Raj Patel, author of Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System, provides his analysis of recent riots relating to the disastrous rise in global food prices. In this video produced by Democracy Now, Mr. Patel offers his analysis of the recent riots taking place in developing countries most effected by “this perfect storm”, he attributes to the following causes: the US biofuels program that has led to increased corn prices; climate change that has produced a bad year for agriculture production; substantially higher oil prices, as modern industrial agriculture depends a great deal upon the use of fossil fuels to grow and distribute food; and the populations of China and India that are switching to more meat consumption, causing a big rise in the price of wheat diverted toward feeding livestock (instead of humans).

No one has a solution to this growing crisis, but it does beg the following questions: If biofuel production puts more CO2 into the atmosphere than it prevents, and does not help reduce reduce climate change, why are we pursuing this course? Since all three of the presidential candidates appear to support the biofuels program, where is Al Gore on this issue?