Summary of Raj Patel's Stuffed and Starved

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 The modern food system is rooted in the concerns of food production companies, which have ramifications far beyond what appears on supermarket shelves.

#2 The alternative to eating the way we do today promises to solve hunger and diet-related disease, by offering a way of eating and growing food that is environmentally sustainable and socially just.

#3 The way we read bodies has not kept up with the times. The assumption that to be overweight is to be rich no longer holds. Obesity can no longer be explained exclusively as a curse of individual affluence.

#4 The food industry is constantly coming up with new products that are more profitable, but less nutritious. There are natural limits to our choices, but advertising can persuade us to expand them.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: May 12, 2022
• ISBN: 9798822516038

IRB Media

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Insights on Raj Patel's Stuffed and Starved

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 6

Insights from Chapter 7

Insights from Chapter 8

Insights from Chapter 9

Insights from Chapter 10

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The modern food system is rooted in the concerns of food production companies, which have ramifications far beyond what appears on supermarket shelves.

#2

The alternative to eating the way we do today promises to solve hunger and diet-related disease, by offering a way of eating and growing food that is environmentally sustainable and socially just.

#3

The way we read bodies has not kept up with the times. The assumption that to be overweight is to be rich no longer holds. Obesity can no longer be explained exclusively as a curse of individual affluence.

#4

The food industry is constantly coming up with new products that are more profitable, but less nutritious. There are natural limits to our choices, but advertising can persuade us to expand them.

#5

The central character in the story of food is the farmer. The market, however, is not a playing field but a razor’s edge. If there is room to make planting choices, they are tough decisions based on optimizing multiple parameters with little room for error.

#6

The choices made by farmers are just the beginning. The same forces that shape those choices also reach to the aisles of the supermarket, where we as consumers choose what we buy.

#7

The laws of supply and demand would suggest that coffee growers would move out of the market and do something else if the price of coffee went down. But too often, there isn’t anything else for farmers to do.

#8

The food system is controlled by large corporations, which are reluctant to cede control over it. Yet, they have an alibi: consumers, who want low wages and limited opportunities for farmers to increase their income.

#9

There is a superabundance of coffee farmers and coffee drinkers, but there are many millers, and a few exporters. The distribution chain is a bottleneck. The central clue is the size of the industry and of the biggest players in it.

#10

The giants in the corporate food system are big enough that they don’t have to play by the rules. They can tilt the playing field. At home and at venues such as the World Trade Organization, these corporations lobby governments for an economic environment conducive to their activities.

#11

Farmers’ groups around the world have taken their grievances about low prices to the barricades, from the World Trade Organization to the offices of companies that end up buying the fruits of their labor.