"We Let Them Starve"

via right to food

Over at stwr.org is an interesting interview--well, part of an interview translated from the German--with the former UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Jean Zeigler. Pretty much a no-holds-barred kind of interview, Zeigler talks about his new book called , "Mass Destruction: The Geopolitics of Hunger" (the French title) or "We Let Them Starve: The Mass Destruction in The Third World" (the German title). There's no English title available yet.
Zeigler holds us all complicit in allowing starvation, particularly in the developing world. Primarily because we allow the continuance of a system that ensures starvation. Some of the translated interview from stwr:

Löpfe: [Your] book's title is "We let them starve". I am not aware that I let anyone starve.
Ziegler: That is true, but we are all accomplices. We allow multinational food corporations and speculators to decide every day who is eating and living, and who is starving and dying.
Löpfe: What should the individual do? Donate money? Eat less meat?
Ziegler: It is mainly about becoming politically active in order to put an end to the murderous activities of food speculators and multinationals. We can do so, we live in a democracy.
Löpfe: Food speculation has existed for thousands of years. What is wrong when a farmer seeks insurance against bad harvests or when a baker ensures that his supply of flour is stable?
Ziegler: Nothing. But that is not the point ... The commodities market was 'financialised'. Speculators are making billions, while millions of people starve to death.

A very provocative interview.