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I have never been a believer in organic food being healthier. I saw a program a few years ago on the BBC where it was proven there was no difference between the nutritional value of the two kinds of food.Made of organic and non organic food bought at Tesco
Here is another link   
It is as far as I am concerned a money making racket and all I do is wash my fruit and vegetables but I am a 76 year old man and have been eating fruit and vegetables for a few weeks from the age of 6 months and fatty meat, Steak and lamb tjops, and been drinking milk everyday of my life which I prefer to alcohol,coffee or tea
When I was a child everything was sprayed with DDT and other insecticides which were much more dangerous. Nobody even knew about the danger of poisons  and we all grew up healthy,poor and wise
If you read up on the research you will notice you need to have very large doses of insecticide to have an effect on your health.
As far as I am concerned I will continue my eating habits the way I have until I depart from this dear earth. When I spray my fruit and vegetables I use insecticides as the little beasties who are eating my products dont play and neither do I.

I seriously question how much Thai farmers understand the concept of "organic" produce.

Being a person who can literally taste the difference in fruits, I find that many things labeled organic simply are not... I can taste chemical fertilizers or pesticides in the fruits from MANY places I buy supposedly "organic" produce.

I would guess that many farmers around here think that organic simply means no pesticides... I don't think they include fertilizers in that category.

With that said... I think the best place in Chiang Mai to find organic (or the lesser "pesticide safe") products is at Rimping.   They (by far) do the best job of labeling and having a wide range of products.

I've gone to the supposed "organic" JJ Market on Saturdays and I would say *some* of the stuff is organic but certainly not all (it seems hit or miss).

Because I don't yet speak enough Thai, I can't ask the questions I would normally ask to find out what THEY consider organic      

I suspect further education is necessary for farmers to re-learn more natural methods...

Dear Bhavna,
In connection with your question on organic products, I can assure you that many supposedly organic products are sold In Thailand but in reality they are not organic! The only way one can guarantee that any vegetables, fruit or other edible products are really organic  is for them to be marked 100% certified organic. In that case, the products in question are grown under strict laws and rules that must be adhered to if the grower is 100% certified organic.
I happen to know this theme intimately because I own a 100% government registered organic farm in Nonserei near Pak Cheong which is 2  1/2 hours drive north east from Bangkok. ****
If anyone would like to know more, I will be happy to answer any questions or they can simply visit us ***

With kind regards,

Michael

There is  woman on facebook called  Pear K. Her company does a range of organic products that are  very  good for your general jealth and wellbeing.
Look her up and contct her .
If necessary you can look me up on the site and you will find her in my friends list .My name is Noel lyle-Stirling

I agree!!

Dear Barry,
There always those among us who don’t believe.
As an organic farmer I can at least tell you that when you eat non-organic vegetables and fruit that you consume with them large amounts of pesticide residues and in some cases also chemical fertilisers that dry on the leaves of plants. Cabbages alone in Thailand are sprayed with very toxic pesticides at least 4 times during their life cycle.
You might also not believe that the weed killer called Roundup is used extensively all over Thailand which has been banned in Europe because it has been proven to cause cancer and Monsanto, the international manufacturer, is presently engaged in a huge law suit in the USA because of its toxicity.
Facts are facts!

With best wishes,

Michael

I have actually been reading all I can re Roundup
I have been using it from about 1978
Now one person in the US has a successful case against Monsanto re Hodgkins and was awarded millions
I know and I see in Thailand how these farmers use pesticides and I wash all my cabbage   and all other vegetables and fruit in  baking soda and or vinegar water and also remove the first few covering leaves.

