In 2008, farmers grew enough to feed twice the world's population, yet more people starved than ever before?and most of them were farmers. In Bet the Farm, food writer Kaufman sets out to discover the connection between the global food system and why the food on our tables is getting less healthy and less delicious even as the the world's biggest food companies and food scientists say things are better than ever. To unravel this riddle, he moves down the supply chain like a detective solving a mystery, revealing a force at work that is larger than Monsanto, McDonalds or any of the other commonly cited culprits?and far more shocking.

Kaufman's recent cover story for Harper's, "The Food Bubble," provoked controversy throughout the food world, and led to appearances on the NBC Nightly News, MSNBC, Fox Business News, Democracy Now, and Bloomberg TV, along with features on National Public Radio and the BBC World Service.

• Visits the front lines of the food supply system and food politics as Kaufman visits farms, food science research labs, agribusiness giants, the United Nations, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, and more
• Explains how food has been financialized and the powerful consequences of this change, including: the Arab Spring, started over rising food prices; farmers being put out of business; food scientists rushing to make easy-to-transport, homogenized ingredients instead of delicious foods
• Explains how the push for sustainability in food production is more likely to make everything worse, rather than better?and how the rise of fast food is bad for us, but catastrophic for those who will never even see a McNugget or frozen pizza

Introduction: Closed to the Press 1

Part I Looking for a Slice

1 A Marvel of Technology 7

2 The Domino’s Effect 19

3 The Measure of All Things 37

4 What’s New for Dinner 57

Part II Looking for the Killer App(etizer)

5 The Nucleotidal Wave 75

6 The Code 95

Part III Looking for a Leader

7 Circus Maximus 111

8 A Short History of Wheat Futures 129

9 The Food Bubble 151

10 Let Them Eat Cash 171

Part IV Looking for Money

11 Fresh Water and a Shotgun 193

12 The Price 205

13 Hard Red Spring 223

14 The Bubble Business 237

Epilogue: Return to Reality 255

Acknowledgments 257

Index 260