March 11th, 2010
In the News: Thai rice farmers fret about free trade
For many farmers in Thailand’s rice belt, agreements between Asian countries to reduce trade barriers have not brought all the benefits that national leaders promised.
“We are afraid of the free trade area,” says Chatree Radomlek, a 37-year-old farmer in Pathum Thani, about an hour’s drive north of Bangkok but a world away from the capital’s glitzy hotels and restaurants.
A rural community where local people boast of the nutritional benefits of eating field mice, its green paddies help make Thailand the world’s biggest rice exporter.
But where humid weather and new farming technologies used to dominate local farmers’ conversations, free trade is now the hot topic.


