The Disconnect of Food

Anna Yalouris
Thailand
Thailand is one of the largest global exporters of rice - the staple food for more than half the world’s population. However, less than 50 years into the business of feeding the world, the strain on Thailand’s resources threatens environmental exhaustion and social unrest.

In the late 1960s Thailand’s agricultural production shifted focus from a local to a global market. Thousands of rice specimens were initially examined for hardiness and export versatility before Jasmine 105 was determined the model strand. Jasmine 105, the species that would supply the void in the global export market, would soon be implemented as the new standard grain of production for Thai farmers.

Surin, a province in northeastern Thailand, was once home to thousands of indigenous rice strands, unique to the region. In the great shift to contend in a global market, the people of Surin lost more than just the rice biodiversity of the region. They lost ownership of age-old cultural practices inextricably linked to the indigenous grains of rice. They lost the ability to pass on these practices and gained a culture of mono-cropping, aimed at feeding a global demand.

There are those, like Nok and Than, NGOs at Rice Fund Surin- Organic Agriculture Cooperative, Ltd. who are actively seeking to take back ownership of the food they eat. The Rice Fund was established in 1992 by a Surin Natural Farming Group looking for a market in which they could sell their products and receive fair prices. Many farmers have found themselves in great debt after investing in chemical fertilizers promoted by the government, but as Than explains, money is not the heart and soul of the Rice Fund. “Fair trade is good, but if farmers only hope to get more money from fair trade, it is not enough to strengthen family and community.”

Indeed, strengthening community and promoting self sufficiency is a major pillar of the Rice Fund. Small farmers looking to reconcile traditional farming methods can find a supportive network that now boasts close to 600 member families. This support system helps farmers in the transition back to integrated agriculture and producing for the family, while not leaving the market completely behind.

Nok laments that when farmers gave up their traditional practices of planting a variety of crops in favor of the single, highly exportable Jasmine 105, they gave up a part of their identity. In addition to the loss of specific cultural practices that accompanied certain indigenous strands of rice, a great disconnect has since formed between the consumer and the origin of their food.

Even the organic rice milled at Rice Fund Surin will sometimes travel thousands of miles, to Europe or the USA before it finds a viable market. The fair trade icon marks the package like a right of passage certifying "yes, this is 100 percent organically grown Jasmine rice from Thailand." But, it does not tell the whole story. As Nok explains, “when you see food on the table, you don’t see the struggle of all the farmers who have been oppressed.”

Efforts of NGOs like Nok and Than have help farmers reclaim ownership over the food they produce and have paved the way for an eventual reunion of producer and consumer. But Thailand is not yet there. “Food comes from farmers but farmers now occupy a small role in the background,” says Nok. “Companies own food. Food and nature have been separated in the modern world.”