These two 1947 broadcasts mark the start and finish of the Friendship Food Train's U.S. journey, a project conceived to help the people of Europe get through the winter. 

Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food & Water Watch and organic farmer, argues that the local food movement is not enough to solve America’s food crisis. In Foodopoly: The Battle Over the Future of Food and Farming in America, she takes aim at what she sees as the cause of our food and public health problems: the consolidation and corporate control of food production.

Journalist Barry Estabrook and Natural Resources Defense Council Executive Director Peter Lehner discuss food and food regulations in the United States and the shortcomings of the Food and Drug Administration when it comes to food safety. Estabrook’s article “The FDA Is Out to Lunch” appears in OnEarth magazine.

Elizabeth Royte, a contributing reporter for the Food & Environment Reporting Network, talks about the potential impact of fracking on our food supply. Her article “Fracking Our Food Supply” appears in the December 17th issue of The Nation magazine, and it is the first in-depth look at the topic, and how cattle are allegedly falling ill and dying when exposed to fracking fluids across the Midwest.

More than half of  counties in the United States have been declared disaster zones due to drought. But the United States isn’t the only country experiencing crop failures or higher food costs as a result. On today’s second Backstory, Earth Policy Institute President Lester Brown talks about water shortages in Pakistan, East Africa, and elsewhere—and how they’re affecting food supplies.

This week's Please Explain continues our series How to Save the World. Glenn Denning, Director, Center on Globalization and Sustainable Development at the Earth Institute at Columbia University, and J. Matthew Roney, Research Associate, Earth Policy Institute, examine the global food supply.