How Food Has Failed Us

When you walk into a supermarket and see the dizzying selection, do you ever consider how all that food got there?

Shoppers in Spain this week faced nearly empty shelves, after independent truckers blocked transport routes to protest high gas prices. Hundreds of thousands of South Koreans marched on Tuesday to dispute their government’s agreement to resume American beef imports. And in Rome last week, 40 nations convened by the UN Food Program met to discuss mounting food prices.

Rice, wheat and corn are nearly triple the 2007 cost, and food riots in Egypt, Lebanon, Haiti and Senegal provoked fears of whether the Earth's supply can continue to feed its growing population.

Heard enough? Well, before you slice that recalled Roma tomato, author Paul Roberts is here to tell us that cheap food is not the solution, and may in fact be the problem. His new book "The End of Food" tells the story of a broken food system, and he joins Word of Mouth with the message that the golden age of abundance and high yield production is over.

(Photo by flyzipper)