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

Sukanya Sereenonchai,Noppol Arunrat

doi:10.3390/agronomy11030497

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.

Highlights

During the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, which has spread all over the world, a lot of people have found themselves living in difficult conditions including with regard to food security
This review aims to: (1) explore the food security situation and analyze community involvement during the COVID-19 pandemic; (2) discuss food security behaviors from the perspective of behavioral sciences; and (3) propose an effective communication framework to strengthen sustainable food security during the COVID-19 pandemic and during the crisis
This review employed the methods of news content analysis on the Internet and indepth interviews

Summary

Introduction

Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. During the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, which has spread all over the world, a lot of people have found themselves living in difficult conditions including with regard to food security. The World Health Organization has warned about food availability which may affect food export restrictions, leading to food shortages and a higher price of food production [1]. The serious COVID-19 pandemic has caused the reduction of people’s income because various businesses could not be run as usual. Some businesses including agricultural and food supplies [2] have needed to be temporarily closed or have had to reduce the numbers of employees

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Conclusion