This paper uses the food regime analysis to visualize relations of domination and exploitation
within the realm of food production and supply. Starting with an outlook on
how the food regime plays out in the Thai context, the author goes on to elaborate its
critical aspects fundamental for a food sovereignty critique: growing concentration of
power on the side of transnational corporations, exploitative relations of production in
agro-industry, and devastating effects for nature, small-scale producers, and increasingly
also for consumers. In Northeast Thailand, the Alternative Agriculture Network Isan (AAN
Isan) is struggling to secure income and subsistence agriculture for its members. This is
achieved through a number of activities, some of which are introduced here in detail.
Producer cooperatives, organic farming, green markets, or a local herb medicine center
all aim at empowerment within the present market situation by using aspects of the
health discourse to support their arguments and at the same time reinforcing a specific
local politics of identity, rooted in notions of culture and religion.