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Let Me Tell You About Thailand's Rice Farmers

March 17, 2014

A tale of how big-agri and big-government destroyed Asia's premier rice industry and how to rebuild a better, healthier food paradigm upon the ruins.

March 8, 2014 (ATN/Tony Cartalucci) - Farmers in Thailand have found themselves at the center of a long, protracted political struggle pitting Thailand's traditional establishment against a "populist" upstart backed by foreign interests. The resulting spotlight farmers now find themselves in is an opportunity to share their plight with a wider audience and by doing so, perhaps receive the care and attention they so badly need and rightfully deserve.

Image: Rice farmers in Phitsanulok province were threatened by regime "red shirts" to end their protest. Often citedby the Western media in their "class divide" narrative, it is now clear the nation's farmers were simply used to get Thaksin Shinawtra back into power, and that the violence and intimidation usually reserved for his political opponents is now being turned on them in the wake of being cheated by his vote-buying rice subsidy scam. Rice farmers have already turned in their rice, but have not been paid for it for half a year - in other words - they were robbed. (Photo by Chinnawat Singha)

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The current regime of Thaksin Shinawatra built its political machine on the backs of Thailand's rice farmers - with the vast majority of its support being drawn from the populous rice growing regions in the north and northeast of Thailand. It has done so by offering short-sighted, ill-conceived "populist" policies that have predictably collapsed in a whirlwind of corruption, incompetence, scandal, and financial ruination.

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http://landdestroyer.blogspot.com.au/2014/03/let-me-tell-you-about-thailands-rice.html

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