Habitually shunned by economists, the press, and the majority of Congress, shielded by a bureaucracy in the Department of Agriculture that long ago became its prisoner, the food industry is a domain ruled by a few giant corporations remote from public accountability. Decisions that can save or condemn to death vast numbers of people are dependent on an esoteric dated market mechanism geared to profit and oblivious to human need. And the most urgent problems facing die conscience and resourcefulness of American foreign policy for the next decade remain hostage to an economic system out of the nineteenth century. That is the argument.