ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts covered in the subsequent chapters of this book. There are many other specific interpretations of political ecology, but our version in the book is very broad. The book concerns for the environmental change wrought by food producing activities such as agriculture and food processing and represented by Escobars 1996 paper. It as a fundamental part of the environmental health context of modern life and therefore susceptible to the political ecology approach. The book investigates the claims of the sciences of plant breeding and biotechnology that they have the answers to many of the food problems faced by humanity. The notion of food ethics and food justice will then be enlarged to include the human rights discourse on the right to food of all human beings. Finally, the book efforts can be made to place food within the context of such popular debates, for instance the ethical ones about vegetarianism and animal welfare.
