What Can Be Done to Ease the Global Food Crisis?

What Can Be Done to Ease the Global Food Crisis?

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Retail stores Costco and Sam's Club are limiting sales of rice in response to a global spike in prices. What's behind the dramatic rise in the price of rice and other food staples? Is rationing a sign that the global food crisis has hit the US? Is the cause ethanol production, fuel prices, bad weather or Wall Street? Does the world have enough food for millions of hungry people? Also, a verdict in the Sean Bell case, and Reverend Wright on his controversial sermon. Sara Terry guest hosts.

Making News

Officers Acquitted in Sean Bell's Death ()

In New York City this morning, three detectives were found not guilty on all charges in the shooting death of an unarmed man who was killed just hours before his wedding. The verdict was delivered to a packed courtroom in Queens. Tony Destefano, legal affairs and criminal justice reporter for Newsday, was in the courtroom.

Guests:

Tony Destefano: Criminal Justice Reporter, Newsday

Main Topic

What Can Be Done to Ease the Global Food Crisis? ()

Americans have been getting a taste of the global food crisis at the check-out counter in recent days, as chain stores including Costco and Sam's club have put a limit on the sale of specialty rice. The United Nations has called the current crisis a "perfect storm" of rising demand from developing countries, the impact of climate change, and policy responses by governments. What policy changes does the west need to make to end the crisis? How has the use of farm land for ethanol production affected global food supplies? How are Wall Street investors helping to keep commodities prices high? What are the long-term solutions for feeding the hungry?

Guests:

Viji Sundaram: Healthcare Editor, New American Media
Tom Buis: President, National Farmers Union
Per Pinstrup-Andersen: Professor of Food, Nutrition and Public Policy, Cornell University
James McGovern: Co-Chair, Congressional Hunger Center
Nancy Roman: Director of Public Policy, United Nations World Food Program

Reporter's Notebook

The Re-emergence of Rev. Jeremiah Wright ()

Jeremiah Wright breaks his silence tonight on his controversial comments about race in America, in a PBS interview with Bill Moyers. Barack Obama's former pastor says that his comments about race were taken out of context. This weekend, in Detroit, he'll be speaking to the NAACP. Why is Wright speaking up now? With Obama facing questions about his electability, what impact will Wright's comments have on the senator's campaign? Charles Henry, professor of African American Studies at the University of California-Berkeley, is author of Long Overdue: The Politics of Racial Reparations.

Guests:

Charles Henry: Professor of African American Affairs, University of California-Berkeley

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