[TLDR (too long didn’t read): If you are reading this, chances are it behooves you. In this Reader I am quoting, in the form of key bullet, excerpts from an excellent review (in Spanish) of the root causes of food insecurity in the world by M. Herrera K., in Pressenza, https://www.other-news.info/noticias/el-hambre-del-mundo-geopolitica-de-los-alimentos/. For a quick overview, just read the bolded text]. Traducir/traduire los/les Readers; usar/utiliser deepl.com
Hunger is not a lack of food; it is an excess of power in the hands of a few
–Whoever controls wheat controls peace. Whoever controls hunger controls the world.
–Wheat is worth more than bullets because it can kill silently.
–Food is no longer just sustenance; it is currency, it is blackmail, it is a weapon.
–Hunger is also manufactured through economic sanctions, e.g., export blockades and trade sanctions.
1. Food is humanity’s oldest strategic resource and the most decisive one for the future. No society can survive without bread, rice, corn, or water. However, in the 21st century, when science and technology allow us to produce enough food for the entire world population, millions continue to die of hunger or survive in food insecurity. The paradox is brutal: never has so much been produced, never has so much been wasted and never have so many gone hungry. Hunger is not the result of scarcity, but of concentration and control.
2. The planet produces more grain than it needs, but its distribution is hijacked by corporations and governments that turn food into a political and economic weapon. In global markets, grains are not just food: they are power; in the right hands they feed; in the wrong hands they starve. (In Gaza, hunger was/is not a consequence of war, it was/is part of its design).
3. A handful of rich countries are seeking to guarantee their food security beyond their borders. China is not alone in moving in this direction. Investment funds such as BlackRock and Vanguard have become silent owners of millions of hectares. The phenomenon of land grabbing is global: more than 30 million hectares of agricultural land have changed hands in the last two decades, often displacing local communities. What used to be peasant farming is now a financial portfolio.
4. Grains and land are concentrated in the hands of powerful entities and funds, while hundreds of millions depend on imports that can be cut off at any crisis. Arable land has become the new strategic prize.
Food is not only produced, it is geopolitized
—Whoever controls seeds, land, and fertilizers controls the global stage.
5. Water and land are geared toward export crops, while local poor people face increases in the price of bread, rice, and milk. Power lies with corporations* that decide what is planted and for whom. It is not just hunger; it is business. The food crisis is not caused by drought but by profit: grains are traded in Chicago, not in the fields of the countries that grow them.
*: The human rights framework identifies governments as duty-bound. But the UN Food Systems Summit (FSS) unambiguously linked the global governance extravaganza to corporate capture, in the process, enticing corporate-friendly-FAO. (Nora Mckeon)
Hunger does not arise from scarcity, but from inequality
6. Future wars will not be fought over oil, but over water, wheat, and fertile land. Food will be power, and whoever controls it will decide which countries are fed and which are brought to their knees. The world’s bread is no longer kneaded in ovens, but traded on computer screens.
7. Wheat and other grains have an owner, hunger does not. In 2025, food was traded more than oil, and grains accounted for 30% of global commodity trade. Each ton of wheat is worth more than a peasant’s life, and each drought is an opportunity for an investment fund. Half of what is lost in wars and waste would be enough to eradicate hunger by 2050. The figures confirm it, but our consciences deny it. In 2050, whoever controls agricultural satellites and climate algorithms will decide which people eat and which migrate. Because grains have no flag, but hunger has a face.
Bottom line
8. Food has become the quietest and most effective weapon of global power. There is no need to fire a missile to unleash chaos; all you have to do is close a port, hold back a shipment of wheat, or raise the price of corn. Hunger, administered from corporate offices and government agencies, subjugates entire populations without a single shot being fired. What should be an inalienable right has been transformed into an invisible battlefield where those rendered poor always lose.
Claudio Schuftan, Ho Chi Minh City
Your comments are welcome at schuftan@gmail.com