World Food Policy Volume 3, No. 2/Volume 4, No. 1, Fall16/Spring17 | Page 22

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. 22