KevinB

Thought i'd jump in quickly on this topic.

There is organic and ORGANIC. and as always they mean different things to different people.

if you want CERTIFIED ORGANIC - the process is long (3 to 5 seasons) and arduous and the Inspection Costs are high.

If you want to grow things without chemicals - or reduced chemicals you can start right away but you will struggle.

Now to the market - CERTIFIED ORGANIC = very high premium.

Grown organically on the basis of your own word and honour - marginal price increase.

in the later category there is a very interesting trend in Thailand and it appears to be working. You get linked to an urban family of some means and establish an on-line relationship and at harvest time deliver direct the harvested crop direct to them. These relationship are quite interesting in some case the grower posts pics on line of the crop growing and posts them on line. In some cases the family even visits. More to do with Social media (and the impact on our lives) than farming.

I get the English daily every day in Bangkok and have read on two or three occasions about this scheme over the Xmas and Song Kra (when I was back home with the family on holiday - I, like many of us, travel a lot with my job). if i was home at the moment I could scan the article and send it to you. But i imagine you can get the stories by going on-line with a bit of clever Googling and Bing-ing.

Hope that helps. good Luck. If you'd like to find out more about CERTIFICATION - then i suggest you research it on line - very very difficult but with perseverance - MAJOR REWARD per kg but I'd agree with earlier posts you may be too small and have too little production to progress. I have come across in my work a community project in Vietnam where a whole rice scheme (250ha) went organic - took 4 years to get the certification - they now supply a boutique organic outlet in Paris with organic brown rice (another niche market by the way - rare and unusual grains). Go to an up-scale market in Thailand or organic / green food shop and price purple rice.

Some good advice given already - don't want to rain on your parade but would like to point out the following. As much as you "love" this 30 years old you hint in our post that you ain't gonna be around that much longer.

Well now the truth - any 30 year old lady in Thailand - doesn't like to be left alone and as sure as monkey's have nuts she will get someone else and that person (based on the experience of so many friends and colleagues over the years) is gonna screw them - not literally but financially - first he might come with his own kids(and their financial demands) - before long he will have sold her a hair brain scheme to use what she has access to (including "borrowing"from the kids funds) to really make it big - borrowing against any property you have bought her for safety and using informal money lenders to get together a pile of money for his project and it doesn't matter what safety mechanisms you have put in place - when the goons come to collect their 30% per month payment due on out-standing loan - the suffering is really going to start .

Then they are going to have their own kids - Thai women generally maintain fertility pretty well - and the kids you so dearly want to protect will just be the older kids (and not his kids) and the new one the spoilt little brats..

Added to this at 30 her folks are not doubt in there mid to late 50s - in 15 years time after living a better than normal life off their newly wealthy daughter their health will start to fail and well - no daughter can bear to watch her folks suffer especially with sure good private hospitals available - before you know it there is a another reason to borrow - it's an emergency operation that is required to save a life.

All the grand schemes suggested can't defeat a common Thai belief that if there is a real pressing need for money it is safe to use what you have because if you help those in need somehow the money WILL COME BACK. It just must. Letting your mom, brother, sister, new boyfriend suffer when you have money that is coming in the future (monthly stipend - quarterly annuity payment - annual dividend etc etc) - is simply unacceptable culturally - OH and i forgot to mention what ever you arrange and explain to the good lady - will soon be common knowledge among the extended family and all their friends. The lady will have to have an un-usually "black heart" to resist - Welcome to Thainess. Any family members windfall - is to your benefit as well - all it takes is to whine enough and explain how terrible you need help.

Poor women - who you say you respect - you are just about to turn her life into misery.

Come on guys before you drift off into a slanging match about Colonialism and hatred of European occupation. The truth is in the History - the Ruler at the Time was not a King (hope you can say that) but a Military Dictator who like history often repeats itself was in total control of the country and most of its subjects. His favorite person in the whole world was Bonito Mussolini - the fascist ruler of Italy at the time - El Duce. In fact he was proud to call himself a Fascist. He invited the Japanese to land. If fact the only resistance to the "invasion" was a bunch of Thai soldiers stationed near an airfield in the South who hadn't been told what to expect. After the Japanese commander of the expeditionary force had contacted Bangkok by radio - the resisting units quickly got the message, stopped fighting and helped the Japanese force to land succesfully. Just so you all understand a massive amount of equipment was landed in fact the whole Japanese invasion force that captured the Malay Penisula and finally marched into Singapore to accept the surrender of the British army - the City was large unprepared for a full scale invasion coming from the North (the reason why the Japanese made the deal with the Thais) - in fact most of it's defenses - their massive on-shore batteries all pointed out to sea.

