Activists on Thursday asked the government to ban the open farming of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) to protect Thai farmers.
Activists show up with their banners against genetically modified plants near Government House on Thursday. (Photo by Chanat Katanyu)
Representatives of the Confederation of Consumer Organisations and the National Farmers Council filed their request at Government House's complaint centre at the Office of the Civil Service Commission Thursday afternoon.
Boonyuen Siritham, chair of the activist confederation, claimed the open cultivation of genetically modified plants would cause other plants on local farms to become modified and then farmers could be held for violating the GMO's copyrights and patents.
Mrs Boonyuen said that Thailand had better farming alternatives than GMOs thanks to the diversity of its plants and, thus, GMOs were unnecessary here.
She also said that there had not been a scientific conclusion that the consumption of GMOs was safe and free of environmental impacts in the long run.
Therefore, many countries including Japan and the United States were likely to increasingly oppose products made from genetically modified plants and demanded such products bear labels to declare they were GMO-based products, Mrs Boonyuen said.