The Food Question
Profits Versus People?

Wasteful over-consumption in the developed countries and the continuing, in some cases worsening, hunger of millions in the Third World is a dramatic indication that food problems are urgent. This book aims to provide some of the analytical tools needed for serious action.

Wasteful over-consumption (by some) in the developed countries and the continuing, in some cases worsening, hunger of millions in the Third World is a dramatic indication that food problems are urgent. Anger is not enough and this book, which comes from the research group on Development Policy and Practice in the Open University (DPP), aims to provide some of the analytical tools needed for serious action. Case studies to show ways in which food aid has been used by donor countries for political ends; descriptions of the relationships between markets and human needs; articles on the problems associated with the feminization of poverty; pieces on patterns and trends of food production; analysis of land reform; an evaluation of the effects of biotechnology are all part of this rich and lively collection of articles written specially for this book.

Introduction ? The Origins of Third World Food Dependence ? Moving the Lever: A New Food Aid Imperialism? ? Abstract Markets and Real Needs ? Food Crisis and Gender Conflict in the African Countryside ? Taking the Part of Peasants? ? Some Economic and Political Consequences of the Green Revolution in India ? Another Awkward Class: Merchants and Agrarian Change in India ? Agrarian Crisis and Political Crisis in Mexico ? ?Structural Adjustment?, Agribusiness and Rural Women in Tanzania ? Hunger and Women?s Survival in a Bangladesh Slum ? Poverty, Purdah and Women?s Survival Strategies in Rural Bangladesh ? Peasants Under Contract: Agro-food Complexities in the Third World ? Biotechnology and Agricultural Development in the Third World ? Urban Consumption as a Route to Rural Renewal ? Further Resources on Food