ABSTRACT
This book examines the geography of the world food system. It examines the processes ‘behind the supermarket shelves’ which explain the geography of food production and consumption. The main thesis is that hunger persists because the political will to eliminate it is lacking. Decisions made at all scales, from the international to the familial, help explain why some people enjoy a rich and varied diet while others suffer from hunger. This book challenges traditional conceptualisations of hunger, which analyse it with reference to natural disasters and ‘overpopulation’ and which tend to grant it an element of inevitability. There is nothing inevitable about the persistence of hunger. When the essential political character of hunger is appreciated then it becomes possible to envisage a world where hunger is history.
