Al Jazeera program examines politics of global food security

In an episode of Al Jazeera's "Inside Story," presenter Shiulie Ghosh and guests Chandra Bhushan, a climate change scientist and deputy director of the Centre for Science and Environment; Deborah Doane, the director of the World Development Movement and a specialist on corporate power who also blogs on food politics; and Philip Thornton of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) examine the politics of global food security. "Researchers are warning that rising global temperatures could see a shift in the world's traditional staples and who grows them," according to a summary of the episode, which cites a number of recent reports on the issue. But while "[t]he environmental factors are exacerbating the situation with food shortages and food price rises ..., there is a lot about the politics of food that are getting in the way," Doane says in the video report, noting, for example, "The reason that many countries are dependent on maize is they're encouraged to grow maize for export" (11/1).