The Global Food System: Issues and Solutions

This detailed analysis of the global food system looks at the way food is produced, distributed, and consumed in an effort to create a more equitable and healthful system worldwide. With large-scale famine afflicting regions around the globe and overconsumption and unhealthy eating habits destroying others, many are beginning to wonder if access to food is less of a class-based social problem and more of an ethical issue affecting the lives—and livelihoods—of people all over the world. This thoughtful text provides a thorough examination of the factors contributing to this global concern, exploring the complexities of international food supply and demand as well as the efforts to bring about a more just global food system. Through this groundbreaking volume, author and educator Will Schanbacher sheds light on flaws in the current structure and suggests ways to achieve a more balanced approach. He considers the economics, politics, and activism behind and involved in the production, distribution, and consumption of the global food system. In an effort to illuminate many problems associated with hunger, inequality, and injustice in the food system, the book also offers many potential strategies and solutions for making a more healthy, sustainable, and equitable world. Chapters contain both theoretical models and concrete practices for food security and offer strategies for creating an equitable system.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments Introduction 1 Food Sovereignty: Some Initial Thoughts and Questions for Research Annette Aurélie Desmarais 2 Justifying the Human Right to Food in the Food Sovereignty Framework William D. Schanbacher 3 Agribusiness Concentration: Globalization, Market Power, and Resistance Douglas H. Constance, Mary Hendrickson, and Philip H. Howard 4 Racism, Gender Discrimination, and Food Chain Workers in the United States Joann Lo 5 Lessons from the Food System: Borkian Paradoxes, Plutocracy, and the Rise of Walmart's Buyer Power R. Dennis Olson 6 The Pursuit of Happiness: At the Intersection of Food, Performance, and Consumer Identity Sara B. Dykins Callahan 7 Battles for the Soul of Organic: The Grassroots versus the Suits Grace Gershuny 8 Where's the Beef ? Looking for Food in Religion and Ecology Dell deChant 9 The GMO Threat to Food Sovereignty: Science, Resistance, and Transformation Brian Tokar 10 Agroecology and Social Movements Peter M. Rosset and María Elena Martínez-Torres 11 Contested Land Politics and Trajectories of Agrarian Change within an Emergent World Agro-commodity Regime: Insights from the BRICS and the Periphery Ben McKay, Alberto Alonso-Fradejas, Chunyu Wang, and Saturnino M. Borras Jr. 12 The Importance of Process in Achieving Food Sovereignty: Participatory Action Research (PAR) in Coffeelands of Nicaragua Heather R. Putnam and J. Christopher Brown Index About the Contributors

About the Author :
Will Schanbacher, PhD, is instructor of religious studies at the University of South Florida, Tampa, FL.