With so much focus on the banking crisis, it's easy to forget that the recent global recession also includes soaring food and energy prices that triggered riots across the globe. Laura Carlsen is Director of the Americas Program at the Center for International Policy. She's author of the article  Behind Latin America's Food Crisis.

Carlsen believes that what's happened in Haiti and Mexico reveal forces that may lead us into a permanent crisis, unless changes are made to our food systems. Even though their our neighbor to the south, lots of people have no idea a significant transformation has taken place in Mexico's agricultural markets in recent years.