Endless Appetites / Bloomberg (PDF)

How to understand the twenty-first century food crisis

Since 2007, farm-product prices have rocketed and plunged,
causing hunger, malnutrition, and social and political upheaval
around the world. Endless Appetites explores how "food
security," the availability of food and the reasonable ability to
buy it, has become one of the most challenging topics of our time.
With every jump in grocery-store prices, the issue becomes more and
more pressing, proven by this year's record increase in food
prices, which has already topped the spike of 2008.

* Award-winning commodities reporter Alan Bjerga explains the
food crisis and why it is happening in an accessible, articulate
manner

* Why is this happening when more food is being grown than
ever?

* Why are crop markets?first established in the 1800's to help
stabilize agricultural commodity prices?acting like an investors'
casino, with prices absorbed by rich nations taking food from the
mouths of the poor?

* From college campuses to emergency UN meetings, "food security"
is one of the hottest topics of the day, with no shortage of
interest in how to stabilize food prices worldwide to close the
hunger gap

To understand the growing international food crisis, readers
need an expert they can rely on. One of the most widely acclaimed
journalists on food security, Alan Bjerga is up to the task, taking
readers from the trading floor of Chicago to the highlands of East
Africa to the rice paddies of Thailand on a global trek to find the
causes of the food-price crisis?and the solutions.