[asia-apec 1087] Letter from PAN-AP to Mechai, Re:Monsanto in Thailand

[PAN Asia Pacific]

April 23, 1999

Dear Friends,

Yesterday the letter below was faxed to Mechai Viravaidya, the
Chairman of the Population and Community Development Association
(PDA) in Thailand.  In March, PAN-AP discovered that PDA was working
in collaboration with Monsanto and IRRI on a project to bring
Monsanto's technology to rice farmers in Northeast Thailand with
the use of micro-credit.  

In early April, PAN-AP and BIOTHAI released a joint press release
exposing the project.  It has since caused a stir within all the
parties involved and it is rumoured that the PDA is considering
backing down from the project. Monsanto has approached other NGOs in
Thailand, but the PDA is the first to cooperate.  This is why your
support is so urgently needed.

If you share our concerns with the proposed project, we encourage
you to send your own letter to the PDA, Monsanto, or IRRI.  We would
also appreciate if you could CC your letters to us. Thanks in
advance for your support. 

Regards,

Devlin Kuyek
PAN-AP
(fax: 604-6577445  email: panap at panap.po.my)




Mr. Mechai Viravaidya
Chairman,
Population and Community Development Association (PDA)

April 22, 1999

Dear Mr. Mechai Viravaidya,

We are deeply concerned about recent information we have heard 
regarding a proposed project between the Population and Community 
Development Association, Monsanto Company, the International Rice 
Research Institute, and the Department of Agriculture. 

As you know, the project is entitled INPACT (Innovative Partnerships 
for Agricultural Changes in Technology) and its goal is to improve the 
livelihood of the rural community in North East Thailand.  The project 
plans to attain this goal by bringing Monsanto and IRRI’s technology to 
Thai rice farmers, through micro-credit.  Some of the technologies to 
be introduced are:
-land leveling and water management;
-Monsanto’s conservation tillage;
-tractor operations and harvesting and threshing technology;
-use of herbicides; and
-use of seeds “with improved quality and traits”.
Essentially the project will convert small-scale rice farms into 
extensive, industrial farms.  It is our firm belief that such a 
transformation will not improve the livelihoods of the rural community 
in North East Thailand.

We are especially concerned about the promotion of herbicides.  There 
is extensive documentation about the adverse impacts of chemical 
herbicides to the health of farmers and consumers.  The World Health 
Organization’s World Health Statistics Quarterly (43, 1990) reports 
that approximately 25 million people in the South alone suffer from 
occupational  poisoning by pesticides every year.  These chemicals also 
destroy the ecology and biodiversity of farms.   

We believe that the use of seeds “with improved quality and traits” 
implies the use of hybrid seeds.  These crops may generate high-yields, 
but they have two essential characteristics:
1) They only thrive in response to the heavy use of chemical 
fertilisers and herbicides.
2) The crops deteriorate in the second year, thereby forcing farmers to 
buy seeds annually.
Monsanto is the world’s largest selling herbicide company and the third 
largest seed company in the world.  It is entirely in its interests to 
encourage farmers to use these seeds and this expensive model of 
farming.  

We also fear that the project may encourage the use of genetically
engineered seeds.  Monsanto is currently field testing rice that is 
genetically engineered for tolerance to its herbicide.  Scientists 
estimate that plants genetically engineered to be herbicide tolerant 
will actually triple the amount of herbicides used.  In the US in 1997, 
expanded plantings of Monsanto’s herbicide tolerant soybeans resulted 
in a 72% increase in the use of Monsanto’s herbicide.  Today, Monsanto 
owns the patent for the infamous Terminator Technology—which is a 
method of genetically engineering crops so that they will not germinate 
and will thereby prevent farmers from saving seeds.

The current structure of rice farms in North East Thailand does not 
support extensive industrial farming.  Most farmers produce high-
quality rice, that they have bred through generations of careful 
selection, on small irrigated plots of land that are inaccessible to 
most industrial farming machinery and that use very little pesticide.  
Converting these farms into large-scale mechanized farms will force 
farmers to buy expensive machinery, inputs (chemical fertilizers and 
pesticides), and seeds, driving them into debt and eventually off  
their lands.  

Those who will benefit from such a conversion are the companies that 
sell products designed for large-scale farms.  Monsanto’s annual report 
describes its “conservation tillage” as “the practice of substituting 
the judicious use of herbicides for mechanical tillage.”  Small Thai 
rice farms, that use little machinery, do not need this technology.  It 
is only through the mechanisation of Thai rice farms that Monsanto can 
hope to sell its technology.   

The farms envisioned in the INPACT project are neither sustainable nor 
environmentally friendly.  They will increase the use of harmful 
agrochemicals, destroy biodiversity, and force farmers into a spiral of 
dependency and debt.  You have made a name for yourself through your 
commitment to environmental and social issues in Thailand.   However, 
we believe that your involvement in this project will undermine these 
objectives and will have adverse consequences for Thai farmers.  

We call on you to withdraw from this partnership with Monsanto and 
invite you to join the growing world wide movement of people against 
Monsanto, chemical farming, genetic engineering, and patents on life.


Yours sincerely,


Sarojeni V. Rengam
Executive Director, Pesticide Action Network- Asia and the Pacific


(PDA, Mechai Viravaidya, Fax: 662-2294632,  email:
pda at mozart.inet.co.th) 
(IRRI, Dr. Robert Raab, Fax: 632-8450563, email: r.raab at cgnet.com)
(Monsanto, Charles Martin, email: charles.m.martin at monsanto.com)