I am very wary of Thais and their pesticides as they seem to drink the damn stuff
I beleive they should have banned Paraquat and the other one  chlorpyrifos but I bet you none will be banned and if they are banned it will be ignored.
I use Abamectin and copper sulphate, lime, Epson salts and 15.15.15 and that is it
I have absolutely no problem in organic food but the premium in cost is as far as I am concerned not worth it. The taste is the same and the nutritional value also.
Karbadust on my dogs cats and chickens when required have not yet had to use in Thailand in 6 years but have some I brought from South Africa.
I used to breed birds and chickens and karbadust is harmless
You can actually put it in the bird food for mite.
As I wrote I have never been sick from any of these insecticides and there were some real bad ones eg DDT and many others which I have forgotten the names. They were banned one by one
I would love to see what you do. Where do you live?

Dear Barry,
Many thanks for your response. You and any off the other readers are very welcome to visit the farm. It is in a place called Nongserai near Pakcheong about 2 1/2 car hours north east of Bangkok, very close to Khao Yai National Park. A brand new motorway very close to the farm is due to open in 2020 which should cut the travel tine from BKK by at least 1/2 hour.
We have all sorts of animals but never sacrifice any, we just use their poo as part of our natural fertilising
We have farm accommodation  On Air B&B and are in the process of building a cafe/ farm shop on the property.

I can tell you an interesting story about Thai vegetables:
A few years ago I was asked to buy greens at the local market. After purchasing them, I was told that they were not needed because we had similar vegetables on the farm so I gave them to the chickens which always eat any fresh greens. They all ran towards them but then after a few pecks, none of the fowl would touch them. This is definitely because of pesticide residue on them which we humans can not detect as the chickens can.

The farm address details  are:


GreenMe Group Co.,Ltd
888, Moo 7
Nongsarai
PakChong
Nakornratchasima
30130
Facebook : greenmeorganic

With best wishes,

Michael

Here is a very interesting article in National geographic


Unfortunately I will continue using pesticides as I like my garden and my vegetables and fruit.

Hello folks,
In my opinion, if you want to have 100% sure your veggies are organic, the best way is to find a farmer that claim their products as organic and pay them a visit every since in while to watch how they farm, most greens have a life cycle of 3 months or even less, it is not a big effort.
It's hard to rely in a piece of paper that says it is 100% organic, specially when some big companies are behind it. There is an aggressive marketing on organics and green life today, it's a big business as usual.
Visit your local farmers and buy from the source if you trust them.

As per many other countries in Asia, I also seriously question how organic a fruit of vegetable can be. Are farmers willing to lose a crop or a percentage of their crops by not using pesticides, or prepared to have smaller reduced sized products by not using an industrial fertilizer? Also as mentioned above,anyone can put a sticker on a product. I've seen exactly the same looking broccoli in supermarkets all mixed together with some of them having tiny organic stickers on them, so I really wonder how anyone can verify it.

Best way to have organic fruit and veg is to grow it yourself, but you might get disillusioned once the worms and pest flies start to damage your products, and you might even be tempted to use a small pesticide spray.

Shill88 wrote:

Best way to have organic fruit and veg is to grow it yourself, but you might get disillusioned once the worms and pest flies start to damage your products, and you might even be tempted to use a small pesticide spray.

Yes, definitely that would be the best solution to get your 100% organic veggies/fruits. But most people have no time to start and take care about their own garden or just do not know how to start. I have planting and harvesting in small scale since my childhood, i learnt with the elderly in my family how to make our own hot pepper spray to keep some bugs away, it's very simple and anyone can do.

You spray in the leaves of the plant only not in the edible part, and it will keep away all bugs that are sensitive to "capsaicin" that is contained in all hot chili peppers. For the recipe you can use any chili pepper (you can mix different ones if you want to), garlic and water. I prefer to do in a large quantity one time, because it will last longer, for something about 30 liters of water you need about 4 cups of chopped pepper and 2 heads of garlic (use a food processor or a mixer for better results), after put it in a 30L container and add water, now it has to seat for about a day or little over a day, after that strain out the hot peppers, remove the pepper chunks and move the liquid into your garden sprayer, spray 2 or 3 times a week depending how aggressive the bugs are in your garden, that's all.

Use goggles or some protection before spraying, also use gloves when preparing the solution, it's very hot!