It doesn't take long these days for bad news to circle the world. Facebook carried a post by a TV celebrity, and the post has had strong and important consequences. The "news" by TV celebrity Sutthiphong Thammawuthi alleged that a top Thai fragrant rice brand was fumigated and packaged with toxic chemicals. The response has been harsh but unsatisfying in the extreme.
The creator and host of the popular Kon Khon Kon (People-Searching-People) programme now faces criminal charges. Big business has expressed outrage. After a long, uninterrupted silence, the government has jumped in on the side of the agribusiness firm CP Intertrade.
Sutthiphong, who broke media ethics by passing on rumours of rotten rice without a shred of evidence, faces criminal charges.
And the public continues to be the major loser. That is because, for weeks now, social media and an undercurrent in the popular press has intimated there are problems with rice.
Rumours of misuse of chemicals, along with reports and photos of rotting rice and bags have been met with a stonewalling silence from the government. This refusal to reply to a rising tide of allegations and obvious mishandling of rice have broken public confidence in the most important food stock in the country.
On Saturday, Deputy Commerce Minister Yanyong Phuangrach leapt into the information void. He stressed tests by the Food and Drug Administration proved the safety and purity of the premium rice brand Royal Umbrella, packed and sold by the international conglomerate Charoen Pokphand.
The premium rice brand Royal Umbrella is known in Thailand as Tra Chatr. It often is lost among a dozen or two competitors on the rice pallets of the country's supermarkets. But it is sold worldwide and is widely promoted in advertisements and on national websites as an award-winning brand, arguably the best rice that comes from Thailand.
In countries from the US to Australia, Royal Umbrella Thai Jasmine Rice is sold as a top rice brand. It is often displayed, especially in Asian groceries, separately from other rice. The brand is recognised by many shoppers from its red label for white fragrant rice, and green label for glutinous, or sticky rice.
It is nice to know that Thai tests agree with numerous foreign countries on the purity of Tra Chatr rice. But this leaves open the questions about the other 99% of rice, and particularly the product that is currently overflowing government warehouses. Some first-hand reports and photographs back up specific charges of mishandled rice, some of it rotting.
This will not do. Thais live on rice, and Thailand feeds tens of millions of people around the world with this food staple. The "jasmine rice" brand given to khao hom mali around the world is as crucial to Thai trade as safe and edible rice markets are to the peace and health of 65 million Thai citizens.
If Sutthiphong has defamation charges to answer, the government has more. If Sutthiphong has caused a lack of confidence in the Royal Umbrella brand and other packed rice, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and several of her ministers have brought about a crisis of confidence in the entire food chain. And by ignoring the discussion of food safety which has been under way for weeks, the government has actually created the impression it has something to hide.