The escalating crisis of volatile food prices and food insecurity is the result of an industrial development model based on large-scale, export-orientated agriculture tied to international competition, self interest and stock market speculation. With over a billion people going hungry each day despite a huge surplus of food production, a reorientation towards more localised, smaller scale and sustainable agriculture is urgently required.
Inequity and politics, not food shortages, were at the root of almost all famines in the 20th century. To alleviate hunger, we must reallocate the resources of our world into the hands of people who need them most, write Sharon Astyk and Aaron Newton.
In a food system driven almost exclusively by the market-value of commodities, hunger is largely a result of insufficient income. Agricultural production must be completely rethought to prioritise the nutritional needs of people, particularly those living in poverty, argues Justin Frewen.
A leaked World Bank report has revealed that investors in large-scale foreign land acquisitions are targeting countries with weak laws. The findings confirm long-standing concerns of civil society groups opposing the so-called ‘land-grabs’, say Danielle Nierenberg and Bernard Pollack.
The current international trade regime presents significant obstacles to addressing social injustice in the agricultural sector. Government, business and civil society must take responsibility for ensuring the UK and global food system is both fair and sustainable, says the Report of the Food and Fairness Inquiry.
Over the last twenty years corporate power in the food system has grown by leaps and bounds, with devastating consequences for small-scale agriculture and biodiversity. Yet the growing grassroots resistance to agribusiness offers hope for the future, reports GRAIN.
Food sovereignty is not possible in an industrial agricultural system dominated by for-profit corporations. By challenging the way international trade operates and supporting grassroots change we can help rebuild democratic control over food resources, says Raj Patel in an interview with Ronit Ridberg, Worldwatch Institute.
In recent years, the growing role of hedge funds and banks in the commodities markets has caused food prices to fluctuate dramatically. It is time for governments and regulators to crack down on such dangerous speculation, says a report by the World Development Movement.
