FOOD POLITICS IN A GLOBAL FOOD SYSTEM: FOOD AND LIVELIHOOD INSECURITIES IN ASEAN

Abstract

Neo-liberalism have constructed power for transnational food corporations in food supply chains and established a global food regime dominated by big food companies. The processes of food production are complex with many stakeholders in the food system, but the transnational food corporations are able to control the system in ASEAN, which brings about impacts on food and livelihood securities among food producers. This work attempted to find the relations and processes in the food production with relevance to food and livelihood securities among small-scale farmers in ASEAN countries. Qualitative research methods have been applied by data collection in related documents, field observation techniques and in-depth interviews during March to October 2018. Thailand and Cambodia were selected as the case studies in ASEAN countries. The research found that local farmers in Thailand and Cambodia face the conditions of food insecurity by forces of food supply chains. Unequal power accumulation between the primary producer and the capitalist in the global food system causes the powerless farmers to conform to the system that exploited their livelihoods into the conditions of insecurity.