World Food Policy
These include strategies to promote
food access for rural communities,
the prioritization of food crops over
biofuels which had been increasing in
importance, and the emphasis of im-
proving food and health literacy par-
ticularly for agricultural communities.
The Strategy also raises the issue of the
diversity of crops raised in Thailand,
and the connection between this diver-
sity and nutrition in the community, an
important link in the two dimensions
of food policy discussed in thisarticle.
With increasing plantations of rubber,
sugar, and other non-food crops, the
impact on domestic food security is im-
portant to consider.
5. Discussion
D
uring the twentieth century,
Thailand emerged as a world
leader in formulating effec-
tive policies to combat poverty-related
health conditions in its population and
in rural development programs which
helped to boost agricultural competi-
tiveness and food security. By the twen-
ty-first century, however, many aspects
of Thailand’s hitherto successful portfo-
lio of food and nutrition policies were
challenged by global transformations
in production and distribution of food
and increasing exposure to an intercon-
nected global food system.
In the agriculture and food pro-
duction sector, Thailand has emerged as
a major food exporter and this togeth-
er with rural health and development
plans have led to improved incomes
and quality of life for Thai farmers. At
the same time despite success in tack-
ling absolute rural poverty, high levels
of economic and health inequality still
exist between rural and urban popu-
lations in Thailand and there has been
insufficient investment in agricultural
productivity to allow continued im-
provements in rural quality of life.
Walker refers to “relative poverty” in
contemporary rural Thailand, a prob-
lem caused by a “…relatively low level of
productivity of the rural economy” and
a lack of investment in “productivity
enhancing inputs” to rural economies.
This growing urban–rural inequality
has contributed to many of the political
and social tensions found in Thaila nd
today (Walker, 2012).
Overall, however, in terms of
nutrition status improvement, the
Thailand Food Strategy still empha-
sizes nutritional deficiencies and food
safety, with the implication that the
main threat to food security is insuffi-
cient food being available. The problem
of overnutrition and growing rates of
obesity and diet-related disease, par-
ticularly diabetes, is only mentioned in
one paragraph of the document. And
the cause of this obesity problem is de-
scribed as a lack of food consumption
knowledge without considering the
broader food system influences. The re-
lated missing factor is the specific role
of processed foods in the Thai food in-
dustry. With these foods being one of
the major drivers of growth in obesity,
the role of the local food processing
industry is clearly missing in this food
strategy. This is one area which is vital
to integrate into modern holistic food
policies.
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