You need to understand the situation in WWII at the time - in 1939 the Germans invaded France and the French surrendered - But in the agreement a big chuck of France was left unoccupied by the Germans and ruled by a compliant Government - Vichy France - which Britain declared an enemy. The moment this happened the Thais seized the opportunity to invade French Indo-China - unfortunately for them there was still a big contingent of French Naval Forces in Saigon - they promptly sailed around the corner and using a couple of cruisers with 10 and 12 inch guns and a couple of spotter planes which were launched by a catapult from a converted frigate and when they landed on the water they were hauled back on board - refuelled and shot off again.The French used aerial sighting and staying out of range of the much lighter armed Thai ships and managed to quickly sink most of the Thai navy. The Thai Government realizing that the French and their deadly accurate guns were a half day sailing from a now undefended Bangkok - decided to make peace - the Peace Accord and their withdrawal from Laos and Cambodia was negotiated for them by the Japanese who if you remember were not at war at the time. And who were still "friends" of the Vichy Government. That is where the relationship and military friendship was forged.

I'm not 100% sure but I think the Japanese actually landed and moved towards the Malaysian border before the infamous day in December 1941 when they launched simultaneous attacks on Pearl Harbour, Hong Kong, Singapore, Jakarta and Darwin - So the Thais were totally compliant with the very elaborate plans of the Japanese - as full Allies of the Japanese not as an innocent nation invaded.

If you want a full 360degree view of the City and the river - Vertigo on the Top of the Banyam Tree has no rivals

and you won't find a more expensive cocktail or one served with more class. But hey guys it is Xmas and we have just

got through another year in Thailand.

Vertigo - on the roof of the Banyam Tree - no rival in terms of a city wide view and shockingly expensive drinks but hell guys it is Xmas and treat yourself and your friends to a present.

Oh bummer - it was so much easier popping into the local police station to sort things out - now it's gonna be a much longer drive to the divisional HQ. Wake up and smell the coffee folks - part of the "problem" with the Thaksin regime (which I think people actually voted for) is one group of people got a bit pissed about always having to share.

To support another OP - when I say prisoners of war I'm not being Eurocentric - most of them were not whites- the word farang means foreigner. Thousands of Indonesians where shipped here - the Dutch had a propensity to recruit Mollucans (an old colonial trick use one tribe or group of islanders to persecute the rest) - a large number of the troops captured in Singapore, Malaysia and Burma were Indian - also all their Non-Commissioned Officers were Punjabi (another colonial trick - getting another religion to manage simple Hindis who joined the British army to avoid the grinding poverty). By the way the Japanese also used the same technique some of the nastiest camp guards were Korean.

Partington is correct the rats (and mice) carry it (and die from it eventually) and the fleas spread it to humans. Plague is similar to Ebola because it is (as shown in the photos) a haemorrhagic fever - you eventually die with blood trickling out of all your orifices (not a pretty sight I'm sure). During the Black Death - when folks didn't have a clue about the disease some Cities were free of the disease and applied the tennets of the Bible to anyone coming from a City or area afflicted by the Plague (obviously being punished by God because they were all sinners). So if you wanted to enter the City you had to accept 3 things 1) destroy your all your possessions (often by burning them) 2) Chuck your clothes on the fire and put on a simple garment provided by the community you were entering - made of sack cloth (the itching and scratching of the rough fabric against your skin was meant to be part of the penance for your sins and 3) last of all put ash on your head. Part of the sack cloth and ash treatment for sinners. But in the process of burning your traveling trunk and baskets it ensured that no infected rodent entered - the fleas living in your doublet (a kinky garment with a flat that dropped to allow easy access to your genitals) also got toasted in the fire and the ash generally killed any fleas already resident in your hair. You entered the pious and much loved by God City with a garment provided by them which even if it did have fleas and lice were not infected.

Well all that ensured the City didn't get the plague and re-enforced the belief of the residents of the City that trusting in the words of the Bible and practicing what it preached was definitely the way to go.

