Re: food riots around the world and the collapse of the global food
system.
Raj Patel, the author of the new book "Stuffed & Starved," which
addresses the collapse of the world food system, is interviewed today on
Democracy Now. To listen or watch, go to
www.democracynow.org and go about 45
minutes into the program. The second part of this interview will be
broadcast later this week.
The author connects all the dots: global climate change, oil prices, free
trade agreements that discourage small, sustainable farming, the expense of
petroleum-based (and toxic) pesticides and herbicides, the distances food is
shipped, the rise in meat-eating in developing countries, the insanity of
biofuels like ethanol which cause food prices to rise, the epidemics of
obesity amid starvation, farmer suicides, etc. The issues of overpopulation
and planetary overshoot haven't been mentioned yet, but perhaps in the next
installment...
Linda
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Global food prices have risen dramatically, adding a new level of danger to
the crisis of world hunger. In Africa, food riots have swept across the
continent, with recent protests in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ivory Coast,
Mauritania and Senegal. In most of West Africa, the price of food has risen by
50 percent——in Sierra Leone, 300 percent. In the United States there has been
a 41 percent surge in prices for wheat, corn, rice and other cereals over the
past six months. We speak with Raj Patel, author of "Stuffed and Starved: The
Hidden Battle for the World Food
System.”