In honor of Blog Action Day, the video here is a 15-minute TED talk by Carolyn Steel, author and architect. Among the startling things she says here:

• We lose about 47 million acres of rainforest every year. And at the same time, we lose about 50 million acres of farm land to salinization and erosion.
• Half the food produced in the USA is thrown away.
• A billion of us are obese while another billion starve.
• 80% of global trade in food is controlled by five corporations.

How did we get here, and what are we going to do about it? It’s a short talk, but she tries to answer the first question and ask the second. It’s fascinating.

http://video.ted.com/assets/player/swf/EmbedPlayer.swf

If you can’t see the video here, you can click here to go to the original on TED.com