The Food Wars

This book offers a critical analysis of how the West created the global food crisis. The hike in global food prices has pushed hundreds of millions more people into poverty, and sparked riots and protests in the Middle East, Africa and the Americas. Walden Bello, the leading writer and activist on the global South, provides a penetrating analysis of the various causes: not just the rise in energy costs, but also the IMF and WTO-led restructuring of the worldwide agricultural system. Charting the evolution of the current crisis, Bello also offers a way forward: the principle of food sovereignty, allowing the developing world to protect and sustain a diverse range of crops. "The Food Wars" is an impassioned, informed and constructive account of a critical turning point in the system of global trade. Violent protests across the global South, in response to rocketing food prices from 2006 to 2008, highlighted an intrinsic flaw in the modern system of world trade-one that poses a serious threat to regional and international stability. In The Food Wars, Walden Bello traces the evolution of this crisis, examining its eruption in Mexico, Africa, the Philippines and China. Daring in vision and impassioned in tone, The Food Wars speaks out against the obscene imbalance in the most basic commodities between northern and southern hemispheres. Capitalism Versus The Peasant -- Eroding The Mexican Countryside -- Creating A Rice Crisis In The Philippines -- Destroying African Agriculture -- Peasants, The Party, And Agrarian Crisis In China -- Agrofuels And Food Industry -- Resistance And The Road To The Future. Walden Bello. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Walden Bello traces the evolution of the violent protests across the global South, in response to rocketing food prices, that highlighted a flaw in the modern system of world trade. This book speaks out against the obscene imbalance in the most basic commodities between northern and southern hemispheres