The cabinet of the Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra decided to instruct the ministry of agriculture and cooperatives to halt all approvals for the GE field. The decision should also mark the end of ongoing field trials on GE cotton and GE corn, conducted by agribusiness giant Monsanto, the second largest seed provider in Thailand (Thailand has already banned all commercial growing of GE crops on its territory).

“Thailand’s biodiversity is unique and precious. It is our culture, our food and our future,” said ecologist Jiragorn Gajaseni, executive director of Greenpeace South East Asia. “We demand that Monsanto respects this decision and terminates their existing field trials.”

The decision to ban trials of GE crops in its soil will not just protect Thailand’s environment. It will also help this country avoid the environmental and economic problems already being experienced by those countries that have adopted GE crops. In Canada, for instance, GE canola is developing into a major weed problem, which requires the use of conventional toxic herbicides for removal.

In order to truly assure Thailand’s GE free status, the government should now check and control remaining imports of genetically engineered food and commodities, such as corn and soybeans from the US, said Greenpeace.

“Thailand has taken the first step to protect Asia from the threat of genetic engineering,” said Auaiporn Suthonthanyakorn, Greenpeace GE campaigner for South East Asia. “The message is clear: the only way to prevent genetic pollution from GE crops is never to plant them in the first place.”