Product Description

We have so much choice over what we eat today because rural communities the world over have had their choices taken away. To understand how our supermarket shopping makes us complicit in a system that routinely denies freedom to the world's poorest, and how we ourselves are poisoned by these choices, we need to think about the way our food comes to us. "Stuffed and Starved" takes a long and wide view of food production, to show how we all suffer the consequences of a food system cooked to a corporate recipe. This is also the story of the fight against the unthinking commerce that brings it to us. In the wrecked paddy fields of India, in the soy deserts of Brazil, in the maize ejidos of Mexico, the supermarket aisles of California, French McDonald's and Italian kitchens, there's a worldwide resistance against unhealthy control of the food system.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #18892 in Books
• Published on: 2008-04-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 448 pages

Review
'Patel's range is impressive, and there is much that is original - a book full of insight, and makes an important contribution to understanding the politics of food.' Felicity Lawrence 'This is one book above all I'd love to see at the top of the bestseller lists: an important subject brilliantly handled by Patel. I hope it will be remembered as long as Small is Beautiful has been and gains as much influence.' Sue Baker, Publishing News 'Patel's broad treatment helps the layman connect the dots, as well as hear the voices of those who occupy the lower rungs of the global food chain.' Time Magazine 'Exhaustively researched... Patel writes with a precision and clarity that make his suitcase of statistics accessible.' New Statesman 'This critique of the world food system could not be better timed - Patel writes with passion and commitment.' Bill Jamieson, Scotland on Sunday

Guardian
'Patel's anecdotes illustrate a careful argument... His plea is for a healthier world [and] one that is more just.'

Daily Mail
`Ambitious assessment of the true cost of the global food market - social, environmental, political and, above all, human'

Customer Reviews

Astonishing
I searched hard for this book because I couldn't wait for it to come out in the USA. Normally when I work that hard to find a book, it doesn't live up to my expectations. S&S exceeded my wildest hopes for astonishment. Patel's radical hypothesis is that 1 billion starving and 1 billion fat is inevitable to the market logic of capitalism where a small number of corporations control the entire food growing, distribution, and selling network. Poor people are squeezed for every hour of labor, and rich countries are squeezed for every dollar they will spend, leading to an efficient system that runs poor farmers to the edge of starvation, and markets high-fat, cheaply made, poisoned food to the rest of us. Patel marshals an extraordinary range of evidence to show how this works at every level, and where the soft underbelly of this system is susceptible to positive change by grass roots movements. This would make an excellent documentary TV series. Much more enlightening than the other books I've read on this subject. I come away convinced that the greatest moral choice I can make is not how I vote or what I drive, but what I chose to eat.

A very well written and absolutely compelling read
Having read some of Patel's very highly regarded journalism and academic work in South Africa I ordered this book with high expectations. I wasn't disappointed. This book is exceptionally well written and an absolute pleasure to read. But, more importantly, is is one of the very few of the popular anti-globalizations books written from the global South - this book is genuinely internationalist. That's a very welcome relief.

It also brings together a dazzling range of facts and stories, perhaps a little bit like Mike Davis in its sometimes just plain awesome ambitions and scope.

And the actual content of its analysis, the politics of the global food system, is undertaken brilliantly. As far as I know this is the first serious internationalist critique of the global food system and its devastating. But its not just bleak - the stories of resistance are inspiring. It seems that this book will become something like the 'No Logo' for a new generation of activists and critical thinkers. I certainly hope so.

Qina!

An Eye Opener for You and Me
I've found this book amazing. I've read it, and read it again, and got it for the Christmas socks of those who are willing to see beyond the shelves of the supermarkets. If you are a supermarket customer, if you have an opinion on GM crops, whatever this opinion is, if you would like to know more about what you eat and drink, where it comes from and why you eat and drink it, then this book is definitely for you!
Extremely well documented, this is a life-changing experience. I can't wait for the next one. Good on you Raj!