If foreigners use "nominees" to buy Thai farmland (because they can't do it legally themselves), Thai farmers will become just "employees" of foreign land-owners. The agriculture minister says he has heard rumours to that effect but can't get it confirmed. But officials at his ministry have insisted that several foreign countries have approached Thai brokers and even the officials themselves to sound out the possibility of owning farmland and exporting agricultural products from Thailand from their own "production line" here.
That's a huge controversy that threatends to blow up if rice farming falls into the hands of non-Thais. It's not only illegal. It's going to be seen to be a new form of "economic invasion" of this country.
2 comments:
Yeah, yeah, yeah...
The foreigners are coming to enslave the Isaan rice people. Can't let that happen. Trust the benign dictating upper-class Bangkok vanguard to protect the poor farmers.
And don't let the foreigners, or their wives, own even one rai...
Better to let them live a life of subsistence farming for another 1000 years...and let the government buy their rice for votes.
I thought this kind of behaviour had been taking place for years in other business sectors. We live in a capitalist environment. The weak will always be exploited by both opportunistic locals and foreign vultures.
Post a Comment