New Books Catalogue Autumn/Winter 2011 - Pluto Press

A food crisis in the Middle EastThe Empty Bread BasketFood and Farming in the Fertile CrescentRami Zurayk and Tariq TellThe Fertile Crescent, the region encompassing Iraq, Syria, Lebanon,Jordan and Palestine, has, despite its name, historically facedchallenges to food security from Imperial powers and, more recently,foreign agribusiness.The Empty Bread Basket unravels the paradoxes of food and empirein the Fertile Crescent using a comparative and historical politicaleconomy of agrarian change. The structures that condition ruraldevelopment in the region are traced historically, as the result ofcapitalist development and colonially mediated state-building thatbegan during the 19th century Ottoman Tanzimat reform andaccelerated with the imposition of Western colonialism after WorldWar I. The contemporary food dependence of the Fertile Crescent isexplained as the cumulative outcome of these historical processes andthe agendas of Western governments and international developmentagencies.As commodity prices soar across the world, food security is set tobecome a key issue for students studying Middle Eastern politics anddevelopment studies.May 2012272pp 215mm x 135mmPb 978-0-7453-3176-8 £18.99Hb 978-0-7453-3175-1 £65Rami Zurayk is Professor in the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciencesat the American University of Beirut (AUB). He has worked extensively indevelopment throughout the Middle East and has served as a consultant tothe United Nations and the World Bank. He is the author of Food, Farmingand Freedom (2011).Tariq Tell is the author of Social Origins of Hashemite Rule (2010). Hehas published on Jordanian-Palestinian relations, political liberalisationunder King Hussein and on the agrarian development of the East Bank, aswell as editing two academic works on the social and political history ofmodern Jordan.NEXT READSeasons of HungerFighting Cycles of Starvation Among the World’sRural PoorStephen Devereux, Bapu Vaitla and SamuelHauenstein Swan. Foreword by Robert ChambersPb 978-0-7453-2826-3 £9.99Hunger Watch Report 2007-08The Justice of Eating - the Struggle For Food andDignity in Recent Humanitarian CrisesAction Against Hunger, edited by SamuelHauenstein Swan and Bapu VaitlaPb 978-0-7453-2746-4 £8.99www.plutobooks.com PlutoPress 13