Alan Bjerga is a judge at the Miss North Dakota Pageant being held in Williston June 7-9. He will also sign his book “Endless Appetites” at Books on Broadway Friday, June 8 from 12:30 to 2:30 CDT.
Understanding The Twenty-First Century Food Crisis
Since 2007, farm-product prices have rocketed and plunged, causing hunger, malnutrition, and social and political upheaval around the world. Endless Appetites explores how ‘food security”, the availability of food and the reasonable ability to buy it, has become one of the most challenging topics of our time. With every jump in grocery store prices, the issue becomes more and more pressing, proven by this year’s record increase in food prices, which has already topped the spike of 2008.
Award-winning commodities reporter Alan Bjerga explains the food crisis and why it is happening in an accessible, articulate manner. Why is this happening when more food is being grown than ever? From college campuses to emergency UN meetings, “food security” is one of the hottest topics of the day, with no shortage of interest in how to stabilize food prices worldwide to close the hunger gap.
To understand the growing international food crisis, readers need an expert they can rely on. One of the most widely acclaimed journalists on food security, Alan Bjerga is up to the task, taking readers from the trading floor of Chicago to the highlands of East Africa to the rice paddies of Thailand on a global trek to find the causes of the food-price crisis-and the solutions.
Food security, the availability of food and reasonable access to it, has become one of the hottest topics of the year, growing in importance with every spike in agricultural commodity prices, of which there have been many since 2007. While 2012 prices have not been as severe as 2007 and 2008, they are still up double-digits with grain up 33% and fruits up an absurd 62%. These increases have led to hunger, starvation, and often civil unrest. Why is this happening just when such huge progress has been made in productivity? Could it be that the very markets first established in Chicago in the 1800s to help stabilize agricultural commodity prices have become a hedge funders casino where the rich are taking food out of the mouths of the poor?
Alan Bjerga (Washington D.C.) has covered food and agricultural issues for nearly a decade for Knight-Ridder newspapers and Bloomberg News in Washington, D.C. He won the Glen Cunningham Award from the North American Agricultural Journalists in 2005 for his work on ties between U.S. farm subsidies and obesity. In 2009, he was recognized for his project covering U.S. food aid and famine in Ethiopia by the Society of American Business editors and Writers, the North American Agricultural Journalists, the New York Press Club, and the Overseas Club. He is a two-time winner of the Kansas Press Association’s top award for agricultural covers in 2004 and 2005. Bjerga is president of the National Press Club and speaks on government suppression of journalists worldwide, and hosts the Club’s celebrated luncheon series, broadcast on C-SPAN and public radio. He is also president of the North American Agricultural Journalists. Bjerga began his career with the St. Paul Pioneer Press and reported for the Sioux Falls Argus Leader and the Wichita Eagle. He contributes to Washington Monthly magazine, National Public Radio, and Pacifica Radio affiliates, and writes for Bloomberg Businessweek magazine. Bjerga earned a bachelors degree from Concordia College and an MA in mass communication from the University of Minnesota. In his spare time, he plays guitar and frequently performs with Honky Tonk Confidential, a retro/alt country band with songs written by CBS “Face the Nation” anchor, Bob Schieffer, and won $50,000 on “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” in 2005, and placed second in 2003 on Jeopardy!”
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