Come on OPs why are so many of you engaging in your regular Thai bashing - Joan Rivers recently died in a Private Clinic in New York while having a minor procedure (gastroscopy I think). The full story isn't out yet (based on the suing culture of the States) but judging by recent statements made by her daughter it looks like the Anaesthetist was responsible. Now we presume that one on the leading ladies of US television wasn't having this done in a cheap and dodgy clinic - so it seems that this happens even in the best of medical establishments.

Ratcatcher - Thanks for posting the Videos. We can blame Thaksin - but I still think, like so many other massacre in WWII, the Vietnam War and Bosnia (and hundreds of other conflicts), it is always the Military on the ground getting out of hand either due to the natural violence and cruelty of the troops - driven by their own lack of understanding of cultural norms or racial insensitivity and importantly - the poor command structure or conversely sadistic and particularly cruel nature of the officer corps in charge.

We can hardly blame the President of the USA for the Mai Lai massacre or what happened at Abu Grav prison - sick soldiers who lacked the humanity to understand that they were dealing with humans (possibly because of their and a command structure that lost touch with what was happening.

But thanks again for two part video presentation - it is something we should never forget and we should also remember that some of the smug officers watching they troops do they "duty" are around today and someone in civil society should identify them and name them.

The importance of Tak Bai is that it partly explains the current violence it the South and some of the callous bombing campaigns the insurgents have carried out - so often now-a-days (post 9-11) is that we strongly condemn Muslim terrorists without remembering that in some ways WE started it.

Kleelof - "I don't get this. Thailand is supposedly in an economic slump, but still building like crazy. They are putting up an 8 floor condo behind my house and they have already sold all the units."

It's called a housing bubble in some circles. But there are others posting in this tread who don't think there are any problems with the Thai economy. I'm impressed - you are obviously well informed and have all the figures at your finger tips - because professionals such as those at the World Bank and Asian Development Bank who have already cut Thailand's growth forecast to only 1.5% (and more recently to a bit below that) - in economic terms (especially considering its neighbours) that almost certainly means a significant slow-down.

The other problem facing the country is the massive private debt this Kingdom has - a lot of the speculative buying of units in condos is driven by bank loans - and the banks are holding other properties as security - all it needs is for a couple of banks to fail the next Central Bank liquidity stress test and they will have to start calling in loans and trying to recover their held assets by selling - selling into a market driven by speculators not eager residents looking to live up in the sky.

A couple of posters have talked in this thread about the difficulty of selling the condos they already own and would like to dispose of - others have countered that it is all Location X 3 - Well next time you have some spare time take a little ride on the BTS and see how many Condos (and office blocks are going up near the new stations on the extension line) - plenty - in what would obviously not be places in a poor location.

So to the 1st Poster - before you buy every condos you think you need in Thailand - why not look at a bit of diversification. I can recommend some property near KL where the urban transit system is being extended (you might find that Malaysia has a more ordered legal system when it comes to the law governing the management of condo properties - I'm sure the one poster sharing his problem as a sole owner resident in a block controlled by some weird set of Asian owners will have real problems trying to sort it out in a Thai court) or why not some juicy properties in Greater Manila or some very nice cluster home projects along the Vietnamese coast. All your eggs in one basket in the hands of a Military Regime - NOT CLEVER.

European Union Economy has recovered!!!!! DREAM ON

Just saw something on a 6pm UK based News Bulletin. The lady (RIP) receiving the "elective beauty treatment" was having work don't on her "tail bone" - it was also reported that when she died she had a 3 inch incision in the region of her lower spine. Hardly just an quick Botox treatment. Something like this (basically bone surgery on her spine) shouldn't be done in a Clinic somewhere in North Bangkok (late at night - if local reporting is correct) - I know that beauty / body contorting procedures are not covered by the NHS but this sounds like a rather major procedure which should have been done in one of Thailand's many first class hospitals - where if something went wrong (possibly an adverse reaction to the anaesthetic) she could have been rapidly moved to a fully equipped and operational intensive care and trauma unit.

Very sad - medical tourism (an important niche market for Thailand) - gone horridly wrong - my condolences to friends and family.

OZ - you are probably not reading the posts anymore - I agree with you the abuse that gets chucked around on TV is enough to make sure you never ever post again. But I think a couple of people have given you some decent answers - there is no active data base - the Japanese are our friends again - all outstanding war criminals are forgiven and forgotten. My uncle was on the Death railway and to his dying day he wouldn't watch a Japanese made television or ride in a Jap car. He took his hatred to his grave with him.

