Agricultural biotechnology in general and “genetically modified organisms” in particular present, depending on whom you believe, either great opportunities for – or threats to – the future of farming and of food security in Southeast Asia. As a reflection of this cognitive rift, countries in the region have adopted divergent policies on genetically modified crops. Although both countries strove to become biotech pioneers in the 1990s, today the Philippines has emerged as regional leader in this second Green Revolution whereas Thailand effectively has rejected the new technology. Why have proponents of applied agricultural biotechnology succeeded in making the cultivation of biotech crops politically acceptable in the Philippines but failed in Thailand?