Reference on GMO Issues and Free Trade Experience in Thailand and Taiwan, China (Part 2)
Text by Ye Ming-cheng, Edited by Chen Ying-en
Photography by Chih Yi-lin
Editor's note: This article follows [Food Sovereignty People's Forum] Series. GMO Issues and Free Trade -- Lessons from the Experience of Thailand and Taiwan (Part 2), in which Mr. Baramee Chaiyarat, a partner of La Via Campesina and one of the organizers of Thailand's Assembly of the Poor (AOP), shares with friends concerned about Taiwan's agricultural issues the impact of the GMO crop issue in Thailand.
1. On the implementation of ingredient labeling for GMO products (or organic products): In reality, however, some small operators emphasize handmade food, which is not large-scale production, and it is difficult to enforce ingredient labeling for them. At present, only food produced by large companies can manage ingredient labeling. If ingredient labeling is implemented, might it squeeze the operating space of small operators? In addition, does ingredient labeling go against the idea of buying directly from small farmers or making food by hand?
Under the current "production traceability" system in the Agricultural Production and Certification Management Act, the entire production and marketing process from production and processing to food production must be fully recorded, but current regulations only loosely require manufacturers to label production traceability voluntarily. We must demand that the government include GMO products in ingredient labeling and make production traceability requirements mandatory and rigorous, so that consumers can trace the production and marketing process of raw materials from import and cultivation to processing, and avoid buying GMO products.
Consumers must require small producers, just like large enterprises, to clearly label the agricultural raw materials they use. At the same time, we should petition the government to provide subsidies for staple commodities (such as soybeans), directing part of them to organic or food-grade soybeans, so that the prices and quality of products remain stable, so that manufacturers and small handicraft producers can obtain agricultural products that meet the standards for processing, and so that people are free from doubts about buying unsafe food.
Furthermore, small farmers need to confirm the source of the raw materials they obtain. Ingredient labeling is necessary; it means a relationship of trust and transparent information between small farmers and raw material supply enterprises. In addition, enterprises must bear their due social responsibility for the sale of agricultural raw materials.
In response to this question, Baramee further added that Thailand is currently promoting standardized labeling of organic crops and GMO crops, but more fundamentally, consumers must know that it is of great significance for producers to preserve seed diversity. Most consumers think that the sweeter and larger the agricultural product, the better, but in fact organic food is both small and not sweet; consumers should learn to accept the truest original flavor of food. What Taiwan and Thailand have in common is that we both have diverse crop species and foods (including processed products), so consumers have more choices. When consumers have more choices, they usually do not easily notice issues of seed sources or GMOs. However, if there is no vigilance about seed sources and GMO crops, when these problems occur, consumers' choices and actions will be quite limited.
2. Taking Taiwan's soybean self-sufficiency rate as an example, if organic farming is resumed, the production cost behind organic farming is actually higher, making it unaffordable, and it is easy to give up and switch to conventional farming.
The Organic Agriculture Promotion Act is advocated, and it requires the government to subsidize the cultivation process of organic agriculture. In the transformation of policy budgets, for example, when farmers buy fertilizer, the original subsidies for chemical fertilizers should be shifted to subsidies for organic fertilizers. In this way, on the one hand, farmers' economic risks are shared through subsidies; on the other hand, farmers are led to reduce the use of chemical fertilizers and switch to organic fertilizers or make their own compost, reducing harm to the environment. We should realize that no single producer can face all challenges alone; responsibility must become the basis of mutual trust in a supply chain.
3. Among farmers, experts and scholars, and consumers, how can the diversity of improved crop varieties be maintained? And how can a balance be struck between consumers' demands and crop variety diversity?
The promotion of "participatory breeding" is one option and also important current work. In breeding carried out by experts and scholars, the seed sources and techniques are not necessarily suitable for local growing environments. Local actual conditions should be taken into consideration; for this reason, experts and scholars need to cooperate with farmers and make good use of farmers' local ecological knowledge and cultivation techniques. Farmers select and breed seeds together with experts and scholars on their own farms to maintain crop variety diversity. The practice of participatory breeding is different from the selection of ordinary crop varieties, and it also prevents producers from being limited by consumers' demands and the market's preference for specific improved varieties, which narrows farmers' seed source choices for cultivation and further affects the species diversity that farmers preserve through seed saving.
4. What is the general view of the Thai public on GMOs?
Baramee said that most Thai consumers buy ordinary agricultural products. The government is currently promoting organic agricultural products, but they have not yet become mainstream in the market. Thailand's organic agricultural products are not produced in large quantities and are not easy to buy, so their prices tend to be expensive. At present, more and more Thai farmers are transitioning toward organic agriculture; in addition, education for farmers and consumers also needs to be strengthened, and the importance of organic agriculture should be promoted. However, the government still favors the development of large agribusinesses.
[Further Reading]
Seed Laboratory, Department of Agronomy, National Taiwan University - All Aspects of GMO