Food Systems Failure: The Global Food Crisis and the Future of Agriculture (Earthscan Food and Agriculture) - Tapa blanda

"Using a variety of approaches in their critical assessment of the global food system, these authors all share the common perspective that it requires radical change. They argue that the recent food price crises are indicative of wider problems in the global food system as a whole, and provide evidence for the urgent need to shift away from business-as-usual to avoid an increasingly dire global food situation." – Food Ethics, the magazine of the Food Ethics Council

"The collection is excellent in its identification of the key problems with the current agrifood system, and provides ample illustration of the human and environmental costs of keeping business-as-usual afloat." – Anna Krzywoszynska, PhD, Post-Doctoral Research Associate at the Department of Geography, Durham University

This book provides a critical assessment of the contemporary global food system in light of the heightening food crisis, as evidence of its failure to achieve food security for the world's population. A key aspect of this failure is identified in the neoliberal strategies which emphasize industrial efficiencies, commodity production and free trade-ideologies that underlie agricultural and food policies in what are frequently referred to as 'developed countries'.

The book examines both the contradictions in the global food system as well as the implications of existing ideologies of production associated with commodity industrial agriculture using evidence from relevant international case studies. The book's first section presents the context of the food crisis with contributions from leading international academics and food policy activists, including climate scientists, ecologists and social scientists. These contributions identify current contradictions in policy and practice that impede solutions to the food crisis. Set within this context, the second section assesses current conditions in the global food system, including economic viability, sustainability and productivity. Case study analyses of regions exposed to neoliberal policy at the production end of the system provide insights into both current challenges to feeding the world, as well as alternative strategies for creating a more just and moral food system.