Stuffed and Starved: An Eye-opening Look at the Global Food Situation
Raj Patel takes us on a sobering journey into the bowels of the political and economical forces that shape the way we eat in this fascinatingly reproachful book. Here are some snippets from "Stuffed and Starved" - inspired by Jim's post: Food, Poverty and Guilt.
- In the US in 2005, 35.1 million people didn't know where their next meal was coming from.
- Poor countries are suffering obesity epidemics - in some cases at HIGHER rates than the U.S. Mexico (average income: $6000 USD) is a prime example.
- As consumers, we are encouraged to think that an economic system based on individual choice will save us from the collective ills of hunger and obesity - yet it is this very freedom that has sparked these ills.
- Coffee growers in Uganda sell their beans for around $.14/kilogram. By the time comes out the other side, the price is $26.40/Kg - nearly 200 times the original cost.
- There is an epidemic of farmers going into debt and committing suicide.
- Between 1979 and 1986, over a million jobs were lost in farming/allied industries and yet food processing saw a boom.
- We live in a world with only a few corporate buyers and sellers. Shipping/processing/trucking requires a great deal of capital.
- The number of companies controlling the gateways from farmer to consumers is small, which gives the market power over both the people who grow food and the people who buy it.
- The North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta) in 1994 forced 1.3 million Mexicans off their land, swelling the numbers of urban poor, leading to a fall in urban industrial wages, and an increased flow of illegal workers to the US. The livelihoods of 3 million farmers, 8% of the population, were decimated.
- Britain as imperial power pioneered the grain trade, encouraging India and others to sell their wheat stocks, bringing famine back to Asia, but providing cheap food for its factory workers and keeping insurrection at home at bay. After the second world war the US used its agricultural surpluses as food aid to head off the communist threat.
- More recently, international financial institutions and debt have been used to make countries cede decisions about their food production to their creditors.
- The typical urban consumer only sees about a half-dozen varieties of apples (of which there are 7500 or so). This is a function of aesthetics and resistance to wear. Braeburn, Granny Smith and Golden Delicious look good and travel well.
- On GMO foods: The technology presents itself as a feel-good solution for politicians ...The plain fact is that the majority of children in the Global South suffer and die not because there is insufficient food, but because they are malnourished because all their parents can afford to feed them is rice.
What we can do
The Stuffed and Starved website is a fantastic resource of information. Below is the list of things we can do to create meaningful change. Go here to read the specifics.
- Eat locally and seasonally.
- Eat agroecologically.
- Support locally owned business.
- Insist that the workers who grow our food have the right to dignity.
- Advocate profound and comprehensive rural change.
- Demand living wages for all.
- Support a sustainable architecture of food.
- Snap the food system's bottleneck.
- Own and provide restitution for the injustices of the past and present.
There are some organizations doing some amazing things to invoke change. La Via Campesina - International Peasant Movement is one such organization.
More like this in Big Business and Books · Oct 23, 2008
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Oh dear. SO apparently, money just grows on trees. All you have to do is get the Federal Government to FORCE private business to pay people a "living wage" and suddenly everyone has enough money to live.
Of course in this fantasy land, the businesses don't have to downsize in order to make up the new cost of hiring. They don't have to raise the prices of their goods or services in order to make up for the new cost of hiring.
A "living wage" does nothing more than increase unemployment and drive up inflation.
People earn from their jobs what the market demands. If you know how to save lives by operating on the human body you will make lots of money. If you know how to clean toilets, you won't.
I can assume of course that "Mike Howard" is an Obama supporter.
Socialism for everyone!!! BLECH!!
ReplySomehow they managed to pay blue collar workers a living wage in my grandfather's day, and no one called it socialism. Not a chance -- communism was their biggest fear! As off topic as the question is, I'd like to know why a building handyman in the 50s could afford to buy an apartment and support kids and a SAHM whereas today he wouldn't even be able to afford to rent. It wasn't that things were cheaper. Food (and clothing) was more expensive! Somehow his bosses didn't go out of business and no one starved.
ReplyYou may want to brush up on your history - specifically of the communist influence in labor unions and, in particular, various acts & laws to *prevent* communist influence in labor unions....you could start with the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 and the history surrounding that.
