By Siena Chrisman, WhyHunger

There are 2 million farmers and 300 million consumers in the U.S. Standing in the middle are a handful of corporations who control just about everything that happens to our food between the farm and our plate ... how much it costs, how it's grown, where it comes from, what's in it, and who sells it. Most of what probably matters to you about why food isn’t healthier, safer, tastier, or all around better is affected by that narrow bottleneck of power standing between producers and consumers.

They 'stood fixated on the flat screens, drinks in hand' as real time images of Chilean destruction were quickly followed by an official tsunami warning and a barrage of historic Hawaiian newsreel footage documenting the devastating tidal wave that hit Hilo back in 1947. After ordering an evacuation of coastal areas, the government advised people to stock up on a weeks worth of food.

January 21, 2010
Huffington Post

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-holt-gimenez/haiti-roots-of-liberty--...

"In overthrowing me, you have cut down in Saint-Domingue only the tree of liberty. It will spring up again by the roots for they are numerous and deep."

Toussaint L'Ouverture

December 7, 2009
Contact Eric Holt-Giménez at eholtgim (at) foodfirst.org or call 510-654-4400.

By Eric Holt-Giménez

Now landsmen all, whoever you may be,
If you want to rise to the top of the tree,
If your soul isn't fettered to an office stool,
Be careful to be guided by this golden rule--
Stick close to your desks and never go to sea,
And you all may be rulers of the Queen's Navee!
H.M.S. Pinafore (Gilbert and Sullivan)

Dear Mr. Dennis Avery,

I have read your article “Cubans Starve on a Diet of Lies,” written last March 23, regarding Cuban agriculture. At first, I hesitated to respond to such fundamentally flawed claims. However, because the misinformation propagated in your piece is unfair to Cuba and Cubans, I am doing so now.

APRIL 22, 2009
– Ben Burkett

By Annie Shattuck, Food First Policy Analyst
Published in Foreign Policy in Focus
April 17, 2009

Editor: Emily Schwartz Greco

Editor's Note: This commentary was adapted from the report "Why the Lugar-Casey Global Food Security Act will Fail to Curb Hunger," by Annie Shattuck and Eric Holt-Giménez. (Food First Policy Brief No. 18. Institute for Food and Development Policy. Oakland, California.)

July 29, 2008
By Eric Holt-Giménez,
Executive Director, Food First/Institute for Food and Development Policy

Reports of a recently-leaked World Bank paper indicating agrofuels contribute up to 75% to food price inflation contrasts with the shifting figures presented by the USDA; 2% or 10%, depending on who is talking that day. However, for people living on less than $2 a day, any figure between these wide-ranging estimates is enough to push them from malnutrition to starvation. For the poor, a pinch of agrofuels is as bad as a pound.

Eric recently gave a talk at the May, 2008 Planet Diversity Conference in Bonn, Germany entitled: “The Agrofuels Transition: Industrial Transformation of our Food Systems.” The Powerpoint slide show from that talk is available for download HERE (file is 20 megabytes).

This week's headlines are ablaze with reports of food riots. Seemingly overnight, the world went from cheap food and surpluses to food prices spiking 80% and countries banning exports of food in an attempt to stave off shortages.