About the Book

Why does our global food system gives us expensive, unhealthy and bad-tasting food, where we pay more for packaging and long-distance shipping than we do for the food itself? Why do farmers and peasants from around the world lead massive protests each and every time the World Trade Organization meets?

In this book, global food and farming researcher-activist Peter Rosset explains how the runaway free trade policies and neoliberal economics of the WTO, American government and European Union kill farmers, and give us a food system that nobody outside of a small corporate elite wants. This is an essential guide that unravels and demystifies the confusing negotiations at the WTO, and the debate over agricultural subsidies, revealing the bankruptcy of major government positions from both the North and the South. What is at stake is the very future of our global food system and of each country‘s unique food and farming systems. This book sets out an alternative vision for agricultural policy, taking it completely out of the WTO‘s ambit. Food is not just another commodity, to be bought and sold like a microchip, but something which goes to the heart of human livelihood, culture and society.

Commendations

'Food is Different makes the case, with clarity and passion, for rebuilding the global food system beyond the unequal and devastating consequences of the WTO ‘free trade‘ regime. Rosset guides us through the thicket of rules and regulations, explaining their irreversible impact on social and ecological sustainability and engaging us with a powerful and compelling catalogue of alternatives, captured in the concept of "food sovereignty.' - Philip McMichael, Cornell University

'Food is Different comes at a time where the WTO is being criticed and discredited by both governments and civil society, and it brings to the fore the real alternatives being proposed by social movements all over the world. This is a timely publication that gives voice and expression to those who have none.' - Paul Nicholson, European Farmers Coordination (CPE) and La Via Campesina

'Peter Rosset eloquently illustrates that good is the basis of human existence and that it intertwines the lives of farmers, consumers and the environment. Food is Different should be read by all who are willing to build food sovereignty on a local, regional and global level as well as by those who believe the current WTO system is working - it will change their minds.' - Andrianna Natsoulas, Food and Water Watch

'This book is essential reading for anyone interested in understanding how the current trade in food maintains the global status quo.' - Tribune

'Global Issues, Zed Books' series of accessible guides to what's happening in the global economy, examines areas such as development, debt, poverty and crime. Written by academics and activists, few books on globalisation match their relevance and scope and Peter Rosset's book is an excellent addition to the list.’ - Tribune

'Rosset’s carefully constructed and historically based arguments about what makes food different in a global trade system especially emphasize how export subsidies allow food products to be sold below production prices - a practice that creates incentives for overproduction and ultimately leads to dumping, which benefits agribusiness corporations but hurts farmers ... This book demands a place on the shelf of all those who are involved in food, farming, agriculture, and development - specialists and activists alike.' - Gastronomica

"...powerful new book...' - T&G Publications, July 2007

"Clear and accessible" - Food Ethics

Contents

1. Introduction: Trade versus Development?
2. Trade Negotiations and Trade Liberalization
3. Key Issues, Misconceptions, Points of Disagreement and Alternative Paradigms
4. The Confusing Case of King Cotton
5. Current Status of the WTO Negotiations
6. The Impacts of Liberalized Agricultural Trade
7. Policy Alternatives for a Different Agriculture

About the Author

Peter Rosset is a food rights activist and agro-ecologist. He is based in Oaxaca, Mexico, where he is a researcher at the Centro de Estudios para el Cambio en el Campo Mexicano (Center for Studies of Rural Change in Mexico), and co-coordinator of the Land Research Action Network. He is also Global Alternatives Associate of the Center for the Study of the Americas and is a Visiting Scholar in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy & Management of the University of California.

His previous books include: The Case for GM-Free Sustainable World (2003); Sustainable Agriculture and Resistance: Transforming Food Production in Cuba (2002); and America Needs Human Rights (1999).

Academic Adoption Information

This book is used for teaching at the following institutions:

Preston College