidelines, " he said.

>

> The networks said they believed the decision stemmed

> from heavy US pressure and giant biotech corporation

> Monsanto, which allegedly aims to monopolise the

> Thai grain and agricultural markets.

>

> Witoon said he anticipated a national upswell of

> protest against the premier's decision to

> decriminalise the crops.

>

> " It is a mammoth mistake, and the premier will

> undoubtedly suffer the consequences, " Witoon said.

> " Thaksin has doubled back on his 'big promise' to

> farmers and environmental groups, " Witoon said,

> referring to the April 3, 2001 Cabinet resolution

> which was the result of protracted negotiations

> between rival lobbying and government groups.

>

> Witoon said the resolution represented Thaksin's

> promise to put the issue to bed before 2001, when a

> leak of genetically modified cotton was discovered

> in the northeastern provinces.

>

> " The policy will put Thailand at risk of further

> contamination from GM crops, which may spread to

> natural plants. The premier will take us to the

> point of no return, " he said, referring to the

> potentially irreparable level of damage some believe

> GM crops will wreak.

>

> " The lesson to be learned from the BT cotton episode

> in Loei province is that controlling contamination

> is impossible and thus there is a large inherent

> danger, " he added.

>

> " Before long an opposition movement will take place.

> Not only from our network but also from other

> consumer and environmental networks, " warned Witoon.

>

> Varoonvarn Svangsopakul, a campaigner from

> Greenpeace Southeast Asia, said the policy would

> make eating GM-contaminated food unavoidable.

>

> " GM products are banned in most countries,

> especially our 'expert' countries like the EU and

> Japan. Consumers there reject them to avoid possible

> side-effects, " she said.

>

> " Next week we will hold a special session and invite

> GMO scientists from Britain to update us on the

> latest GMO safety developments, " she added.

>

> Jacques-chai Chomthongdi, founding member of the

> Free Trade Agreement Watch, said he believed the

> government had been swayed by lobbying from Monsanto

> Thailand and the US government, which wants to

> protect its biotech trade.

>

> " The US Trade Representatives expressed quite

> clearly during my visit to Washington DC several

> months ago that granting intellectual property

> rights [iPR] for GM grain was the staple US policy

> and it was not subject to negotiation regardless of

> nation, " he said.

>

> " Recently the US government stated in its proposed

> free-trade agreement [FTA] to the Thai government

> that Thailand had to support the implementation of

> IPRs, agree with the benefits and use of GMO

> technology and make Thai people understand that GM

> technology was not dangerous, " he said.

>

> " There is no other reason why the US had to sign an

> FTA with Thailand as it was already receiving

> benefits in deals made in other business sectors, "

> he added.

>

> Discussions on penning a Thai-US FTA began this

> year, with follow-up talks scheduled for Hawaii next

> October and the third round slated for soon after

> that in Bangkok.

>

> Apart from the new policy on GM crops, yesterday's

> meeting also saw the Bt660-million Bio Park project

> approved in an endeavour to boost the nation's

> competitiveness in the biotech industry.

>

> The NSTDA was also granted principal authority in

> developing a " shrimp cluster " to promote the

> domestic shrimp industry by exploiting new

> biotechnology.

>

> Responding to the government's announcement,

> Monsanto's spokesman Khongthas Janchai said the

> company was " very happy " with the reversal and

> planned to launch field tests for two potential GM

> crops, the Round-up Ready and Bt maizes, in the near

> future.

>

> " We believe GM crops can coexist with native plants

> without any negative impact. The government is on

> the right track, " he said.

>

> Khongthas denied accusations by the farmers' network

> that Monsanto had developed a special relationship

> with NSTDA's scientists and had applied pressure to

> amend the policy.

>

> Scores of farmers and environmental networks

> contacted by The Nation yesterday said they were

> currently discussing ways of responding to the new

> crop policy to register their protest.

>

> " We cannot reveal how this movement will express

> itself, but it will happen in a big way, and we are

> hoping for large-scale public support, " said one

> environmental activist contacted by telephone.

>

> GM crops

>

> Genes are the blueprints for every living organism.

> Genetic engineering is the process of artificially

> modifying these blueprints. By cutting and splicing

> DNA – essentially genetic surgery – genetic

> engineers can transfer genes from one organism to

> any other organism on earth.

>

> In the case of plants, scientists want to transfer

> desirable qualities, for example, to make a crop

> resistant to herbicides or to enhance food value.

> Scientists in favour of genetically modified

> organisms believe the practice could lead to a

> secure future for food.

>

> Another group of scientists disagree. They contend

> genetically modified crops will produce new toxins

> and allergens in foods, affecting the health of

> consumers. They are also concerned about large-scale

> environmental and ecological damage.

>

> Introducing GM crops would also lead to a

> significant loss of biodiversity, especially the

> native species, they say.

>

> Scientific evidence on GM crops is still

> insufficient to judge whether they are safe for

> human consumption. Most studies of the GM crops are

> currently laboratory-based with few field

> experiments having been conducted.

>

>

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/page.news.php3?clid=2 & id=119371 & usrsess=1

>