Hungry for Profit: The Agribusiness Threat to Farmers, Food, and

From the publisher:

The agribusiness/food sector is the second most profitable industry in the United States -- following pharmaceuticals -- with annual sales over $400 billion. Everything, from decisions on which foods are produced, to how they are processed, distributed, and marketed, is, remarkably, dictated by a select few giants wielding enormous power.

Through it all, the paradox of capitalist agriculture persists: ever-greater numbers remain hungry and malnourished despite an increase in world food supplies and the perpetuation of food overproduction.

Hungry for Profit presents a historical analysis and an incisive overview of the issues and debates surrounding the global commodification of agriculture. Contributors address the growing public concern over food safety and controversial developments in agricultural biotechnology including genetically engineered foods. Hungry for Profit also examines the extent to which our environmental, social, and economic problems are intertwined with the structure of global agriculture as it now exists.

Hungry for Profit demystifies the reasons why hunger proliferates in the midst of plenty and points the way toward sustainable solutions. Perhaps most important, it highlights the ways in which farmers, farmworkers, environmental and sustainable agriculture groups -- as well as consumers -- are engaged in the struggle to create a just and environmentally sound food system which, its editors argue, cannot be separated from a just and environmentally sound society.