Also I think a couple of people have given you some good advice - befriend the guy further and tell him you are interested in History (that's what it is - history) and ask him directly what he did during the war - bring up the topic that some people don't like to talk about the war - and see if you can gain enough of his trust for him to tell you something / anything. Get started soon - it obviously fascinates you - and he might pop his clogs sometime soon - preventing you from ever even trying to find out anything. Go for it - don't give a sh*t about all the trolls on this site - I often regret that I didn't spend more time with my uncles who fought in the war before they died - I'd loved to have heard their story and what they thought about being alive and living in that amazing time - a real World War not a piffling little conflict like Vietnam, Bosnia or Ukraine.

By the way make sure you either watch the film - The Railwayman (I got a copy at mangpong in BKK) - truly beautifully crafted film or read the book by Eric Lomax. The book is a bit too heavy on trains for my liking but a terrible poignant story one of forgiveness and salvation - and it has a much sadder turn than the film.

Just seen the 10 o'clock News - that didn't take long - they have already admitted they killed the old bugger - cut his body into pieces and dumped it in a klong near ABAC - not far from where they lived in Orchid Villa (km 24 Bang Na Trat Rd) there are even pictures of Police dragging the bit of the river near the bridge - Saw it earlier from the road - they had the place lit up with their super strong accident or crime scene lights. Case solved - it appears she has also owned up to killing another farang (some years ago - someone who wasn't even reported as missing) and also admit to doing the other elderly Japanese guy who fell and broke his neck in the bath - that was blamed on a heart attack.

Well this method of investigation in an Army barracks (what ever they used) sure beats trying to legally try someone as guilty as Oscar Pistorius and him, after 20 months of investigation and a 7 month trial (costing bloody millions), getting away with a prison term that looks like he's only going to do 10 months of his 5 year term.

Someone posted earlier - the danger of being old and lonely in the land of Smiles - RIP dudes. We hoped you died happy.

Apple tart and custard - you are going to have a shelf life problem. Nothing worse than congealed custard - if it's lump it reminds some of us of boarding school. Some of the suggestions need refrigeration which is not always available in all Amazon outlets (I travel a lot and regularly stop for the coffee - which is great).

My life runs a couple of coffe shops and bakes for them - popular items home style cookies (variety of flavours - chocolate to ginger with nuts in middle (they like them crunchie). Individual sponge cakes variety of bases and flavours with nice icing (ie not made with margarine). The advantage you can bake large and cut then ice in individual foil holders that fold up before shipping. In fact what ever you are thinking of work backwards from the problem they will have in displaying them back through shipping and dispatching them.

A lot of posters are whinging about Hotel prices up - we just had an extended weekend family break on the coast that got a very good discount on a reasonable room rate to start with. The place was fairly empty and very few foreigners - talking to the management they have already had to cut staff and will have to crop again if things don't pick-up. But it's just the beginning of the season but their bookings are way down in comparison to the same time last year. I think the article earlier this week - Martial Law affecting tourism is the real reason. There is very little post coup news coverage in Europe and America - generally the only comment is that the military regime is solidifying power and keeping very tight control on things - for the average Joe that equals not a fun place for a stress-free holiday. I chatted to a friend in the travel business in UK and he said there was still strong resistance to traveling to Myanmar because as people noted "isn't that place still controlled by the army" Controlled by the Army = not somewhere for a relaxing holiday.

Sishon Steve wrote "I am conviction driven and stick up for 'the common man' in adversity."

Reading some of your posts - surely you jest. You can't really be a big supporter of the Generals and what they are lauding over at the moment or you obviously haven't seen the poor common folk having they little stalls and homes flatten because some HiSo person has dropped off a brown envelope at the Regimental HQ. I get around a bit and I'm observant and it's really getting a bit sad in places for the common man. Plus in places you are already starting to see the local economy slow perceptibly and there are lots of common folk starting to suffer - general consumer spending is starting to dive and the beginning of a ripple of deflation stalks the land. Adversity - stick around.

PS I also don't like Chang - only drink their Soda water with a good flavoured rum.

He has never WON an election - he got his shot at power by crossing the floor and joining the then opposition. While 'in power' he did sweet nothing - all the things he whined about when Yingluck was in power he could have tried to fix when he was in the PMs seat - he didn't.

