3.5 stars

The title of the book comes from the fact that as more and more people are becoming overweight, there is also a larger number of people who are starving. The author has done a lot of research for this book, looking at our increasingly corporate food system, where so much of every step of our food is produced and brought to our plates via businesses in it for the profit only. There is a lot of focus on the farmers (many commit suicide as it’s harder and harder to make a living) around the world. There are chapters on genetically-modified foods, on the supermarket, Mexico, Brazil, corn, soy, and much more.

The author has actually worked fro the WTO (World Trade Organization) and the World Bank, both are mentioned (generally, not in a good way) in this book. There is a lot to take in in this book. Mostly interesting stuff here. He does end with some suggestions to try to make things better, but the sad part is corporations that make a lot of money won’t go for it, and though you’d like to think governments will step up, over and over that doesn’t happen with money from those large corporations funding the politicians. ( )

I picked up this book after seeing "A Place at the Table." It's an information-dense examination of food politics, of what led to one billion hungry people and one-and-a-half billion overweight people simultaneously. I had to rush through this book because there was a waiting list at the library, but it definitely merits a reread. ( )

Raj Patel brings a colloquial, humorous writing style to a complex and generally rather depressing subject: the domination of the world's food supply by corporations who are blind to their human and environmental effects in the rush for profits. He does hold out some nuggets of hope in the form of co-operative movements and community supported agriculture schemes, but the overall picture is still a grim one. While some of the ground he covers is familiar from other writers on the subject, there were a number of areas that were new to me: the problems with soybeans in particular. And I'd never really thought of the British predilection for milky sweet tea as a driver for the slave trade before. I liked Patel's very international perspective. ( )

A magisterial account of the global food system. This book enlightens, surprises and angers and determines.

Too socio-economical for my taste. It reads like a text book. I mean,
its interesting, but i can't trick myself into thinking i'll get too
much out of it. It requires a high attention span, even higher for
one who doesn't remember if he's taken an economics class or not.