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Feeding Frenzy traces the history of the global food system and reveals the underlying causes of recent turmoil in food markets. Supplies are running short, prices keep spiking, and the media is full of talk of a world food crisis. The turmoil has unleashed some dangerous forces. Food-producing countries are banning exports even if this means starving their neighbors. Governments and corporations are scrambling to secure control of food supply chains. Powerful groups from the Middle East and Asia are acquiring farmland in poor countries to grow food for export — what some call land grabs. This raises some big questions. Can we continue to feed a burgeoning population? Are we running out of land and water? Can we rely on free markets to provide? This book reveals trends that could lead to more hunger and conflict. But Paul McMahon also outlines actions that can be taken to shape a sustainable and just food system.
Price: $16.95
Pages: 356
Publisher: Greystone Books
Imprint: Greystone Books
Publication Date:
13 May 2014
Trim Size: 8.50 X 5.50 in
ISBN: 9781771640138
Format: Paperback
BISACs:
SOCIAL SCIENCE / Agriculture & Food, POLITICAL SCIENCE / World / General, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Geopolitics
“McMahon... has written an illuminating history that culminates in the current scramble to secure control of farmland… Yet McMahon’s answer to what he calls the ‘nine billion person question’ tips towards the optimistic.” —Financial Times
“Paul McMahon's [Feeding Frenzy] is a straight food apocalypse book, no jokes, one recipe: a four-ingredient plan to feed the planet.” —Guardian
“Passionately argued... presents a compelling argument for radical agricultural reforms... Above all, [McMahon] is optimistic about the future, putting faith in our ability to overcome obstacles.” —Sunday Times
“Revealing... offers refreshingly ordinary answers.” —Observer
Born in Ireland, Paul McMahon holds a Ph.D from Cambridge University and has authored reports on sustainable food systems as an advisor to The Prince of Whales’s International Sustainability Unit and to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization. He cofounded and now helps run SLM Partners, a business that invests in sustainable agriculture in Australia and across the world. He lives in London.
Introduction
1. A brief history of food: The origins of agriculture, how it developed and the huge gaps that exist between farmers today.
2. On the brink: Who feeds the world? A taxonomy of the global food system on the eve of crisis.
3. The world food crisis: Richer diets, biofuels, wild weather and ecological limits—the true causes of high food prices.
4. Was Malthus right? Population growth and carrying capacity—a stock-take of the planet’s food resources.
5. This time is different: Is this the end of cheap food? Structural shifts, price volatility and the “new normal.”
6. Starve thy neighbour: Export bans, panic purchases and why countries are stuck in a Prisoner’s Dilemma.
7. Trading in the wind: Are financial speculators to blame for higher food prices? Shadows and reality in futures markets.
8. Stirring the alphabet soup: The ABCD of commodity trading—established companies, new competitors and the race to secure supply chains.
9. Land grabs: Foreign investment in farmland and the new scramble for Africa. Win-win or dangerous folly?
10. How this story might end: Dangerous trends, nightmare outcomes and the geopolitics of food in the twenty-first century.
11. Better ways to feed the world: Mapping out routes to a more sustainable and just food system.
Acknowledgements
Sources
Index
1. A brief history of food: The origins of agriculture, how it developed and the huge gaps that exist between farmers today.
2. On the brink: Who feeds the world? A taxonomy of the global food system on the eve of crisis.
3. The world food crisis: Richer diets, biofuels, wild weather and ecological limits—the true causes of high food prices.
4. Was Malthus right? Population growth and carrying capacity—a stock-take of the planet’s food resources.
5. This time is different: Is this the end of cheap food? Structural shifts, price volatility and the “new normal.”
6. Starve thy neighbour: Export bans, panic purchases and why countries are stuck in a Prisoner’s Dilemma.
7. Trading in the wind: Are financial speculators to blame for higher food prices? Shadows and reality in futures markets.
8. Stirring the alphabet soup: The ABCD of commodity trading—established companies, new competitors and the race to secure supply chains.
9. Land grabs: Foreign investment in farmland and the new scramble for Africa. Win-win or dangerous folly?
10. How this story might end: Dangerous trends, nightmare outcomes and the geopolitics of food in the twenty-first century.
11. Better ways to feed the world: Mapping out routes to a more sustainable and just food system.
Acknowledgements
Sources
Index