Jean Ziegler presents a sad book on our inability to feed the world. He is made about all of the talk and no action. It is a sobering book to read around Thanksgiving.
Over one billion people are either starving or suffering from malnutrition. Some famine may be associated with the randomness of weather and harvests but most can be prevented. Most is a result of man-made decisions, poor government policies, genocide, and exploitation by companies. Free trade unfettered can destroy local food production. Companies try to cut costs and sell more product. All can have the almost unintended consequence of changing the food distribution patterns.
Policies like ethanol production substitute food in stomach with fuel in tanks. Subsidies for US and EU farmers make for cheap exports. Control by a limited number of agribusinesses can cause high prices. Government restricts food movements. The IMF and World Bank often follow macroeconomic policies that hurt local food distribution. Ziegler also argues that speculators contribute to the climate of famine. His case is not strong, but he presents enough evidence to tell all of us that more can be down to improve the logistics of agricultural production.
We should be able to do better.
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