The Pesticide Industry Association

The pesticide industry in Thailand involves both Thai companies and multinational companies.   The Thai companies are represented by the Thai Crop Protection Association.   At the regional level, an organisation called Crop Life Asia (formerly the Asia Pacific Crop Protection Association) represents 14 national associations and 7 multinational companies who are the 'core corporate members'.  The multinational members of APCPA are: BASF, Bayer, Dow AgroSciences, DuPont FMC, Monsanto and Syngenta.

During the preparations for Toxic Trail, the FAO Community IPM Programme requested interviews with the Asia Pacific Crop Protection Association (APCPA) and a representative of a multinational company.  A visit to a pesticide factory was also requested.  Written  requests were orginally sent via the Ministry of Agriculture which contacted APCPA.  Three months later, in the absence of any response, requests were made directly to the APCPA by phone and in writing.  The Association responded by saying they were unavailable for interviews but they would provide written comments if provided with a list of specific issues. 

The issues submitted by the FAO Community IPM Programme to APCPA prior to filming were as follows:
"Industry  policy and activities regarding ‘product stewardship’, including efforts to prevent the illegal trade in pesticides and minimize the possibility of misuse by farmers;
"Industry efforts to promote Integrated Pest Management and thereby reduce or eliminate the use of pesticides in circumstances where they are not essential for  crop production;

"Industry efforts to promote ‘safe use’ of pesticides, including the aims and impact of industry-sponsored campaigns".

During filming, the APCPA sent the producers a document titled "Industry response to issues to be covered by BBC Documentary, Toxic Trail".  The one-and-half page document was headed "Draft - Not For Release".  Two weeks after filming, APCPA clarified that "the industry response was intended for BBC's information and use in its production of the documentary".

In view of further questions raised by the industry response, the Community IPM Programme wrote to APCPA, with the following proposal: 

"The issues addressed in the statement are of serious concern to a great many people. I would like to suggest that our original questions, the APCPA statement and the response of interested parties should be made public. Perhaps this could be done through the internet; statements and responses could be posted without editing on a website or in an Email discussion list."

APCPA rejected the proposal and, consequently, the industry statement has not been added to this website.  The reasons given by Mr Tim Oviatt, Executive Director of APCPA,  were:

"based on our observations of other internet-based debates, and an appreciation for the limited resources available from our side, it appears that in this case we would regrettably not be in a position to participate in such a discussion

Further information about the activities of the APCPA are available at their web-site:  http://www.croplifeasia.org/

At the time of producing Toxic Trail, the APCPA was a member of the Global Crop Protection Federation (GCPF). On the 21st May 2001, Mr. Gerhard Prante, President of GCPF and Deputy CEO of Aventis CropScience, sent a letter to the Director General of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in which he expressed dissatisfaction with the way in which the Toxic Trail documentary was produced. He also complained about the way in which the Toxic Trail web site had been established.  No comments were made, however, about the content of either the documentary or the web site. The facts and opinions expressed in the Toxic Trail have not been questioned. 

In June 2001 the GCPF announced that it had 'evolved into CropLife International, the new global federation to represent the plant science industry'.  The announcement went on to say that 'we have broadened our scope to include both crop protection and agricultural biotechnology'.  This development is hardly surprising since the organisation is led by a small number of companies which control most of the global pesticide market AND the development and sales of genetically modified seeds.  

The new web site of GCPF/CropLife is available at two addresses: http://www.gcpf.org/ and http://www.croplife.org. The site has been developed by Meyocks and Preibe, the same advertising agency that represents Dupont Chemicals, Pioneer Seed and a number of other agribusinesses.  Meyocks and Preibe claim that "With clients ranging from a provider of food genetics to a $3 billion food retailer, no one understands the food chain like we do".