"No study has been conducted on the long-term effects of GMO
crops on the environment and human health, so why is the government
rushing to commercialize GMOs in the country? The government is
directly putting the Thai people and environment at risk," said
Jiragorn Gajaseni, Executive Director of Greenpeace Southeast
Asia.
Thailand's National GMO Policy, drafted by the National
Biosafety Committee with Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra as its
chairman and with pro-GMO advocates as its members, not only
surrenders farmers and consumers right to choose but is based on
wrong information.
A the time when the basic principles of genetic engineering are
under challenge from new scientific research, the government seems
to be deliberately ignoring the warnings of many scientific
institutions around the world. The Thai public expects the
government to be knowledgeable about the latest scientific
developments and not act recklessly by rushing to commercialize GM
crops.
Whereas the policy assumes that GMO and natural crops can
co-exist, evidence from several GMO hotspots around the world show
that there is no way to prevent contamination or cross pollination
resulting to genetic pollution. The latest example of this is in
the province of Khon Kaen where the government's GMO papaya field
trials have been identified as the source of contamination of a
farmer's papaya farm 60 kilometers away from the field trials.
Thaksin has also gone to press saying that Europe has opened its
doors to GMOs while the reality is otherwise.
"In fact, Europe's moratorium on GMOs has not been lifted, and
the EU has just instituted the world's strictest GMO rules
deterring many biotech companies from operating in the continent,"
said Janet Cotter, a Greenpeace scientist, based in the United
Kingdom.
In recent months, several units of Bayer and Syngenta have
either closed down or drastically cut back GE operations in the EU
owing to consumer and farmer rejection. Many European food
companies and supermarkets have also declared policies that reject
GMOs.
The government also went on to say that opening Thailand to GMOs
will benefit the Thai people. Perhaps it is entirely deaf and blind
to protests by farmers and consumer groups along with tens of
thousands of petitions rejecting GMOs.
"The decision made by a small group of bio-technology advocates
will benefit only a small group of companies, and ignore the rights
of farmers and consumers of the nation. It is apparent that the
decision was based on false claims and assumptions, which will lead
this country into disaster," Jiragorn concluded