Living in the poorest part of Thailand, the Northeastern region, Somkhuan Sriwongchotikul and Thongmuan Lokawee have, according to this story, many things in common – both are women farmers of roughly the same age (52 and 53) who work in the province of Khon Kaen.

When it comes to Genetically Modified (GM) organisms, however, they just cannot seem to agree. The subject they are discussing is GM papaya fruit. While Somkhuan wholly supports GM papaya, Thongmuan, a member of a regional organic farmers’ network, completely rejects any kind of GM crop.

Somkhuan used to enthusiastically grow GM papaya before the authorities destroyed her crop last August after fears over its safety, sparked by protests by anti-GM campaigners.

Somkhuan was quoted as saying, "Nothing happened when we ate it. So, it should be safe."

Thongmuan was quoted as saying, "It is not natural, could harm our health and environment and it also belongs to someone who, in the end, will make us pay for using these artificial breeds."

The two women mirror opinions held across Thai society on what is seen by many as a complex issue.

The story goes on to say that a research paper from the Institute of Development Studies in Sussex in Britain asks whether citizens can help shape policies and hold politicians and civil servants to account and how such citizen participation can be institutionalised.

In tackling what it calls “the accountability deficit”, there should be no hiding place for information hoarders, says the paper by Anne Marie Goetz and John Gaventa. One example it gives is a ‘trial’ by a citizens’ jury challenging the British government’s lack of transparency on GM and food safety issues.

During the public trial information was provided by a range of experts and stakeholders, which was then processed and analysed. The jury challenged the British government’s lack of responsiveness to the issue of environmental health and its lack of transparency on food safety issues.

In Thailand debates and discussions are raised sporadically, sometimes through academic seminars and at others through protests by activists. The main actors on the anti-GM side are BioThai and Greenpeace Southeast Asia while the pro-GM group is led by senior scientists at the National Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (Biotec).

Current government policy is to allow GM research, but not field tests. At the moment some 13 GM crops, including corn, cotton and pineapple, are in Thailand’s laboratories, awaiting the go-ahead for commercialisation if their safety is proven.