Political Corruption Affects Food and Farmers
By Brianne Burr, Marketing –
Thailand’s role in rice exports was severely damaged by corruption in the government.
Food is the substance of life; no one can live without it. Many people work in food services and in food production as a means to earn a living and to allow the rest of us to eat.
In today’s economy, each job is valuable and should be appreciated for its purpose and function. And given that we all need to eat, these food services jobs and food producers are priceless.
However, sometimes even in these industries, corruption rears its ugly head. Political motivations or military agendas can take over and ruin work, food and more, robbing the world of money and leaving potential desolation in its wake. And while farmers are absolutely essential to survival, even they are powerless against some things.
On May 22, there was a coup d’état in Thailand and the military took over the government, placing the country under martial law. The senate was dissolved and the Constitution was partially repealed.
Now the country has had a military junta established, and most of the previous political parties, groups and activists are gone or detained. Why did this happen?
Rice and Corruption
A chief cause was a rice warehouse corruption scheme. In many Thai rice warehouses, old or lesser grade rice was found to have replaced the new, higher quality rice that had been there. This older grain was rotted, molding and infested with weevil. In other cases, the rice was simply missing before the inspection, or the code numbers were not correctly lined up with the records of the warehouse owners.
The political motivation to control the rice subsidy program proved to have lasting effects on the nation. Farmers were left unpaid, food was destroyed, the Thai government was toppled, and Thailand’s role in rice exports was left severely damaged.
If corruption was revealed early on, countries might be saved from major challenges such as this one in Thailand.
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