At the Brink: Global Food Crisis

The Socialist Program with Brian Becker

The Socialist Program

Politics, News

4.7 • 587 Ratings

🗓️ 4 May 2022

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On today's episode Brian Becker and Prof. Richard Wolff discuss the global food crisis that is taking shape with major price rises already being felt around the world – a grave situation that is expected to deepen. As the war in Ukraine drags on and as the western countries attempt to cut Russia off from the global economy, disruptions to supply chains and shortages are becoming even more severe. The global capitalist market is yet again proving to be incapable of ensuring something as basic as food to the world’s population.

Professor Richard Wolff is an author & co-founder of the organization Democracy at Work. You can find his work at rdwolff.com.

Please make an urgently-needed contribution to The Socialist Program by joining our Patreon community at patreon.com/thesocialistprogram. We rely on the generous support of our listeners to keep bringing you consistent, high-quality shows. All Patreon donors of $5 a month or more are invited to join the monthly Q&A seminar with Brian.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	A global food crisis is taking shape all around the world, a grave situation that is expected to deepen.
0:11.0	We need a new system. We need a new society. We need to demand that which may have sounded impossible even a few weeks ago, but is not only realizable, but an imperative necessity. I'm We're excited to have Professor Richard Wolfe join us again for our regular weekly segment where we talk about the biggest stories relating to the
0:55.7	economy, the state of the working class, and the crimes of big business. I'm your host, Brian Becker.
1:02.1	The Socialist Program brings you content three days a week thanks to the support of our patrons
1:07.4	at patreon.com forward slash the socialist program. We appreciate all of your support
1:14.6	and encourage you to become a patron today if you enjoy listening to this show.
1:20.6	Richard Wolfe is the co-founder of the Organization Democracy at Work, the author of many books.
1:26.1	The latest being the sickness is the system when capitalism
1:29.8	fails to save us from pandemics or itself. There's also a new hard copy edition of Professor
1:35.9	Wolf's book, Understanding Marxism, which has been released recently. It features a new,
1:42.5	lengthy introduction. Be sure to check out all of his work at
1:46.4	R-D-Wolf.com. That's R-D-W-O-L-F-F.com. Professor Wolf, welcome back. Thank you, Brian.
1:55.3	Glad to be here. Well, I'm looking at all of the dire warnings in all of the major news outlets, the financial papers.
2:05.6	Here's the head of the World Bank, the head, David Malpasa, a new global food crisis is building.
2:12.4	I want to read a couple sentences to you, Professor Wolfe, and get your comments.
2:17.2	The war in Ukraine has triggered an alarming global surge in government controls on the export of food.
2:26.0	It's critical for policymakers to halt the trend, which is making a global food crisis more likely.
2:34.3	In the space of a few weeks, the number of countries slapping on food export restrictions
2:41.1	jumped by 25%, bringing the total number of countries to 35.
2:48.5	Second, food accounts for at least half of total expenditures of households in low-income countries.
2:57.3	In 2008, the food crisis brought on a significant increase in malnutrition, particularly among
3:05.2	children. Some studies showed school dropout rates as much as 50% higher
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Socialist Program, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The Socialist Program and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.