Book Review: Stuffed and Starved by Raj Patel

by: Jill Richardson

Sat Sep 25, 2010 at 16:46:23 PM PDT

He describes the global food system using a diagram shaped like an hourglass. At the top are the very many farm operators (3 million in the U.S. as of 2007). The diagram narrows as he names off the number of farm proprietors (just over 2 million), and farm product raw wholesale (7563). Then the diagram widens again with food manufacturers (27,915), grocery and related products wholesale (35,650), food and beverage stores (148,804), and consumers (300 million). He shows a similar diagram for several European countries, with an even skinnier middle of the hourglass. The point here is that food wholesalers and manufacturers create a bottle-neck in between the many farmers and consumers, and they hold all of the power. Patel says that it's no accident that many of the poorest and hungriest people in the world happen to be farmers and farmworkers.

Now, this much you could get from just listening to one speech by Patel (which I highly recommend doing), but the book goes on to elaborate with chapters telling about the decimation of rural communities, the role of free trade on Mexican farmers, how U.S. food aid has often done more harm than good, corporate consolidation, the Green Revolution, and more.

I am writing this review now, on the brink of my trip to Bolivia, for a reason. First of all, so much of this book is so overwhelmingly relevant in Bolivia, a country that has been a recipient of enormous amount of U.S. food and agricultural aid and yet still faces staggering poverty. In the coming weeks, you'll read the micro account of how these concepts play out in one specific country - Bolivia - on this blog. But don't forget the global context that that needs to be put in, and for that, I highly recommend checking out Stuffed and Starved.

Much more specifically, my favorite chapter in Patel's book was on the Brazilian soybean industry, and it turns out that Bolivia has a large and equally tragic soybean industry. In brief, the industry involves growing soybean as a monoculture on land that was once (recently) Amazon rainforest. Imagine how many environmentalists in the U.S. rail about saving the rainforest as they drink their soymilk (although, better that than eating burgers made from cows fed soy grown on destroyed rainforest land). This will be a part of Bolivia that I won't see, as it takes place in the eastern lowlands of the country, far from where I am visiting. But it's a part of the overall story in a big way. Patel does a brilliant job shedding light on the growth of the soy industry in Brazil. (He also tells about the MST, the Landless Rural Workers Movement, in Brazil, which he calls "the world's most important social movement".)

There's a quote out there of Sen. Chuck Grassley ranting that there's no way what he grows on his farm in Iowa will impact what a farmer grows in South America. And that's sadly mistaken. As more American land is devoted to corn when world corn prices go up due to American demand for ethanol, then the U.S. grows fewer soybeans, and soybean prices tend to go up too. This gives a greater incentive for a South American farmer to plow up more rainforest and grow more soybeans.

There have been movements in the past to get companies to shun beef fed with soybeans grown in the rainforest. But you'd have to mobilize a worldwide boycott of Amazonian soy to have any effect. If McDonald's only buys meat from cows fed U.S.-grown soy, then guess what? Someone else will buy the Brazilian stuff. It's one big global market.

All in all, this book is truly a masterpiece, and it should be mandatory reading. Especially the soybean chapter.

The Annotated Raj Patel, Part 1

by: Jill Richardson

Sun Apr 25, 2010 at 20:21:46 PM PDT

Book Review: Food Rebellions!

by: Jill Richardson

Tue Mar 16, 2010 at 23:59:45 PM PDT

That said, the book is quite academic, and reading it does not compare to the transformative experience of hearing the authors speak. (Patel and Holt-Gimenez can go head to head in a public speaking contest any day and I really don't know who would win. Both are amazing.) But the book does provide all of the facts underlying the amazing speech in a logical and readable format.

A Double Dose of Raj Patel

by: Jill Richardson

Wed Jan 13, 2010 at 17:57:59 PM PST

Yesterday Patel was on Democracy Now! with Amy Goodman He was just as brilliant as ever, speaking about how markets have failed to make prices of goods and services match with their actual values. Consider the cost of a hamburger, he says. You can get one for nearly nothing at a fast food drive thru, no doubt. But what is the true price of the environmental degradation involved in bringing that burger to you? Or the ill health effects the burger has on you down the road. None of that gets factored into the burger's price. Of course, Patel is totally 100% right about this.

