Endless Appetites: How the Commodities Casino Creates Hunger and Unrest

Author's Note

My own experience of farming, growing up on 80 acres near the center of Minnesota, was radically different from those experienced in the countries whose farms I traveled to—Ethiopia, Kenya, Thailand, and Nicaragua—for the writing of this book. And in other ways, not so different.

My parents' sheep farm, and the corn and dairy farms nearby, used different technology, had different weather, and in a lot of ways had many advantages over the farms I visited for this book. But farmers everywhere share similar worries, as well as a similar pride in producing crops from land that nourishes life itself. The weather, is always fickle, the harvest is always uncertain, and the balance between investing to be a better farmer and avoiding debt ...