Understanding Food Security Behaviors during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Thailand: A Review

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted worldwide food security including in Thailand. This review aims to understand people’s behaviors with regard to promoting food security during the COVID-19 pandemic by covering three main cases at a community level: the food bank, the food exchange, and the food pantry. A systematic review of news content analysis and in-depth interviews were employed for data collection. Based on integrated behavioral models of motivation–opportunity–ability (MOA), the theory of planned behavior (TPB), and value–belief–norm (VBN), key results indicated that altruistic values including beliefs in opinion leaders and the benefits from food security behaviors were influences on people’s practices. The attitude toward food as a crucial factor for living, the influence of family members and neighborhoods, and the perception of what constituted enough food led people’s behavioral intentions with regard to food security. The intrapersonal communication of opinion leaders was an important initial step linking to people’s understanding of others. The most frequent qualities of opinion leaders were: having a determination to help, thinking of the benefits of local people, and believing in community capacity. Self-reliance and procedural knowledge of how to behave were key messages, while personal media, local broadcasting towers, and social media were mainly employed to distribute these messages. Two-way and networking communication should be strengthened to promote sustainable food security during the crisis.

Food Security and COVID-19: A Systematic Review of the First-Year Experience

“…The available systematic reviews related to this topic were published in the first months of the pandemic [14,15] or limited to a certain country [16], thus, we consider that this systematic review will fill a gap in the analysis of empirical data from a one-year perspective; as far as we know, this will be the first paper to revise global food security objectives in consideration of the effects of the pandemic. We aimed to answer this question through empirical evidence from the first year of the global pandemic.…”

COVID-19 and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Scenario analysis through fuzzy cognitive map modeling

“…Research shows that the COVID-19 pandemic has affected food security in Iran ( Rad et al, 2021 ) and worldwide ( Niles et al, 2021 , Sereenonchai and Arunrat, 2021 ). Strategy B ( Sustainable food systems ) concentrates on providing a sufficient food supply for the whole population in Iran, aiming at providing access for all people to healthy food and nutrients, which can be achieved by providing the required financial support and subsidies as well as strengthening the food supply chain in this country.…”

Sustainability of the agri-food supply chain amidst the pandemic: Diversification, local input production, and consumer behavior

“…Consumers' fear and concerns for getting infected by coronavirus by touching surfaces and objects resulted in the rising use of non-reusable plastic and lifting the ban on single-use plastics in countries that had made progress towards a sustainable food supply chain ( Boyacι-Gündüz et al, 2021 ; Menjivar, 2021 ). Sereenonchai and Arunrat (2021) explain how consumer behavior contributed to food security during the pandemic periods in Thailand through case studies. Mobilization by village leaders in a village in Khon Kaen province enabled households to survive the pandemic without relying on external food support.…”

“…In Thailand, two ethnic group leaders coordinated the exchange of fish and rice even before the coronavirus outbreak. These lasting relationships between the two ethnic groups created self-reliance, encouraged food safety, social interactions, excluded middlemen, which contributed to the fulfillment of four pillars of sustainability during the pandemic period ( Sereenonchai and Arunrat, 2021 ). These are just cases that demonstrate connections of agri-food chain sustainability pillars precipitated by changes in behaviors.…”