PRS - Polity Resources series: Food (ePub)

Food is one of the most basic resources that humans need for dailysurvival. Forty percent of the world's population gains alivelihood from agriculture and we all consume food. Yet controlover this fundamental resource is concentrated in relatively fewhands. The 2008 food price crisis illustrated both the volatilityand vulnerability built into the current global food system; at theheight of the crisis, the number of hungry people on the planetclimbed to over 1 billion. At the same time, there are seriousecological consequences that stem from an increasingly industrialmodel of agriculture that has spread worldwide.

This book aims to contribute to a fuller understanding of theforces that influence and shape the current global food system.Author Jennifer Clapp explores how corporate control, inequitableinternational agricultural trade rules, and the financialization offarm commodities have each had a fundamental influence on thepractices that dominate today's global food system. Bycontrast, farmers and consumers, particularly in the developingworld, have had little voice to change the rules of the game. Butmovements are emerging to challenge the dominant global system. Theextent to which these alternative movements can displace it,however, remains to be seen.