Food first: Beyond the myth of scarcity [Hardcover]

Frances Moore Lappe (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1977

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 466 pages
• Publisher: Houghton-Mifflin (1977)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0395253470
• ISBN-13: 978-0395253472
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 6 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,166,810 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Food First by Lappe, February 23, 2004

By 

Joseph S. Maresca "Dr. Joseph S. Maresca CPA,... (Bronxville, New York USA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Food first: Beyond the myth of scarcity (Hardcover)

This is an excellent work which discusses the negations involved
in major agriculture. The author explains how an increase
in food productive capability can result in greater unavailability of foodstuffs for the needy. For instance,
the following consequences may follow increases in land
productivity:
o land values increase forcing tenants and small farmers elsewhere
o payments in money become the rule although money buys less
o control of scarce land becomes concentrated in fewer hands

o even communal lands are expropriated by powerful individuals
o peasants are trapped into debt bondage
o quantity and market value rather than nutrition become the
formula for agricultural planning

The author explains negations in the Philippines, Bangladesh,
West Malaysia and Sri Lanka.

Surprisingly, some researchers have found that a country's
decrease in export earnings may make people better off.
In such circumstances, tenants are better able to enforce their
demands for land and for permission to grow subsistence crops.

This work is an important treatise on the economic aspects
of agriculture. It complements works by David Ricardo and
others.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of my all time favorites, February 28, 2004

By 

Michael Karpman (Mt. Rainier, MD USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Food First (Hardcover)

This book is an eye opener. We have been led to believe that there is not enough food in the world to feed all of the starving people. We are told that the only solution is a combination of more technology and global trade. Is it possible that these assumptions are not true? Read this book and make up your own mind.