““Endless Appetites is ideal for someone interested economics and global markets, packed as it is with numbers. But the information in this book is important for anyone who is concerned about the future of our food supply―which should probably be all of us.”
― Serious Eats!
“Worth checking out … Based on the author’s personal visits to farmers around the world, Bjerga explains how the crisis happened (short answer: greed), it’s tragic effects, and what now has to be done to reverse them.”
― The Atlantic
“Some of Bjerga’s best writing is about the inner workings of the Chicago Board of Trade and other markets, and when he brings American agricultural history into the story of what other countries have not had and do not have to encourage stable agricultural development. … Bjerga’s skill is in the way he forces the reader to make connections between aspects of agriculture that do not normally appear together. And the book is chock full of unusual observations.”
― AgWeek
“My Thanksgiving holiday book discovery will become Christmas season reading. … Lest you think this is just another rant at financial and trading institutions, be aware that Bjerga is a veteran commodities writer and Washington correspondent.”
― Lee Egerstrom in Hindsight: The Minnesota 2020 Blog
1. Describe the “commodities casino” as you refer to it in the book.
The “commodities casino” is the result of a bunch of things that have come together at once to make world food prices swing up and down in ways that have hurt everyone and the world’s poorest people most. Tighter food inventories, more volatile weather, big changes in oil prices that are a significant part of food costs, and the ability of commodity buyers and sellers to shift billions of dollars into and out of crop futures in an instant all have the potential to drive markets in directions that make it hard for consumers and farmers to meet their need for nutritious food.
2. To what do you attribute the volatility of food prices over the past five years?
A lot of it has to do with smaller surpluses reacting to unpredictable weather–when you have less food available, markets get jumpier when there’s bad news. The smaller surpluses are here for many reasons–rising demand in countries that are growing quickly, governments moving away from stockpiling grains, more crops being used as energy sources. It takes away much of the buffer we used to have. Add to that new ways to buy and sell crop futures, and prices can start to move pretty fast.
3. What do you see happening over the next 5-10 years?
I would not be surprised a bit to see world food prices fall again, actually. That may seem to undercut the book, but it doesn’t. Farmers have an amazing ability to meet demand, and in fact will overshoot those needs if they get a chance. But that’s the problem. People outside agriculture see a good harvest and think that food problems are over when they aren’t. Then a bad harvest hits a key region, prices go up, countries become unstable, and people suffer. That’s the world we’re living in, and the only way to smooth it out is to have more reliable supplies from more places.
4. What are some of the most pressing examples of food security issues we are seeing in the world today?
One of the most troubling trends right now is that parts of the world that are getting more and more urban are being supplied by rural areas that can’t keep up with the growth. That means you have huge concentrations of people who are either highly dependent on food imports or on local growers whose harvests are entirely dependent on rain — and rainfall seems to be getting more erratic. That trend isn’t improving. The most frustrating problem beyond that is the persistence of famine. The world can feed itself, but it isn’t happening, and for everyone’s sake we need to do something about it. Are we really so self-absorbed that a billion people unnecessarily suffering doesn’t deserve a response? It’s not like we need to make massive changes, it’s more about having a sustained focus and a common goal.
5. You say at the very beginning of the book, “To feed everyone, we need everyone.” What does that mean?
It means you can fit the entire point of the book on a T-shirt! Was that the wrong answer? OK. What I mean is that two things fundamentally hold back the fight against hunger. One is people who simply don’t care. The second is people who do, but then spend time bickering with other people who do, but don’t agree on the details. That’s counter-productive. As a journalist I’ve spoken to people from executive suites to food-aid distribution sites, and most people have reasonable perspectives and good intentions. We’d all be better off if we cut out the caricatures and found worked out our differences to further a goal we all should agree upon: making sure no one goes to bed hungry at night. Different solutions work for different situations. Some flexibility, trust and appreciation of one another is required, but given the stakes involved and the rewards we could get, I think humanity can pull it off. I’m an optimist. I wouldn’t have written this book if I weren’t.
From the Inside Flap
The international food crisis particularly the availability and affordability of food products has become one of the most pressing challenges of our time, and is being talked about everywhere from college campuses to emergency UN meetings. While American farms are more prosperous today than ever before, the same cannot be said for those in other parts of the world. Since 2007, farm-product prices have risen at ridiculous rates, leading to increasing hunger, malnutrition, and social and political upheaval around the world.??Endless Appetites: How the Commodities Casino Creates Hunger and Unrest explores how crop markets first established in the 1800s to help stabilize agricultural commodity prices are increasingly acting like an investors’ casino, with prices absorbed by rich nations taking food from the mouths of poor ones.
Drawing on his experiences visiting farms and talking with farmers around the world in Ethiopia, Kenya, Thailand, and Nicaragua as well as in the United States, acclaimed journalist Alan Bjerga examines the growing international food crisis firsthand. Raised on a farm in the Midwest during the last food crisis, Bjerga has the personal and professional experience to understand the plight of individual families and make the kind of intelligent, insightful suggestions for change that only an expert can.
As grocery store prices continue to rise, it is clear that something has to be done to stabilize food prices and close the hunger gap, not just at home, but around the world. Increases in food prices in 2011 set new records, and things are only going to get worse unless we act now. Endless Appetites takes the reader inside the commodities system at the center of the heartbreaking rise in worldwide hunger and considers how to solve the problem of food security for everyone.
From the Back Cover
Praise for Endless Appetites
“For all those concerned about the issues of hunger in the world, this is essential reading.” GEORGE McGOVERN, former U.S. Senator and 2008 World Food Prize laureate
“Alan Bjerga’s well-written book, Endless Appetites, takes readers from distant farms to commodity markets all over the world as he examines the growing complexity of farming, food production, and distribution. This award-winning journalist skillfully weaves stories with data as he explains why food prices continue to rise and why, despite record food production, famines still occur. Although it deals with a complex problem, Endless Appetites is easy to read and easy to understand. I highly recommend this book to everyone who cares about food.” DAVID BECKMANN, President, Bread for the World and 2010 World Food Prize laureate
About the Author
Alan Bjerga has covered food and agricultural issues for more than a decade for Knight-Ridder Newspapers and Bloomberg News. He won the Glenn Cunningham Agricultural Journalist of the Year Award from the North American Agricultural Journalists in 2005. In 2009, he was recognized for covering U.S. food aid and famine in Ethiopia by the Society of American Business Editors and Writers, the North American Agricultural Journalists, the New York Press Club, and the Overseas Press Club. In 2010, Bjerga was President of the National Press Club and the North American Agricultural Journalists.
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