New York Times Series "The Food Chain"

The New York Times Business page website provides a helpful overview and supplement to its series, The Food Chain. As reported here, this series addresses “the growing demands on, and changes in, the world’s production of food.” In addition to the articles, the site links to the variety of multimedia resources available on this important topic.

Food Is Gold, and Investors Pour Billions Into Farming
By DIANA B. HENRIQUES
The most recent article, June 5 reports on private investment in agriculture worldwide. "Some private investors are starting to make long-term bets that the world’s need for food will greatly increase — by buying farmland, fertilizer, grain elevators and shipping equipment."

Previous articles:

World’s Poor Pay Price as Crop Research Is Cut
By KEITH BRADSHER and ANDREW MARTIN
Agricultural research is reduced even as the growth of the global food supply slows and the population increases.
May 18, 2008 Business Series

Shortages Threaten Farmers’ Key Tool: Fertilizer
By KEITH BRADSHER and ANDREW MARTIN
Shrinking grain stocks and an increasing appetite for meat have collided with a shortage of fertilizer.
April 30, 2008 Business Series

Environmental Cost of Shipping Groceries Around the World
By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL
Never has food moved around the world at the speed or in the amounts it has over the last few years. Now, many say it is time to make shippers and shoppers pay for the resulting pollution.
April 26, 2008 Business Series

Price Volatility Adds to Worry on U.S. Farms
By DIANA B. HENRIQUES
Wild swings in crop futures are damaging mechanisms that are supposed to cushion the jolts of farming.
April 22, 2008 Business Series

A Drought in Australia, a Global Shortage of Rice
By KEITH BRADSHER
The collapse of Australia’s rice production may foretell some of the effects of global warming on agriculture.
April 17, 2008 Business Series

As Prices Rise, Farmers Spurn Conservation Program
By DAVID STREITFELD
Farmers are taking their fields out of a government conservation program that pays them not to cultivate.
April 9, 2008 Business Series

A Global Need for Grain That Farms Can’t Fill
By DAVID STREITFELD
When much of the country is contemplating recession, farmers are flourishing because of runaway demand.
March 9, 2008 Business Series

A New, Global Oil Quandary: Costly Fuel Means Costly Calories
By KEITH BRADSHER
Demand for biofuels has created tension between using land to produce fuel and using it for food.
January 19, 2008 Business Series