Product Description

Neither the recent global food shortages nor the impending world energy crisis will be unfamiliar to readers, yet the link between the two has only recently been discussed. In Against the Grain, Walden Bello, renowned activist, academic and voice of the global South, situates the origins of the current food crisis within the neo-liberal reforms occurring on a global scale, describing the marginalization of the peasantry by global systems of production and distribution that service mainly the world’s middle class and elite. Partially caused by the diversion of food crops to biofuel feedstock, the crisis, for Bello, has its roots in the destruction of peasant-based agricultural systems through structural adjustment and trade liberalization. He examines this phenomenon through various case studies in Africa, along with longer case studies of China, the Philippines and Mexico.

Yet Bello does not stop merely with his diagnosis of the disease. Instead, he traces the rise of the peasantry from being passive victims to a class-conscious force, one that has managed to intervene in global politics and precipitate the various collapses of the World Trade Organization’s Doha Round. Following the rise of the progressive peasant federation Via Campesina, Bello finally suggests an alternative paradigm of production, one centered on the concept of de-globalization.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #99603 in Books
• Published on: 2009-09-25
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 176 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781844673315
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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Review
"Walden Bello is the world's leading no-nonsense revolutionary." Naomi Klein "An authentic hero of the global justice movement... throughtful, trenchant, and constructive." Susan George "Walden Bello is the world's best guide to American exploitation of the globe's poor and defenceless... He directly challenges the propaganda and the policies of the Washington establishment with an analysis that is both original and persuasive." Chalmers Johnson"

About the Author
Walden Bello is a political activist and Professor of Sociology and Public Administration at the University of the Philippines in Manila, as well as executive director of Focus on the Global South, a policy research institute based in Bangkok and for which he was the Founding Director. He was previously executive director of the Institute for Food and Development Policy (Food First) in Oakland, California and was educated at Princeton University. He has taught at the University of California, Berkeley. In 2003, Bello was awarded the Right Livelihood Award, whose website describes him as "one of the leading critics of the current model of economic globalization, combining the roles of intellectual and activist." Bello is also a fellow of the Transnational Institute (based in Amsterdam), and is a columnist for Foreign Policy In Focus. In March 2008 he was named Outstanding Public Scholar for 2008 by the International Studies Association. Bello is the author of Deglobalization: Ideas for a New Global Economy, Dark Victory: The United States and Global Poverty and Dilemmas of Domination: The Unmaking of the American Empire.

Customer Reviews

Fruit or Famine?
Walden Bello has once again produced a tour de force that overturns the conventional "wisdom" of elites in the Global North. In The Food Wars, he explores the food price spike in the first half of 2008 and contends that the international economy could be in store for more of the same. He refutes the commonly held theory that increases in demand, specifically from Asia, are the main causes for the price rises. Moreover, he debunks the arguments that supply shortages can be attributed to the banning of genetically modified organisms, the lack of more commercial farming in Africa and the production of grasses and grains for "biofuels". Rather, Bello locates the problems in the structure of the international economy itself. More to the point, the neoliberal agricultural regime encourages monoculture, petroleum-based production (fertilizers and long supply chains), corporate-dominated seed and pesticide providers, government subsidies in the Global North, and futures speculation. The regime forces small producers off the land and is unsustainable. Moreover, he outlines how many governments in the Global South implemented policies that removed subsidies to farmers, agricultural cooperatives, seed banks and a host of other salutary policies in response to International Monetary Fund and World Bank advice (often as part of loan conditionalities). As the World Trade Organization (WTO) replaced the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs, food production came to be less and less a community, regional or nation-based practice and increasingly became the hostage of international trade. The Northern American Free Trade Agreement was a precursor to the WTO and Bello explores its effects on Mexico (for example, 1.3 million farmers were driven off their farms). Likewise, he details the rise of neoliberal food regimes in the Philippines and Africa. He also considers the challenges facing Chinese peasants as its economy rapidly changes. Each case is different in numerous respects but they all share negative outcomes for families in the agricultural sector. The book concludes by noting that many farmers have resisted the new policies both at the national and international level. In fact, one of the largest networks opposing neoliberal policies is Via Campesina. This farmer/peasant run network has over 150 member organizations from 56 nations. Furthermore, the author offers compelling alternatives to the present structure, one that is sustainable ecologically. The Food Wars is an excellent contribution to a burgeoning literature on our daily bread. If we are to avoid food price spikes and the devastation it wreaks on the poorest of the planet, heed this analysis and urgent call to restructure industrial agriculture towards food sovereignty and sustainability.