Raj Patel, Stuffed and Starved
What: Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System
Book Release and Tour
Who: Raj Patel
When: Spring and Fall 2008
Where: United States
Website: Stuffed and Starved
PRESS INQUIRIES: 510-910-5627
Stuffed and Starved is a startling exposé of the global food system and how activists are gaining ground against its corporate control.
Half the world is malnourished, the other half obese—both symptoms of the corporate food monopoly. To show how a few powerful distributors control the health of the entire world, Raj Patel conducts a global investigation, traveling from the “green deserts” of Brazil and protester-packed streets of South Korea to bankrupt Ugandan coffee farms and barren fields of India. What he uncovers is shocking—the real reasons for famine in Asia and Africa, an epidemic of farmer suicides, and the false choices and conveniences in supermarkets. Yet he also finds hope—in international resistance movements working to create a more democratic, sustainable, and joyful food system. From seed to store to plate, Stuffed and Starved explains the steps to regain control of the global food economy, stop the exploitation of farmers and consumers, and rebalance global sustenance.
Raj Patel will be touring during the spring and fall of 2008. He is available to speak on any topic in Stuffed and Starved, in particular:
- Race and food – How the modern diet has been premised on slavery and colonialism as well as the racial injustice in the way food is produced and sold, as evinced by higher rates both of poverty and obesity in communities of people of color.
- Globalization and food — How food comes to us is shaped by some fairly heavy and powerful organizations (such as the WTO, World Bank, and IMF), ones that we rarely hear about or fully appreciate. Rather than wade through the treaties, one of the best ways of understanding modern international relations is to look at food.
- Food prices – Why are food prices rising, and what’s the real story behind the increases.
- Soy politics
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Raj Patel, a Fellow with Food First, a leading food think tank, is a visiting scholar at the UC Berkeley Center for African Studies. He has written for the Los Angeles Times and The Guardian, and though he has worked for the World Bank, WTO, and the UN, he’s also been tear-gassed on four continents protesting them.
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WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING
“One of the most dazzling books I have read in a very long time. The product of a brilliant mind and a gift to a world hungering for justice.”
—Naomi Klein, author of No Logo and The Shock Doctrine
“Patel’s broad treatment helps laymen connect the dots, [and] hear the voices of those [at the bottom] of the food chain.”
—Time Magazine
“A book full of insight, that makes and important contribution.”
—The Guardian
“Magesterial… the kind of book from which you emerge enlightened, surprised, angry, and determined.”
—The Independent
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INTERVIEWS
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LINKS
