Trading the Future Author:James Wessel The American food system has come a long way since the days of the open frontier and the homestead act. Today the top 1 percent of farms receives 66 percent of farm income, while a handful of major corporations dominate virtually every sector of the U.S. food economy. — Trading the Future traces these dramatic changes through an investigation of... more » the boom in farm exports over the last decade. It demonstrates that this boom, touted as a savior of farmers and the world's hungry, actually accelerated the crisis in American farming and increased corporate control over our food ecomomy.
Trading the Future demonstrates that the very ground rules of our economy have led farmers to the paradoxical crisis they face today-record harvests coupled with record farm bankruptcies. These same ground rules have led to record profits for many of the corporations which sell farm suppplies and buy farm produce.
James Wessel has done research on corporate power for the Corporate Accountability Research Group, the Department of Consumer Affairs of the City of New York, and the California Public Policy Center. He holds a master's degree in international business from the University of California and Berkeley.« less