“Food has long served as an instrument of statecraft. Yet agricultural economics typically … neglects security externalities.”

What foods do poor people buy when they have a bit more money? What you might expect, but not as much of it as you might expect.

How do farmers’ markets and concentrated food industries that depend on long food chains stack up when it comes to food-borne illness? Truth is, nobody really knows.

Another round-up of food news,from avocados to Xyllella

Long reads on a range of topics: sugar, sodas, food systems, pickles, pasta, military rations, curry houses and Great British tosh.

Speculators are responsible for food price spikes? Food price spikes are responsible for riots in the streets? First-world hipsters are responsible for hungry quinoa farmers in Peru? Seeking answers to basic questions.

Quinoa — that darling of the health-conscious western consumer — came in for a lot of flack a few years ago. Skyrocketing prices caused some food activists to claim that the poor quinoa farmers of the high Andean plains in Bolivia and Peru were no longer able to afford their staple food. Every mouthful we […]

“If you can tell your story with a graph or picture, do so,” says Marc Bellemare, my first guest in this episode. The picture on the left is one of his: “a graph that essentially tells you the whole story in one simple, self-explanatory picture.” Yes indeed, social unrest is caused by higher food prices. […]