STWR - Share The World's Resources

The push for more trade to solve the food price crisis is actually aimed at bringing more profits for a handful of multinational corporations rather than providing food to hungry millions, says Devinder Sharma.

Huge areas of the Amazon rainforest are being cut down to satisfy global demand for soya. But how did this crop and a handful of others come to dominate our diet so completely? In an extract from her new book, Felicity Lawrence investigates the faceless trading giants who really decide what goes on our plates.

They bleat about the free market, then insist that we subsidise them, writes George Monbiot.

Philip Morris International today starts business as an independent company, no longer affiliated with Philip Morris USA or the parent company, Altria. Philip Morris USA will sell Marlboro and other cigarettes in the United States. Philip Morris International will trample over the rest of the world. 

Sickly and malnourished, Kirana Kapito began his working life on a large commercial tobacco estate in Malawi's northern region. The farms sell their produce on the country's auction floors directly to international corporations including Limbe Leaf Tobacco, majority owned by the Swiss-registered Continental Tobacco Company and U.S.-based Alliance One Tobacco.