Frederick Kaufman

I was aware that food prices had gone up in the last five years but had chalked it up to rising fuel costs (that's probably still a factor, but not the most important one). I wasn't aware that 2008 and 2010 were actually wheat surpluses though, while the numbers of hungry rose. Kaufman started off chasing a simple question- Why can't there be healthy, delicious, and inexpensive food for all- and ends up in a rabbit hole of Big Food aggregates making things cheap while squeezing out the small guys, scientists looking for the genetic fix while would-be allies decry their hunt, and eventually to the source of the price paradox: the food commodities market. Food stopped being food and became a widget for cash- except the demand will never cease, and not fulfilling it has dire consequences. Definitely an interesting read.… (més)