New machines to replace use of methyl bromide in rice fumigation

[apetley]

That sounds a better method, keep food away from chemicals.

Try telling that to the Yanks and in particular Monsanto that spray the crops that they eat and the meat they obtain from slaughtered animals that are fed on crops sprayed with millions of pounds (a year) with the insecticide poison round up!!

What's more this is soon to be super-ceded with Dicamba (as super weeds have become immune to the effects of Round-up now much in the way that the overuse of most antibiotics has rendered them practically useless) - an improvement? I don't think so, as Dicamba is pretty much a re-branded version of Agent Orange!!! I kid you not.

Hate to let it out of the bag but Roundup and Gramoxone use is endemic in Thai food production too.

Maybe in your food - but not in mine as I eat organically as much as I can and source my produce locally in the South

This is from a market assessment report in 2013.

Thailand has not yet approved genetically modified (GM) crops that can tolerate glyphosate, so the market for glyphosate is very limited at the moment. If the Thai government approves GM crops, the glyphosate market will have more opportunity for growth.

Since it can kill crops, its application on crops is limited. However glyphosate is popular because it can effectively control weeds on both vacant land and in conventional tillage systems, especially before planting.

It is not directly sprayed on crops so the damage from this poison is limited. It seems that in the US, they use it at all stages of the growth cycle - even to dry the crop faster (it acts as a desiccant) so they can harvest the crop earlier than otherwise. In summary: in the case of America it is used intensively on GM crops whereby they routinely drench their crops throughout the whole crop growth period and in Thailand they use it to kill the weeds before planting the crop and do not directly spray the crops as it would kill the plants. Now who should be more worried? Oh!! BTW, eating GM crops destroys the stomach lining and forms massive tumours in animals!!!

We grow as much of our own food as possible too and eat a friend's organically grown rice but here's a short story.

My wife recently went to a locally organised health seminar where she got chatting with a farmer who said she sold her organic produce in several provinces.

As she got more chatty she let on that she used all sorts of chemicals and beat the checks by paying off inspectors who forewarned her of when she was going to get a visit.

I personally wouldn't trust any food labelled as organic as being truly organic.