Ebook: Betting on famine: why the world still goes hungry

"Few know that world hunger was very nearly eradicated in our lifetimes. In the past five years, however, widespread starvation has suddenly reappeared, and chronic hunger is a major issue on every continent. In an extensive investigation of this disturbing shift, Jean Ziegler--one of the world's leading food experts--lays out in clear and accessible terms the complex global causes of the new hunger crisis. Ziegler's wide-ranging and fascinating examination focuses on how the new sustainable revolution in energy production has diverted millions of acres of corn, soy, wheat, and other grain crops from food to fuel. The results, he shows, have been sudden and startling, with declining food reserves sending prices to record highs and a new global commodities market in ethanol and other biofuels gobbling up arable lands in nearly every continent on earth."--Publisher's website.;Acknowledgments -- List of abbreviations -- Preface -- Massacre -- The geography of hunger -- Invisible hunger -- Protracted crises -- Postscript 1: The gaza ghetto -- Postscript 2: Refugees from the North Korean famine -- The children of Crateus -- God is not a farmer -- "No one goes hungry in Switzerland" -- The tragedy of Noma -- The awakening of conscience -- Famine and fatalism : Malthus and natural selection -- Josue de Castro, phase one -- Hitler's "hunger plan" -- A light in the darkness : the United Nations -- Josue de Castro, phase two : A very heavy coffin -- Enemies of the right to food -- The crusaders of neoliberalism -- The horsemen of the apocalypse -- When free trade kills -- Savonarola on Lake Geneva -- The collapse of the WFP and the FAO's impotence -- A billionaire's fear -- Victory of the predators -- "Natural" selection redux -- Jalil Jilani and her children -- The defeat of Jacques Diouf -- Postscript: The murder of Iraq's children -- The vultures of "green gold" -- A great lie -- Barack Obama's obsession -- The curse of sugarcane -- Postscript: Hell in Gujarat -- Criminal recolonization -- The speculators -- The "tiger sharks" -- Geneva, world capital of agri-food speculators -- Land grabs and the resistance of the damned -- The complicity of the western states -- Epilogue -- Notes.