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We all need food to survive, and forty percent of the world's population relies on agriculture for their livelihood. Yet control over food is concentrated in relatively few hands. Turmoil in the world food economy in recent decades has highlighted a number of vulnerabilities and contradictions inherent in the way we currently organize this vital sector. Extremes of both undernourishment and overnourishment affect a significant proportion of humanity. And attempts to increase production through the spread of an industrial model of agriculture has resulted in serious ecological consequences.
The fully revised and expanded third edition of this popular book explores how the rise of industrial agriculture, corporate control, inequitable agricultural trade rules, and the financialization of food have each enabled powerful actors to gain fundamental influence over the practices that dominate the world food economy and result in uneven consequences for both people and planet. A variety of movements have emerged that are making important progress in establishing alternative food systems, but, as Clapp's penetrating analysis ably shows, significant challenges remain.
List of contents
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations
Figures and Tables
Chapter 1: Unpacking the World Food Economy
Chapter 2: The Rise of a Global Industrial Food Market
Chapter 3: Expanding Food Trade
Chapter 4: Growing Corporate Control
Chapter 5: The Financialization of Food
Chapter 6: Justice and Sustainability in the World Food Economy?
Notes
Selected Readings
Index
About the author
Jennifer Clapp is Professor and Canada Research Chair in Global Food Security and Sustainability in the School of Environment, Resources and Sustainability at the University of Waterloo
Summary
We all need food to survive, and forty percent of the world's population relies on agriculture for their livelihood. Yet control over food is concentrated in relatively few hands. Turmoil in the world food economy in recent decades has highlighted a number of vulnerabilities and contradictions inherent in the way we currently organize this vital sector. Extremes of both undernourishment and overnourishment affect a significant proportion of humanity. And attempts to increase production through the spread of an industrial model of agriculture has resulted in serious ecological consequences.
The fully revised and expanded third edition of this popular book explores how the rise of industrial agriculture, corporate control, inequitable agricultural trade rules, and the financialization of food have each enabled powerful actors to gain fundamental influence over the practices that dominate the world food economy and result in uneven consequences for both people and planet. A variety of movements have emerged that are making important progress in establishing alternative food systems, but, as Clapp's penetrating analysis ably shows, significant challenges remain.
Report
"Jennifer Clapp has done it again. Bravo! A true classic, Food is breathtaking in its scope and insight. In bringing this brilliant work up to the moment, Clapp demystifies the global food economy so we can all realize our power to transform it."
Frances Moore Lappé, author of Diet for a Small Planet and co-author of World Hunger: 10 Myths
"The global food economy may seem remote from daily experience, but Jennifer Clapp explains how it affects every aspect of what we eat and, therefore, our health and welfare. Best of all, she provides the information and tools advocates can use to redesign the global food economy to promote fair trade, food justice, and food sovereignty."
Marion Nestle, Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health at New York University, and author of Soda Politics
"In the third edition of this invaluable text, Jennifer Clapp synthesizes the latest literature in a rapidly changing and vital field, in ways that are rigorous, accessible, and always thought-provoking. From the end of the Second World War to the thick of the climate emergency, Food tells the story of the modern food system with signature clarity and sophistication."
Raj Patel, University of Texas at Austin
"Food is detailed, it is engrossing, and it is clear. The documentation of the political and economic motivations that have shaped the current food system over the past decades is enlightening for the scientific food community and the general public."
Nature Food
