New Internationalist

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Banking on hunger

Food has become a hot asset as markets pour money into agricultural commodities, pushing up the price of food and forcing millions into poverty. We investigate how investments in staple foods like maize and wheat have caused hunger, profile the financiers buying up African savannah, and call for an urgent clampdown on speculation.

Plus: Russia 20 years after the USSR’s break-up

November 2011, Issue 447

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Analysis

The food rush
Maize and wheat are hot assets, right up there with gold. But since investors piled into food markets, the poorest can no longer afford to eat. Hazel Healy gets to grips with the commodity speculators.
Meet the food speculators
Who is making a profit from food?
Speculation – the facts
Meet the new farmers
Next up, land. Why financiers are buying up African Savannah. Anuradha Mittal investigates a Mozambican land deal.
Anatomy of hunger
When children stop growing... Stéphane Doyon describes the lasting damage wrought by malnutrition.
City of vertical farms
Kenyan slum dwellers are using urban agriculture to supplement diets and incomes. Danielle Nierenberg and Jesse Chang report from K ibera.
Freedom harvest
Rami Zurayk on how Egypt, which depends on food imports, is working to bring its wheat production back in-house.

Agenda

Citizen auditors challenge euro-debt
Depleted uranium: dirty secrets, dirty weapons
Daniel Ortega – yesterday’s man?
Lebanon recognizes ‘honour’ killing is murder
The Maldives calls for global climate commitment
Ivorians still suffering after post-election violence

Argument

Are religious schools bad for society?
Humanist Andrew Copson and feminist Catholic theologian Tina Beattie go head-to-head - read their arguments and join the debate.

Arts

Theatre of survival
How the young Guatemalans of Caja Ludica are using drama to face down violence.
Reviews
Films, books and music from around the world reviewed.

Alternatives

Embracing the go-slow
John Jordan and Isa Fremeaux find that a slower pace of life offers its own challenges.
Driving on empty
Eco-adventurers prove that fossil fuels don’t have to fill your tank.

Action

Full listings
With special reports on campaign news

Regulars

Letters
Why we shouldn’t romanticize indigenous peoples; the other 9/11 victims; and Wangari Maathai remembered.
Country profile: Iraq
A profile of Iraq almost a decade after the US-led invasion.
Lost causes – Russia 20 years on
Victor Sonkin weighs up the gains and the losses on the anniversary of the break-up of the Soviet Union.
Letter from Cairo
In a climate of uncertainty, laughter can sound hollow, discovers Maria Golia.
Southern Exposure
Home at last: Patcharin Toraktrakul photographs a Chinese soldier at the end of a very long journey.
Mark Engler
Corruption, bribery, fraud? Look no further than Wall Street.
Puzzle Page
Axe's classic crossword is joined by a wordsearch and ‘Sudokey’
Cartoon Corner
Polyp’s Big Bad World, Marc Roberts’ Only Planet plus guest cartoonist Julio Carrión Cueva from Peru.
Making Waves
Graeme Green meets Rosi Orozco – a remarkable woman fighting human trafficking and sexual exploitation in Mexico.
Steve Parry
As the internet comes of age, our new columnist takes a humorous look at its past, present and future.
And finally...
Children’s author, poet and playwright Michael Morpurgo writes his own happy ending.