End rice-pledging project now: exporters

[looping]

Why not just brew Sake?

Many beers are made with rice as one of the grain ingredients. e.g Beer Laos and I believe Budweiser (US)

Brew more beer?

What are we waiting for then?

20 million tons of rice can produce 50 billion litre of 15% Sake or about 800 l per person in Thailand.

In the case of junmai-shu, around 2.1 liters of genshu (18% alcohol) can be

produced from 1 kg of polished rice. When diluted to 15% alcohol, the typical

level in sake products, it comes to around around 2.5 liters.

Well, Thailand is already the 3rd (or was it 4th) heaviest drinking country (hard alcohol) in the world. If all of us here start drinking almost 3 litres of sake a day, thailand should be able to be number one!!!

More realistically, the sake still has to be sold - no channels to handle the volume. Need facilities. Wouldn't the sake quality depend on the quality of the rice?

My suggestion. Make home brewing legal. Let small brewers sell. Sell the rice to anyone wanting to brew lao kao, beer, sake etc. If the rice was cheap and available, I think that a lot of the rice could be consumed. Maybe even develop a new export market for artisan sake, beer. Through in making it legal to have a small distillery, and in a few years have a new industry brewing artisan, quality, lao kao. Brilliant isn't it?

Agree, brilliant! Only two slight issues. The govt aren't listening, and they don't give a shit.

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[kimamey]

If the Shinawatras were to end rice pledging, it would be the same as admitting they were wrong about it. That cannot be done because they're infallible and never admit their mistakes.

Well it is high time they did. They have been importing Cambodian rice and pocketing the proceeds of the sales to the obvious detriment of the people and the economy. Its quite simple, Thailand has the capacity to br the worlds second largest exporter of rice yet this is not the case and the people are paying a heavy burden for this. How can you house supposedly 5 years of exportable rice without having imported rice pocketing the money in just 2 years. Its impossible. While I support the Democratic process, those responsible whether knowingly or not should be brought to justice. In saying this, would it not be better to collate this evidence produce this before the courts instead of closing down large parts of the city and place a further burden on the people of Bangkok? Its time for the democrats and Suthep it would seem to stop the latter and let the courts impeach those involved...

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Yes a great idea, bring the evidence to court then if and and when the court finds there was corruption the government and it's supporters can say 'yes but the courts are corrupt and controlled by the Democrats, Suthep and the elite so we aren't interested in what the court says'.

Then we're back to the need for reform.

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[kimamey]

If the Shinawatras were to end rice pledging, it would be the same as admitting they were wrong about it. That cannot be done because they're infallible and never admit their mistakes.

Well it is high time they did. They have been importing Cambodian rice and pocketing the proceeds of the sales to the obvious detriment of the people and the economy. Its quite simple, Thailand has the capacity to br the worlds second largest exporter of rice yet this is not the case and the people are paying a heavy burden for this. How can you house supposedly 5 years of exportable rice without having imported rice pocketing the money in just 2 years. Its impossible. While I support the Democratic process, those responsible whether knowingly or not should be brought to justice. In saying this, would it not be better to collate this evidence produce this before the courts instead of closing down large parts of the city and place a further burden on the people of Bangkok? Its time for the democrats and Suthep it would seem to stop the latter and let the courts impeach those involved...

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I love comedians. Who is going to investigate Yingluk, Tarit and the DSI (bought and paid for, changed the definition of perjury), the non-political AG (huge bonus and pay-rise), or the anti-corruption agencies with a huge case-load and struggling with slashed budgets? Perhaps Yingluk, that paragon of integrity and honesty, will denounce herself and confess to her crimes and/or incompetence (she thinks she's doing a good job <deleted>!) or appoint new watchdogs to investigate her own party's crimes. Perhaps not.

Thanks for loving comedians JR, but maybe the Democrats can get this evidence. They seem to be able to get everything else through the courts so why not this item? Let's be positive shall we

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Perhaps the Democrats don't control the courts as much as you think. Maybe that's why the PTP haven't tried to do anything about the alleged bias in the courts

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[ExpatOilWorker]

Clean it up use it as animal feed

Peace

And you know how they clean it up? using formaline! Have a good sniff when you open your bag of cheap rice next time. So you think it is ok to do that then feed it to the animals that we then eat? I take it you know about the food chain? It seems you have been living with the rice farmers for so long, you are starting to think like one. Then again, you don't catch many rice farmers eating polished white rice from supermarkets...I wonder why.

Stored rice is fumigated with methyl bromide once a month.

The US don't allow more than 6 fumigation cycles, hence any rice older than 6 months will not pass US import rules.

Was any significant amount of this stored rice destined for the USA ? More likely to find a home in less demanding markets (if the sellers are lucky).

Very few countries do research and develop their own food and environment standards. They usually adapt established standards from the US or Euro zone.

[ExpatOilWorker]

<snip>

We are obligated to make sure our farmers at making a decent living off of growing rice or continued numbers will quit rice farming!

<snip for brevity>

The problem with your thinking here is, that you're happy to have the whole population pay a higher-price for their staple-food, and also to subsidise the industry via the rice-pledging scheme paid-for out of their taxes, as well !

Better to improve productivity, so that a reduced number of rice-farmers can produce the food at a more-profitable price, without being a drag on the rest of the country/economy. Bear in mind that other cheaper producer-countries will force this anyway, whether by taking away Thailand's export-markets, or by shipping their cheaper rice into Thailand from Burma & Cambodia & Laos.

This change will require education & mechanisation & fertilisers & improved seeds & irrigation, to name but a few things, perhaps encouraged by co-operatives & government-research and infrastructure-investment in dams/irrigation-channels.

And I'm afraid that the displaced workers will need to find other things to do, this should surely be possible in a growing developing economy, as Thailand's is. Indeed isn't there supposed (I'm not entirely convinced about this myself) to be a labour-shortage here ?

The way you put it, makes the situation similar to the coal mine riots in the UK back in the '60/'70, large labor intensive industries that are no longer economical. It takes time and a bit of friction, but at the end sound economies always win. Maybe it is time for Thailand to move toward more efficient, less labor intense large scale farming.

Yes, I believe that there are some similarities, the thing I most deplore about the way Maggie & the Cons treated the miners was, given that the structural readjustment had to be carried-out, they then chose to do it in a particularly painful & insensitive way, as though "if its not hurting, it's not working" was any more than a crass political-theory for yuppies to parrot.

One objective to bear in mind, is that whatever happens must benefit the consumers, rather than just the producers. The total Thai population counts higher than only the ones who are involved in rice-farming. And a more-efficient rice-growing industry should produce more wealth, for the remaining farmers to divide-up, while the workers released can go into more-productive occupations.

Government can either direct its limited resources to enabling/smoothing the change, or to trying to maintain the old way-of-life for a few more years, before it ends.

Time to look forwards rather than backwards IMO.

How will the about 15 million farmers survive if Thailand gradually move to less labor intensive large scale farming?

What about the old people in Isaan?

Before anybody says it is impossible, have a drive around the country side in Japan. Lots of old people around. Some have simple jobs, some just enjoy life with amazing hobbies or participate in community arrange activities. They young are away working and everybody enjoys a relative good standard of living.