The nicest thing about things is that he will never win an election if the boys in green ever give it back to the people to decide.

I found the judgement rather sad - the first black female judge kept quoting legal precedent for shooting an intruder from the deep apartheid era - the 50s and 60s - rather than reflecting a new South Africa where laws are meant to protect the innocent especially abused women (a serious problem in SA). In a country where racial privilege has perverted justice for decades - it again appears that money and fame can enable someone literally to get away with murder. The Police completely botched the investigation of the crime scene, so much so that the prosecution had to rely on circumstantial evidence - incompetent police and the burden of proof piled on to the prosecution made justice very hard to achieve.

Evidence of SMS and WatsApp messages showing severe tensions in the relationship (based on his psychotic control tendencies - rejected by the Judge because "all relations have a rocky time" - and at the same time court evidence from a former girlfriend about another reckless firearm incident totally rejected because she had broken up with the ex. All this from a lady judge!!!!

Next time you hear that a mob - having caught the criminal red handed in the townships - places a tyre over his head, pours petrol and lights it - resorting to a local favourite - a "necklace" - maybe you will understand their frustration with the lack of Justice in SA for the common folk.

I have no intention of responding to some of the comments here - about as dumb as trying to explain to a person who watches Fox News that always running down the President of the USA actually does damages the International standing of their beloved country. I've actually heard a commentator breaking into on monkey chant on air on Fox - when I was dumb enough to click on a News channel other than SKY or BBC.

I note the following "facts" (as reported by our illustriously fair and balance press) during the Warehouse checking programme carried out by the army during the early days of the coup. It was ofcourse very interesting to see how much "negative press" the old regime got and how swiftly the stuck funds owed to the farmers were so quickly release after magically been blocked by some force other that the previous Yingluk government.

Anyway - in Southern Thailand (clearly not the heartland of any Shin support) two or three of the largest warehouses storing rice (all miles apart and owned by different powerful local traders) had all had mysterious fires between 6 and 4 weeks before the Coup. All the storage records got destroyed - it one case even some of the rice got burnt in the fire (some looked like carefully targeted blazes). Amazing premonition - don't you think. I wonder who shared with them the pre-ordained date set by a horoscope specialist.

Some of the biggest "missing stocks" are in commercial warehouses owned by some very hi-so families in Bangkok - folk who I can bet are not contributors to anything to do with the house of Shin.

SO wake-up folks just like so many things in Thailand everyone who could rip the ring out of the Rice Pledging scheme WAS DOING JUST THAT (from Government Officials at provincial and district level to every rice trader in the country - right down to the folk operating the transport , the weigh-bridges and the gates on the warehouse compound. If the Shin dynasty controlled every single thing in this country (which they clearly don't) they wouldn't need to even be in politics.

Do you know what a couple of hundred rai in down-town Bangkok is worth???? - have a little look around - ask a few people who owns those lovely un-developed plots along Sukumavit - some very nicely placed people actually - including (you will be surprised to hear) families of long deceased Generals who retired or died years ago - leaving their families the drag of having to drop one or two plots on the market when they get a bit short of readies. These families don't even both to get involved in politics directly - the just fund the "process".

I'm sure some of you will relish the trial of the former PM - a bit like the mob watching the guillotine raise and fall in Revolutionary France - screaming for more blood - if they could have only seen the future - a dumpy little General became an Emperor and proceeded to try and conquer all of Europe.

Ditto my above comments to Sanuk 711 who posted:

Please don't embarrass thairowe with actually asking for facts scorecard, This how it works, you come on and basically dam everything about the country that you worked so hard to live in--then you make statements that have no basics in fact....& do a big avatar of someone clapping hands ...like you have exposed them, then just ignore anyone that asks , Oh yer where did those stats come from ---there just trying to spoil the party.

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​you really shouldn't let facts get in the way of a good slander............. .

You are asking people to post evidence of corruption involving our new and unexpected rulers and all their minions - you must be joking!!!! And anyway making comments about a well known and accepted problem - that you can't safely put new wine in old and unwashed pre-Taksin bottles without getting a few rotten bottles wine - is certainly not slander it is discussing the subject posted. Others have asked in this stream and appropriately pointed out - who is watching and being allowed to report openly on the military - certainly not our "free and unfettered press".