1. I have the proof!
Just 1,5 hours ago I have uplifted two plants of sweet corn from a field at B. This corn is meant to be sold as organic corn in Europe, but it is not organic: the young plants that I took out of the soil had both the well known red color of seed treatment on them.
This is the result of 3 weeks of studying and informing myself about the problems and possibilities of growing organic corn in Thailand. I have over 10 hours of interviews and oral documentation, and several written emails that describe my search for the truth. I interviewed 6 or seven Scholars and professors. The longer the search, the more clear it became that it is probably not possible (yet) to grow organic and thus that the corn that is sold as organic untill now was probably fraudulent. The trip started in Bangok ( Kasaetsart University and Rangsit farm) and then Chiang Mai ( The Royal Project, some professors at CMU , some big factories that can or maybe can produce organic corn etc.) Finally I went to K., where the factory of our competitor is situated. If my research would have shown that their product is really organic, we might have bought corn from them, because it would have been easier. Or we would have decided to start growing corn here.
Here is a description of the last few days.
Today, 16 december 2005 at 17.05 hours I have entered the fields of the organic farm B., which belongs to the organisation or our competitor X. I did so for the fourth time this week.
On dec. 14 around 1600 hours I arrived in B., and after showing the word ‘sweetcorn’ to some guys who were playing pool, one of them took his motorbike and showed me the entrance of B 1.
The guard let me enter, and at a small office I had asked some people if they spoke english. One girl spoke a little english. I asked her: is this an organic farm ? She then drew in my note book how to get to the organic farm. And I went there. First at around 1600 hours.The guard of B 2 was not in his guard-house. The workers looked at me, but never asked me anything. I sometimes asked one if someone spoke english. But they did not understand me or denied it. While driving slowly over the farm I made notes by dictating into a sony digital voicerecorder. That is how I could draw a map later on.
The second visit was around 17.30 hours. I had drawn my first map. Now I went in again. I was less nervous, and knew already a little what was coming. Again I spoke continuously into my recorder. The trip took 19 minutes. (Including a little walk.)
The third visit was the next day. I started around 11 oclock. Now I did not go to the organic farm, but to B 1. I had been there the day before. Now I entered not via the guard, but from the main road that leads to (….another town, I forgot), from which road one can enter the fields easily. I drove slowly towards the mechanics-place. There I spoke to one employee, whose name I will not name yet, to protect the innocent man. I asked him if I could speak to the boss or manager. He said they were all in a nearby province Pechaburi, to talk about the future strategy of the plant. The manager was Mr. Wichai, and he was there too, so said my spokesman, whom I will call S.(from Spokesman)