Resource Materials

The Politics of Hunger: When Policies and Markets Fail the Poor

"The Politics of Hunger: When Policies and Markets Fail the Poor", exposes the real issues and structural causes that initiated and aggravated the global food crisis and the continued hunger and malnutrition. The book provides an overview of the same policies: the speedy conclusion of the WTO Doha negotiations and support for corporate agriculture. While these policies have benefited the corporations, the real losers are the small food producers i.e. the peasants, rural women, agricultural workers, indigenous people, pastoralists and the fisherfolk who continue suffer increasing hunger and poverty as well as loss of livelihoods and displacement.

The inherent structural causes of the crisis and of hunger needs to be urgently addressed and the book provides the recommendations for a sustainable resolution of the crisis that include immediate provision of adequate food to those in need, and to prioritise support to small food producers and peasant ecological production which is productive and sustainable; as well as to ensure genuine agrarian reform, and self-sufficiency as national policies.

The Global Food Crisis: Hype and Reality
by Rosario Bella Guzman

Unrest over food, leading to "food riots" in some countries and dubbed as "food war" by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), has hogged the headlines lately. But the depressing news have turned bizarre as proponents of neo-liberal globalization (the IMF included) have used the issue to push for more neo-liberal restructuring in food and agriculture, leading many to believe that the global food crisis is hyped.

Most of the "food riots" are happening in underdeveloped countries where workers and peasants have become less and less able to afford food due to rocketing prices. Ironically, these are happening while giant agribusiness transnational corporations (TNCs) such as Cargill and grain traders such as Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) have increased their profits as of the first quarter of 2008 by 86% and 67%, respectively. Ironically still, here come the IMF, the World Bank, Asian Development Bank (ADB), UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and the World Trade Organization (WTO) with solutions leading to greater globalization, in particular the resumption and completion of WTO talks and agreements, which have in the first place aggravated the global food crisis and intensified TNC profiteering.

This Special Release on "The Global Food Crisis: Hype and Reality" is researched and written by Rosario Bella Guzman, an economist based in the Philippines. Ms. Guzman is the executive editor of IBON Foundation Inc., an independent development institution established in 1978 that provides research, education, publications, information work and advocacy support on socioeconomic issues.