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For those with enough money—and
that’s most of us in wealthier countries—life is good. We can eat almost
anything we want, regardless of where it comes from, what season it is or how
much it costs. The world is our dish, laden with more foods than we’ve ever seen
in history and more calories than we know what to do with. A continent away,
there are more bloated bellies, but this time from malnutrition—seemingly due to
a scarcity of food. But these two contrasting worlds are linked, deeply and
inextricably. In a timely look at the entire global food chain, Stuffed and
Starved asks us to think about the way our food comes to us, to understand
how our supermarket shopping makes us complicit in denying freedom to the
world’s poorest and to recognize how we ourselves are poisoned by our choices.
Raj Patel, an
author uniquely qualified to take a long, broad view of world food production,
looks at food systems—the machine most of us don’t even know exists—and the web
made up of corporations, the World Bank, the World Trade Organization, farmers’
groups, government agencies and corporate lobbyists. From farm to fork, Patel
travels to rural collectives in Brazil, investigates the all-powerful
distribution networks, serves up the specific journeys of coffee, soy and
high-fructose corn syrup, and visits the kitchens of fast-food restaurants. What
he uncovers is the shocking story of commercial greed and helpless hunger that
is a key ingredient in everything we eat.
Stuffed and
Starved is one of the most shocking investigations into the “haves” feeding
off the “have-nots” and a compelling look at how we all suffer the consequences
of a food system cooked to a corporate recipe.
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Critical Praise for
Stuffed and Starved
Thorough and
impassioned. . . . [Patel] successfully connects the dots of seemingly disparate
issues like hunger, obesity, free trade, rural depopulation and food safety to
create the picture of a food system run by corporate greed.”
—
The Globe and Mail
“Magisterial. . . .
This is the kind of book from which you emerged enlightened, surprised, angry
and determined.”
—
The Independent (UK)
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