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Today we examine the global food industry in an effort to understand the international food crisis. Haitians marched in the tens of thousands across their nation to protest high food prices, which had increased by about 50%. Haitians had resorted to eating “dirt cookies” — biscuits made of clay, salt, and oil, to stave off hunger. At last count, the United Nations tallied food riots and shortages in 33 countries. Food supplies are growing rapidly scarce in nearly every market from wheat to rice and world inventories at 30-year lows. There are many reasons for the food crisis. the rising price of oil has increased the transportation overheads for most export foods; a growing market for bio-fuels has diverted corn away from human consumption – in fact a single SUV’s gas tank can hold ethanol made from more than 450 pounds of corn – enough calories to feed a human being for a year; additionally, speculation on the commodities markets has driven up the prices of corn and rice steeply. These are all hallmarks of the extremely commercialized monopolies that control how food is produced, transported, and sold, all the way from farmers to consumers.

Raj Patel has written a new book analyzing the global food industry, called “Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System.” The book delves deep into the industrial evolution of food and its consequences, including farmer suicides, the dangers of the bio-fuel industry, and the ubiquitous nature of soy.

GUEST: Raj Patel, author of “Stuffed and Starved,” former policy analyst for Food First, researcher at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa and a visiting scholar at the Center for African Studies at the University of California at Berkeley

For more information, visit www.stuffedandstarved.org.