Friday, May 1, 2009

Food Democracy and Sustainability Focus of WBAI's Wake Up Call this morning.

HAPPY MAY DAY everybody!!!

Today on Hour Three of WBAI's Wake UP Call (www.wbai.org), we dedicated considerable amount of time to the global food crisis, and the ongoing struggles for food democracy and sustainability around the world.

Previewing the upcoming Brooklyn Food Conference taking place on Saturday, May 2nd in Park Slope, Brooklyn, we examined a number of issues relating to food politics, hunger and the damaging effects of the food industrial complex.

First we looked at the growing challenges facing New York City food banks in trying to feed the growing legions of people needing support to feed their families. The numbers are startling, with up to 3,000,000 people in the city depending on outside sources for their daily bread, according to the New York City Food Bank. We spoke to Carlos Rodriguez of the Food Bank, who was cited in a report this week about the problem of starvation in the largest city of the country.

Then we were joined by the editor of NACLA's Report on the Americas, Pablo Morales, about their latest issue, which focuses on the food crisis and its impact on Latin America.

And finally, we previewed some of the speakers from the Food Conference, including Raj Patel of the organization Food First: The Institute for Food and Development Policy.

To listen to the entire hour of the show, click here. And make sure you continue to support WBAI in its upcoming membership drive, which begins on May 4th!