food crisis

Hunger is man-made and man can unmake it

16 February 2012

Jean Ziegler interviewed by Éric Toussaint on the occasion of the release of his last book: Destruction massive, géopolitique de la faim, Éditions du Seuil, Paris, 2012. For all who seek to understand the issues concerning hunger in the world, this book is a must. In a style at the same time vigorous and straightforward this latest work by Jean Ziegler, ex United Nations rapporteur to the right to food, presents the necessary insights to understanding why one sixth of humanity is under (...)

The global food price crisis - a critique of orthodox perspectives

10 July 2009

Capitalist industrial agriculture, with its wrenching destabilisation and transformation of land, nature, and social relations is responsible for today’s food crises, argues Walden Bello. In an extract from his forthcoming book Food Wars, Walden Bello critiques the orthodox views of economist Paul Collier on the global food price crisis. Collier argues that not enough food was produced to meet increased demand from Asia, thanks to a failure to promote commercial farming in Africa, the (...)

Why is there rampant famine in the 21st century and how can it be eradicated?

6 May 2009

How can we explain the fact that famine still exists in the 21st century ? One person in seven on this planet is permanently hungry. The causes are well known: a profound injustice in the distribution of wealth and the monopolizing of land by a small minority of large landowners. According to the FAO, 963 million people were suffering from famine in 2008. Paradoxically, these people mainly live in rural areas. They are generally farmers who do not own land or do not own enough, and are (...)

Debt and poverty

11 January 2009

Download the presentation of Eric Toussaint on Debt and poverty in Katmandou for a South Asian CADTM network meeting.

Getting to the root causes of the food crisis

21 November 2008

The explosion of the economic crisis, the financial crisis and the food crisis in 2007-2008 shows just how interdependent the economies of the world are. In Third World countries, for most people, the main concern these last two years has not been the financial crisis of the banks of the United States and Europe, but rather the dramatic rise of food prices. This year’s record cereal harvest and the recent fall in food prices on the commodities stock markets should not create a false sense (...)

The interdependency of the capitalist crises

28 October 2008

The explosion of the economic crisis, the financial crisis and the food crisis in 2007-2008 shows just how interdependent the economies of the world are. Resolving the situation calls for radical remidies. The economic and financial crisis. In 2007-2008, the biggest international economic and financial crisis since 1929 broke out. Were it not for the massive and concerted intervention of public authorities in coming to the rescue of thieving bankers, the present crisis would already have (...)

Facing the food crisis: what alternatives?

25 September 2008

The food crisis has left thousands of people worldwide without food. With statistics showing 850 million hungry, the World Bank estimates that the current crisis increases that number by a hundred more. This ’tsunami’ of hunger is no natural process, but stems from the neoliberal policies of international institutions, imposed over decades. As we face this situation, what alternatives are being proposed? Is it possible to adopt different models of food production, distribution and (...)

Why a World Food Crisis?

23 September 2008

Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights stipulates that “everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services”. The sharp increase in the cost of staple food, particularly noticeable in the first semester of 2008, is an immediate threat to the sheer survival of hundreds of millions of people. The right to food, which has already been (...)