GM Foods

[TomTom55]

Can anybody offer any information on how crops and meats are produced here in Thailand? I refer mostly to GM produce and also the use of pesticides and chemicals. I would grow my own vegetables and fruit if I had the resources, but I don't. So does anybody have any insight please?
-Tom

[Jotham79]

Most Thais around me are not shy about using sprays, chemicals, or drugs in farming crops and livestock. I don't know of any GM in my area but I don't think it would take much to catch on if it was profitable. This is the tropics and it is really hard to avaid using pesticides on large scale farming and antibiotics and vaccines on livestock. Smaller plots or aquaculture is a different story.

[TomTom55]

Hmmm, thanks for the reply even though it makes my suspicions a reality. I guess the only way to get around this would be to grow everything yourself on a smaller scale? I would like to know just how dangerous all of those chemicals used are, I mean I have seen photographs where the sprayers are wearing gas masks and even bio hazard suits <deleted>.

[cooked]

Spraying with mask? Around here they don't bother with such unmanly conduct. They certainly don't measure the stuff they use, it just gets plonked into the vat 'only little, little'.

What I do know is that I myself find it difficult to produce a lot of stuff without spraying, which I do as little as possible. My son in law has tried to produce all sorts of things and the killer on the profit and loss was pesticides.

[Jotham79]

If you are talking about growing vegetables then you can find out fairly quickly what works. The problem is that normally those that grow easily do not bring in much money and timing is very important. Labor on veggies is high as are pesticides. Also, what is expensive one week might not be the next. If you are talking about fruit trees then you will need years of cash in before you will see if that is working. Visit some farms of folks who have tried and hear where they went wrong. Going in blind and on your own will be more expensive.