Cooking in the Danger Zone

Food writer Stefan Gates investigates the appetite for bushmeat that's wiping out endangered species in Cameroon, and the shocking aid crisis in Ethiopia, where nearly twice as many people are now hungry as during the famines of the 80s. He eats civet cat, porcupine, cane rat, palm weevils, fresh goat's blood and WFP aid rations as he meets ordinary people leading extraordinary lives, and he nearly causes riots in both countries along the way.

Food writer Stefan Gates investigates how the US influences the way people eat and live in Haiti and Mexico. Free trade means that cheap US food has flooded both countries, forcing the collapse of agriculture in Haiti and starting a revolution over food and land in Mexico. Stefan tries mud cake, moonshine, sacrificial blood, ant larvae and fly eggs, and meets rebels, voodoo priests and white witches: all of them ordinary people leading extraordinary lives.

Stefan visits Israel and the West Bank. He discovers that the conflict between Jews and Arabs is rooted in land, but expressed in food. He stays with ultra-orthodox Jewish settlers and their Arab neighbours. He tastes hummus, kosher food and camel's milk.