Berkley Center

However, what postcards do not feature are the global incursions into this culture that become an important part of the daily experiences a person living in an urban area in Thailand will become accustomed to, such as lack of sidewalks, motorcycle transportation, plastic bag usage, and 7-11 shopping.

After two months in Thailand I know that when I look back at Thailand these are the things that will stand out to me as integral components of Thai culture. In many ways, Thai culture seems to have been co-opted by the global push for rapid development, which has left the country dependent on outside forces to determine internal order.

Farmers in Thailand have quickly noticed the deleterious effects of this new culture of dependency. Farmers are beginning to push back, and their actions might help to secure Thailand against more than just market volatility; they will protect their culture from being lost amidst an influx of international forces.

It is challenging to define what it means to be Thai because of the incredible internal diversity of the country. Historically, Siam reached into areas that included peoples of diverse backgrounds; ever since Thailand was given borders the people of Thailand have considered themselves Thai, despite ethnically being Lao, Cambodian, Vietnamese, Burmese, Chinese, and Malaysian. The forces that have kept these people together and culturally connected include devotion to the monarchy, belief in Theravada Buddhism, and an agrarian way of life that gave rise to self-sufficient communities.

Pressure to develop the country has led to sweeping changes in the composition of Thailand’s workforce and economy and these changes are affecting those binding forces that define Thai culture. Most notably there has been widespread movement of adults to Bangkok and other urban centers to find work while their children are left in villages to be raised by their grandparents. As Thais leave the farm for the city the population is becoming increasingly dependent on foreign markets for their food supply. This has radically changed Thai culture.

Thais in both urban and rural areas are no longer self-sufficient. Nearly every individual must go to stores and markets to shop for their food on a daily basis. These stores can be far away from a village or apartment building, rendering walking too slow. Most Thai cities that I have seen have no sidewalks, and instead every individual owns a motorcycle in order to drive to buy their food. It is not an exaggeration to say that it would be hard to drive five minutes without coming across a 7-11, where many Thais shop multiple times per day.

This change in culture and dependency on foreign goods is most apparent in rural areas. Historically, Thai communities planted multiple varieties of rice, vegetables, and fruit. However, the Thai government embraced the promises of the Green Revolution and aided farmers in the switch from traditional farming practices to widespread monocropping and chemical dependence.

Farmers in Thailand have seen unprecedented yields of rice; however, increased yield has come at the price of loosing over 99 percent of rice variety in the country. Financially, farmers are producing more rice, but they are experiencing more debt than ever in Thai history because of the high cost of purchasing the chemicals that their crops are now dependent on. In addition to the high cost of farming, individual farmers have lost the ability to provide for themselves because monocropping leaves the farmers with only one product, and they most go elsewhere to buy additional food to sustain themselves.

This negative cycle, in addition to the major health problems caused by chemical farming, has forced many families apart because farming is no longer seen as an economically viable career. Thai farmers have seen their way of life and culture threatened by the advances of international markets into daily life in Thailand.

In response to this farmers are choosing to turn in their chemicals and are returning to traditional, organic farming practices. Many of the farmers with whom I have spoken are very happy with some of the small changes that development has brought to their communities, but at the same time they have seen what a complete switch to international dependence can do to their country, and they are not willing to accept this.

The organic movement in Thailand is an effort to reclaim the culture of a country that is undergoing major changes politically, economically, and socially. As a newly industrialized country Thailand has opened itself to the caprices of the global markets; however, the country’s agrarian base has sustained the country for centuries and more recently has saved it from economic demise during the Asian financial crisis of 1997. Perhaps the agrarian base will be the force needed to reclaim part of Thailand’s traditional culture and integrate it into the modern psyche.