Integrating Food and Nutrition Security in a Middle-Income, Globalized,
Food-Exporting Nation: Thailand’s Food Policy Challenge
retaries and has stronger legal powers
to enforce policies than previous food
and nutrition bodies. The centralization
of various powers under this one new
body also aims to provide greater effi-
ciency of resource use and to provide
a unified strategy between various rel-
evant agencies. In 2010, the NFC pro-
duced a comprehensive Thailand Food
Strategy document which takes the
place of previous National Food and
Nutrition Plans. This document out-
lines strategies in four main areas (Thai
National Food Committee, 2012):
system management, and improve data
and monitoring of food system
(4) Food research and educa-
tion—support applied research in ag-
riculture and food industries, manage
and ensure dissemination of new food
production knowledge particularly to
food producing communities, and dis-
seminate knowledge on nutrition and
healthy diets in the community.
The empowerment of Thailand’s
NFC is a genuine attempt to produce
coherent food policies which address
all of these aspects of the food system,
including their public health and envi-
ronmental dimensions. One important
consideration emphasized by the NFC
is the multiplicity of stakeholders in
the food space—government, private
sectors, communities, and individuals.
This multiplicity means that to manage
tensions dialogue between stakehold-
ers is needed and opportunities given
to improve mutual understanding and
to achieve food and nutrition security,
while maintaining fairness and effi-
ciency among stakeholders. Policy and
strategy needs to demonstrate a clear
plan to engage the community and
household level. This requires integra-
tion approaches to transfer knowledge
and experience into operations (Tonti-
sirin, 2013).
(1) Food security—defined as
“each citizen having an adequate sup-
ply of food that is safe and nutritionally
suitable for all ages”, achieved through
land use reform and protecting land for
agricultural use, better management of
water and ecological resources, finding
a better balance between land used for
growing food and biofuels, improving
food access for families, improving ag-
ricultural efficiency and logistics along
the food chain, encouraging more
young people to remain in agricultural
sector, and investing in agricultural re-
search for improved yields
(2) Food quality and safety—es-
tablishing one unified system of food
standards, applying strict standards for
food quality and nutrition value in all
agricultural products, including im-
In its Thailand Food Strategy
proved systems at the community level document, the NFC has made several
to reduce food wastage, improved mon- important steps in attempting to in-
itoring of food safety standards
tegrate the tensions in food policy be-
(3) Food management—improve tween agricultural production for the
and strengthen management of the sec- global market and nutrition and food
tor along the whole food chain, develop security for Thai consumers, particu-
and improve legislation around food larly rural agricultural communities.
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