How to Think About Food Riots

A number of you have e-mailed me stories about the growing incidence of food riots across the globe, which interestingly enough hasn't made the "local news" so far, although the New York Times has been running a series of articles about it. If you've been tracking these stories, you'll be interested in this post by Raj Patel on his blog "Stuffed and Starved," as well as the comments offered. Clearly, more policies are needed to encourage local farming, rather than the continuing globalization and corporatization of food production and trade. Patel's post points out the futility of grassroots action in countries where financial institutions such as the World Bank do little to encourage democracy in exchange for loans.