Stuffed and Starved: As Food Riots Break Out Across the Globe, Part II of Raj Patel on "The Hidden Battle for the World Food"

In recent weeks food riots have also erupted in Haiti, Niger, Senegal, Cameroon and Burkina Faso. Protests have flared in Morocco, Mauritania, Ivory Coast, Egypt, Mexico and Yemen. In most of West Africa, the price of food has risen by 50 percent—in Sierra Leone, 300 percent. The World Food Program has issued a rare $500 million-dollar emergency appeal to deal with the growing crisis.

Several factors go into the global food price hike, many linked to human activity. These include human-driven climate change, the soaring cost of oil and a Western-led focus on biofuels like ethanol that critics say turns food into fuel.

Raj Patel is a writer, activist, and former policy analyst with Food First. He has worked for the World Bank, the World Trade Organization, the United Nations, and has also protested them on four continents. He is author of the new book, “Stuffed and Starved: the Hidden Battle for the World Food System”, which has just been released. Raj Patel recently joined me from San Francisco to talk about his book and the food-price crisis.

Raj Patel, writer, activist and former policy analyst with Food First. He has formerly worked for the World Bank, the World Trade Organization, and the United Nations, and has also protested them on four continents. He has a new book coming out on April 25th. It’s called Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System.

Related Democracy Now! Stories

• Stuffed and Starved: As Food Riots Break Out Across the Globe, Raj Patel Details “The Hidden Battle for the World Food System” (4/8/2008)