World Food Policy
In this article, we examine Thai-
land as a useful case study of the im-
pact of globalized food on nutrition
security in a middle-income setting.
We have conducted an historical over-
view of Thailand’s evolving, complex,
and globally connected food system
through an analysis of all published
literature and relevant policy docu-
ments over the last 20 years. Our at-
tention has focused on the effects that
Thailand’s enmeshment in the glob-
al food system is having on domestic
food and nutrition security for two
population groups at opposite ends of
the food chain: (1) agriculturalists and
(2) urban consumers. This analysis
reveals unresolved tensions between
Thailand’s two major food policies:
the domestically orientated “Sufficien-
cy Economy” and the export focused
“Kitchen to the World”. Finally, we
consider whether these tensions can
be managed through the Thai Nation-
al Food Committee, or whether other
integrated food and nutrition policies
are required to safeguard food and nu-
trition security in Thailand.
cy kept domestic food prices low and
then taxed exports thus expropriating
wealth from the rice producers (Goss
& Burch, 2001). Furthermore, until the
1950s, land was still in relatively free
supply and rice crop yields continued
to increase through increasing the land
under cultivation rather than any tech-
nological improvement (Manarungsan,
1989). This was particularly important
in the early 1970s when a substantial
increase in logging concessions led to
large amounts of land opening up to
farming activities. Once the land fron-
tier was effectively reached in 1980, in-
vestment flowed to the industrial sector
contributing to declines in agricultural
viability through the 1980s (Siamwalla,
1996). The Thai government assumed
greater interest in rural development
during the 1970s and 1980s, partly
due to fears of communist influence
in rural areas. Rural development took
the form of investment in agri-indus-
trialization, attempting to raise rural
incomes through greater commercial-
ization. At the same time, inequality
between rural and urban dwellers grew,
with subsequent mass migration to the
cities.
2. Agriculture, Food Trade,
and Rural Food Security
Through the later 1980s and
1990s, agri-business began to increase
its role in Thailand, with the Charoen
Pokphand (CP) group establishing its
massive chicken and poultry prod-
uct enterprise. Now, one of the world’s
biggest food conglomerates the CP
Group adopted vertically integrated
supply chain arrangements common
in the United States. It led the way for
agro-industry to grow faster than ag-
riculture itself and began the process
F
rom the 1930s to the 1980s, the
dominant economic activity in
Thailand was export-oriented
rice monoculture. From the 1940s, Thai
governments invested in agricultural
infrastructure in order to increase rice
exports and introduced a rice export
tax. By the 1960s, these export taxes
began to fund industrialization aimed
at self-sufficiency. Government poli-
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