Thai Food - Health Issues

[GuestHouse]

From being a child I have always grown food, my parents grew nearly all our vegitbles on our own land. From before the 'Organic Food' movement got going they only ever used the land, compost, and a concoction of rainwater, horse <deleted>, fish blood, dead rabits etc, rotted down in a huge big water but.

Good healthy food.

But what about food in Thailand - Thai farmers drench their land in chemicals, many using black market imports of dubious and often illegal content.

I talk to Thais about this issue and all but a very few have no idea about food contamination, or if they do it doesn't seem to bother them.

It's trust the expert as usual - One Litre per Rai improves yeald by 20%, let's use 5 litres and retire on the proceeds.

So what does the house think. Are you concerned about the use of chemicals in Thai food produciton?

Are Thais you know concerned?

Would you believe a claim in Thailand that food is 'Organically Produced'

Or is it something you don't think about?

[autonomous_unit]

I'm not a believer in "organic" foods from a personal health standpoint.

You have to go and analyze individual products etc. to really know whether some spray-on (and wash-off) crop treatment is better or worse on one strain of plant than another strain bred to be pest resistant without spray. For example, if it is pest-resistant because it has a higher level of naturally toxic compounds in the plant cells, you cannot wash that off. Similarly, is the health risk from a "chemical" fertilizer more or less than the health risk from biological contamination with "natural" fertilizers? I don't know, and I doubt there is a simple answer for all foods and growing methods. Only "big science" is going to be able to gather enough data to answer these questions rationally, but I am not sure anybody has enough incentive to invest in such studies. Nobody on either side really wants to rock their own boat, so a lot is done reactively instead of proactively, in my opinion.

The main problem in Thailand or the rest of the developing world, I think, boils down to the lack of education combined with the lack of rule of law. It is hard to expect someone to produce safe food or protect the general environment if they neither understand basic germ/toxin theory nor are willing to follow codes for which they do not understand the reasoning. I don't claim that everyone in the west does understand these issues, but there is more willingness to follow the rules set down by agencies trusted to protect the public interest.

The problem for the world is more complicated... there are other risks besides the safety of food for individuals. For example, the yields and safety of transport of produce to far-flung places. I think the anti-agribusiness movement makes more sense here, not because of dangers of agribusiness food but because of the danger of humanity being so dependent on an overly homogenized food source. Diversity is good, because it means whole crops are less likely to fail due to some new pest or blight. But how do you weigh these issues against the health of individuals? I don't know how...

Some Thais I know think about it a lot, some don't, and many follow rituals and old-wives' methods which may or may not actually serve any purpose besides giving them some comfort. Kind of like the rest of the world.

[Farma]

Chemical residue on fruit and vegetables is common. I’ve known people requiring hospitalisation due to the effects of chemical poisoning. This was after they'd eaten fruit they’d washed prior to eating. The chemicals had leached through the skin into the fruit.

I’ve discussed this matter with people working in the health department and the response was the control of chemical spraying would be too hard to enforce. It would also have a negative impact on the farmers income.

One of the people I spoke with had previously suffered the effects of chemical poisoning requiring hospitalisation.

They now avoid fruits that could absorb chemicals through the skin and not eat fruit that had cracked or damaged skins. Longans were one of the fruits they avoid, another was watermelons. Watermelons can absorb chemicals and other nasty stuff if they are grown near sewerage water.

[wilko]

There has recently been some scare up north with the use of a world banned pesticide.

Most Thai food is not processed, which is great, but unfortunately the use of pesticides etc is not properly regulated or monitored..

There’s also the problem of unrestricted use of antibiotics especially on prawn and fish farms.

Thais do produce a lot of food for export….rice, prawns, and chickens and all these have to conform to the regulations of the customer country so there is some consolation in that they get it right sometimes.

[Khun Jean]

All the good food gets exported or sold to expensive restaurants. The rest ends up on the market and the food stalls.

I don't trust it but i also have no choice. It doesn't make me feel comfortable. At least the rice we get from my mother in law is grown with very few chemicals. My wife parents just drown everything in chillies, it probably neutralizes the chemicals.

Fresh seafood seems to be the best choice, unfortunately i only like salmon. My other favorite chicken is also not problem free.

Another chemical is making my life more difficult. Sugar! It seems to be in everything in large doses. Not healthy at all. It is very hard to protect your children from that. I have seen to many 'michelin' children to make me worried.

I still like it here though.