Patel followed up that appearance with a visit to The Colbert Report.

Raj Patel Speaks on the Global Food Crisis

by: Jill Richardson

Thu Apr 16, 2009 at 21:09:42 PM PDT

Sampler Platter

by: Jill Richardson

Thu Mar 19, 2009 at 14:00:00 PM PDT

• First off, I want to give a shout-out to Surfing Goat Soaps. After looking at all of the goats on their site, I can say that I'd be proud to support people who treat animals so well with my business. Also, they make a good point that goat's milk is more sustainable than cow's milk. That alone probably won't make me switch what I put in my coffee, but for soap? Great idea.

• This is a GREAT pic: thousands of snowmen protesting global warming. LOVE IT!

• OMG, a Locavore iPhone app!!! It's done by Local Harvest, one of the two sites I rely on to find food all the time (the other is Eat Well Guide).

• In similar news, there's also Goodguide, a site that promises to help you find safe, healthy, and green products. I'm skeptical though because the site pre-supposes that you're in a grocery store (and we all know that that's where the best food is NOT).

• Organic Consumers Association posted a review of Stuffed and Starved by Raj Patel. I still haven't read this one, but it's on my list.

• Way to go, Michelle Obama! She commented on the disgrace of military families on food stamps. No, that is not how our country should treat its best and brightest and their families. Another issue I've heard about recently is that when soldiers and marines go to Iraq, they get combat pay and their boost in pay often makes them ineligible for government nutrition programs (like food stamps). That shouldn't be happening.

• Sarah Newman visits Polyface Farm (made famous in The Omnivore's Dilemma) and writes about it. (h/t Natasha Chart)

• Civil Eats is up to some guerilla gardening.

• Alternet takes a fantastic look at Big Organic. What? Burt's Bees is owned by Clorox? That's a new one even to me!

• Natasha Chart writes about Heinz, food safety, self interest, and why libertarians are dumb.

• The Ethicurean shares a fantastic story about starting a new garden with help from Freecycle - with pictures!

An Interview with Raj Patel, Author of "Stuffed and Starved"

by: Jill Richardson

Tue Aug 12, 2008 at 10:00:00 AM PDT

In Stuffed and Starved, he lists 10 changes we must make to make a difference in the world.

  1. Transform our tastes - don't eat processed food, eat slowly, prepare your own food, and savour it.
  2. Eat locally and seasonally.
  3. Eat agroecologically - try to eat food grown in harmony with its local environment, learn about your local environment and grow your own food.
  4. Support locally owned business.
  5. All workers have the right to dignity - freedom to organize and work without persecution.
  6. Profound and comprehensive rural change - build rural areas with economic opportunities and a quality of life that attracts families.
  7. Living wages for all.
  8. Support for a sustainable architecture of food - rethink open space and sprawl as we develop.
  9. Snapping the food system's bottleneck - among other things, end subsidies to agribusiness, aggressively police their monopolies and tax processed food to a level where it reflects the harm it does.
 10. Owning and providing restitution for the injustices of the past and present - that rich countries of the Global North such as Britain forgive debts and pay reparations to countries exploited in the Global South.

One thing we can do right away to bring about change, Patel says, is simply not go into supermarkets.

"At the moment they're the sort of ground zero of the modern industrial food system. And breaking free of that involves some sort of creativity, but the rewards are well worth it," he says.

I think I found a new hero.

Food for Thought: Obesity vs Starvation

by: Asinus Asinum Fricat

Sat Jul 05, 2008 at 08:03:17 AM PDT

According to the "The Prudential Soggy Lettuce Report, 2004", the average consumer throws away £424 worth of food every year.

Cross-posted at DKos. Follow me over the jump.