Cheap potato blight

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The grip of big business over the food industry means that the poor pay the price not just for rising prices, but also for sudden falls.

Farmers in the Indian state of West Bengal are dumping potatoes in the road in protest at the halving of their price as a result of a bumper harvest. A short distance away in Bangladesh spiralling rice and wheat prices are threatening widespread hunger and starvation.

The state government is trying to sell the surplus potatoes – which are in danger of being wasted. They could of course simply give them to the hungry, but that’s not the way of the market.

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