Raj Patel

Raj Patel brings a colloquial, humorous writing style to a complex and generally rather depressing subject: the domination of the world's food supply by corporations who are blind to their human and environmental effects in the rush for profits. He does hold out some nuggets of hope in the form of co-operative movements and community supported agriculture schemes, but the overall picture is still a grim one. While some of the ground he covers is familiar from other writers on the subject, show more there were a number of areas that were new to me: the problems with soybeans in particular. And I'd never really thought of the British predilection for milky sweet tea as a driver for the slave trade before. I liked Patel's very international perspective. show less

Revised and Expanded Edition "For anyone attempting to make sense of the world food crisis, or understand the links between U.S. farm policy and the ability of the world's poor to feed themselves, Stuffed and Starved is indispensable." —Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore's DilemmaIt’s a perverse fact of modern life: There are more starving people in the world than ever before, while there are also more people who are overweight. To find out how we got to this point and what we can do show more about it, Raj Patel launched a comprehensive investigation into the global food network. It took him from the colossal supermarkets of California to India’s wrecked paddy-fields and Africa’s bankrupt coffee farms, while along the way he ate genetically engineered soy beans and dodged flying objects in the protestor-packed streets of South Korea. What he found was shocking, from the false choices given us by supermarkets to a global epidemic of farmer suicides, and real reasons for famine in Asia and Africa. Yet he also found great cause for hope—in international resistance movements working to create a more democratic, sustainable and joyful food system. Going beyond ethical consumerism, Patel explains, from seed to store to plate, the steps to regain control of the global food economy, stop the exploitation of both farmers and consumers, and rebalance global sustenance. show less

Wide-ranging, engaging, systems-perspective analysis of the global markets in food, their control by a relatively small number of corporate giants, and the effect of that control on both farmers and eaters. For someone who's been trying to wrap my brain around how globalization works, this was very helpful; little connection-explosions kept going off in my brain while I read.

Patel's main objective is for farmers and eaters to reclaim their local 'food sovereignty': for farmers to have show more access to their local markets, with farmers and eaters together being able to determine their local food and farming policies. Patel contrasts food soveriegnty to the current system of externally-imposed constraints and illusory choice: farmers and consumers are being required to choose from a diminished range of possibilities, even while their selections are triumphantly declared by propagandists to be 'free choice.' I especially appreciated Patel's highlighting of activist farming organizations, such as Via Campesina and Brazil's Landless Workers' Movement. Additionally, it is refreshing to see an acknowledgment of the limited usefulness of activism via consumerism. Patel also explicitly discusses issues of class, sex, race, and colonialism as they intersect with food justice, which made me very happy to see.

Patel keeps Stuffed and Starved from being dry and heavy. He works in Monty Python references and many gossippy factoids about the genesis of TV Brand dinners or why the British National Grid pays so much attention to major television events. There's plenty of interesting dinner-party conversation hooks here, if you are so inclined.

I strongly recommend this book to anyone who's interested in Michael Pollan's work, or who is interested in issues of obesity, starvation, free trade, and other issues of food justice. Patel also maintains a related website -- stuffedandstarved.org -- with updated news, educational articles, resources, and action items. show less

3.5 stars

The title of the book comes from the fact that as more and more people are becoming overweight, there is also a larger number of people who are starving. The author has done a lot of research for this book, looking at our increasingly corporate food system, where so much of every step of our food is produced and brought to our plates via businesses in it for the profit only. There is a lot of focus on the farmers (many commit suicide as it’s harder and harder to make a living) show more around the world. There are chapters on genetically-modified foods, on the supermarket, Mexico, Brazil, corn, soy, and much more.

The author has actually worked fro the WTO (World Trade Organization) and the World Bank, both are mentioned (generally, not in a good way) in this book. There is a lot to take in in this book. Mostly interesting stuff here. He does end with some suggestions to try to make things better, but the sad part is corporations that make a lot of money won’t go for it, and though you’d like to think governments will step up, over and over that doesn’t happen with money from those large corporations funding the politicians. show less