Is There Actually a Global Food System?

A provocative conversation with Jennifer Clapp and Raj Patel

“In the low income countries, the poorest segments of society spend upwards of 60 per cent of their income on food, and so even a small increase in food prices really means the difference between being able to eat and not being able to eat.” — Jennifer Clapp

“The tragedy is that in a ‘good’ year, when there are merely hundreds of millions of people who are going hungry, we're fine with that!”
— Raj Patel

On this week’s episode of Food with Mark Bittman, we have two experts in international food, Jennifer Clapp and Raj Patel. I wanted to talk to them because people keep asking me why food prices are going up and what impact the war in Ukraine has on our food prices — and there’s probably no one better to answer these questions. It’s very confusing and confounding, and international trade in food is something very few people understand, so I thought it was time for me to get an update on my education — and I hope you’ll learn along with me.

Please listen, subscribe, and review. And we’d love to hear your food-related questions, as we’d like to start doing live Q&A: Email us: food@markbittman.com.

Thank you, as always. — Mark

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