Just Picked Up: Stuffed and Starved

Thanks to my friend who runs the fabulous SF-based HiddenMenu, I was invited to join a newly formed book club called the Food for Thought Book Club. For the first meeting – which is just a few short weeks away so I’m in for some serious power reading — we’re reading Raj Patel’s Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System. In it, Patel examines the world’s imbalance of food resources that causes obscene levels of obesity in some parts of the world while others starve.

It has gotten raves reviews from the likes of Michael Pollan and Mark Bittman, so I’m really excited to read and report back. Thanks to the original founder, Deana, who was the mastermind behind pulling this club together (and who has a brand new blog called My Garden Plate), should be fun!

A more in-depth synopsis from Publishers Weekly:

“Journalist and scholar Patel (Promised Land: Competing Visions of Agrarian Reform) focuses attention on the unfortunate irony of the current world food situation, in which the imbalance of world resources has created an epidemic of obesity in some parts of the world while millions in the “Global South” endure starvation. Patel addresses the entire system of global food production, distribution and sale, concluding that “unless you’re a corporate food executive, the food system isn’t working for you.” “Record levels of diet-related disease” plague consumers, cruel market realities (and unsympathetic officials) doom farmers, and communities are beset by a supermarket system that provides “cheap calories” while “bleeding local economies. Patel analyzes what can be done, presenting logical recommendations and strategies for individuals-eat locally, seasonally, and ecologically; support local business, workers’ rights, and living wages; create a sustainable food system-though several primary components of his big vision (including ending agribusiness subsidies and corporate farming, and levying a tax on processed foods) are clearly a long way off. Those concerned about global health, social justice and the environment will be aware of many of the issues presented here, but should still find much to learn.”

Tagged as: book, club, food economy, Food for Thought, Raj Patel, Stuffed and Starved