IMO there are a number of reasons why someone back fifty years ago (heck, even 20 years ago) could have a one working person household and enough income to support all within...a number of dynamics in our economy have changed, including the higher taxes two working have to pay, more demand for higher education (more expensive too for it), with two working with kids there are additional expenses that a SAHM meant the family income didn't have to pay, etc. AND, in a good number of places in the US, it is still very possible to have one working adult in a family a live quite nicely - big cities not as easy though.
ReplyIt's the disparity between what the farmers make and what the goods are sold for which disturbs me and which also impacts on wages and income for primary workers and producers.
I'd rather give my money direct to the grower where possible and cut out the supermarket chains - plus the produce is fresher, tastes better, and lasts longer in my fridge.
ReplyI don't know if any of your have read Elizabeth Kingsolvers latest book: Animal, Plant, Mineral but it's a fabulous story about eating locally and how their family did it for a year.
Thank Mike, Raj looks like he's done some interesting work - the politics behind food always has interested me. I think we don't know the half of what really goes on.
For eg we pay a lot more in fuel for the cost of a piece of fruit that is exported than the portion that goes towards the actual foodstuff itself. Scary in a world where we're meant to be aware of conserving our scare resources!
And I don't know if you saw 20/20 the other night and how many of our tax dollars go towards paying Nebraskian 'farmers' (read ordinary people like you and me who buy a piece of land with no intention of ever farming it - they buy it because..... they) are paid money NOT to farm their land.
ReplyThat's interesting Cari, thanks for sharing. Didn't see the 20/20 episode but hopefully I can access it online at some point.
I'll look into that book you mentioned... sounds like the 100 mile diet.
ReplyIf you think that's odd Cari, how about the fact that when America tries to help out another country with their food problems instead of paying local farmers in that country for their food(you know so that maybe there economy would actually get a boost,and they would have more incentive to grow there own food) we instead send them food from our farms.
You think maybe someone would have brought up the old teach a man to fish adage by now ,but apparently not.
ReplyI've been to Central America and I've seen huge plantations of crops (coffee, cilantro, etc.) where the workers had a quota of produce that they had to harvest per day. If they didn't meet the quota, they got no money. It was appalling, but these people depended on the money to be able to survive. One thing I definitely started doing was buying fair-trade coffee. It only costs a little more than the other stuff, but the farmers who grow the fair traded coffee get something like 5 times the money that they'd get from a commercial buyer (like, say, Folger's). I also like to shop at the farmer's market for produce when I can. And who says stuff there is more expensive? Last week I went to a local orchard and picked up a peck of McIntosh apples for $5. They also had other lesser-known cultivars of apples that I bought...Russet, Cortlands, Empire, etc.
ReplyI don't really understand how there is so much obesity in the world and yet so many people are starving. There should be a balance somewhere, shouldn't there?
ReplyHonestly, this sounds like nothing more than the espousing of rhetoric with a socialist agenda behind it. I fail to see how any of it is a real solution or even if it is realistic.
Barry however brash he may he may sound is absolutely right. There's magical one fix for the ills of the world. For every action particularly those forced by any sort of government there will be unintended consequences, which in turn create more problems and more government regulation.
ReplySome of these ideas may fly in a perfect world. I'm not saying the ideas do not have merit but in today’s economy, who has time head out to the farmers market and pay 50% more for good tasting food? (Maybe I will try it to see if the food really tastes any better).
In California a living wage is code for paying the highest price for labor in stead of the average. Partially why the state's expenses are so high.
I've always wondered by if my wallet was on a diet - why I could afford fattening food? It would seem counter intuitive - that if I had allot of money - that the food was leaner?
Anyway - ample fodder to chew on with this post.
ReplyThis is tough to discuss, because admittedly I haven't read this mans book nor do I know everything about the groups that he is associated with. However from what I can tell his groups philosophies are quite Marxist.
He seems to come from the current popular groups that don't believe in countries right to sovereignty. (The world without borders groups)
I can't really criticize him any further than that due to my lack of knowledge about his book.
ReplyWhy is it not possible to have an intelligent discussion about ethical economic policies without people immediately crying "communism, marxism, socialism"? It is not shocking to demand proper wages for farm workers or food security for the 31 million americans who have none. It's basic compassion.
Reply