ABSTRACT
Before the global financial crisis became acutely visible in late 2008, the crisis in food and agriculture had already taken hold. Accelerating food prices, combined with increasing numbers of low-income families dropping below the poverty line in the developing world, led to civil unrest on a large scale as people demanded access to affordable food – an idea long championed by many as a basic human right (Cresswell, 2009; Holt-Giménez et al, 2009). Between 2006 and 2008, global food prices had risen by 83 per cent and, even in the face of the price-deflating effects of the global recession, were predicted to remain high until at least 2012 (Loewenberg, 2008, p1209). In the lead up to 2009, close to 1 billion of the world’s 6 billion people were chronically hungry, with this number expected to rise as prices for food staples continue to increase (Cresswell, 2009, p1). More than this, though – and notwithstanding the Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) calculation that there is currently enough food to feed the world’s population (FAO, 2008) – it is anticipated that there will need to be an increase in food production of between 50 and 100 per cent over current levels if the world is to feed its people by the year 2030 (Cresswell, 2009, p2). Given the extent of the current food crisis, the arrival of peak oil and evidence confirming that climate change is ‘real’, it is no surprise that riots over food provision have become widespread (McMichael, forthcoming 2009).
