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Paul McMahon

21 May 2014 | Email This Post Email This Post | Print This Post Print This Post

The author Paul McMahon discusses his recent book, Feeding Frenzy: Land Grabs, Price Spikes, and the World Food Crisis (Greystone, 2014), with Joseph Planta.


Feeding Frenzy: Land Grabs, Price Spikes, and the World Food Crisis by Paul McMahon (Greystone, 2014).

Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: Feeding Frenzy


Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, at TheCommentary.ca.

A fascinating new book looks at the food supply in the world, and how we can feed what’s estimated soon to be nine billion people living on this planet. It’s called Feeding Frenzy: Land Grabs, Price Spikes, and the World Food Crisis. As the subtitle suggests, the book looks at the reasons why the supply of food is so unstable, and how governments and business are reacting in preparation, or in response to the food economy. The book’s author, Paul McMahon joins me now. I’ll ask him about why at the turn of the 21st Century we have a billion people overweight, and another billion malnourished. We’ll reflect on the dangers to come, and what countries are doing in response or in reaction. As well, we’ll look at ways we can feed the world. In recent days we’ve seen stories as to the rising of beef prices, not to mention other food, so is that the reality higher prices. Paul McMahon recently co-founded SLM Partners, a business that is investing more than $100-million in grass fed ranching in Australia, and he’s a consultant for non-profits and government. He has a PhD in history from Cambridge, and soon after receiving that was part of the consulting firm McKinsey & Company in New York. He served as an advisor to The Prince of Wales’s International Sustainability Unit, and to the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organisation in Rome. Feeding Frenzy was published last year in the UK and US, and is now published in Canada by Greystone. He joined me from London, England. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, Paul McMahon; Dr. McMahon, good morning.