Stuffed And Starved: Markets, Power And The Hidden Battle For The World Food System

The hunger of 800 million happens at the same time as another historical first: that they are out-numbered by the one billion people on this planet who are overweight. - Raj Patel

Here's a book that takes Jamie's Dinners, Supersize Me, mangoes in the Arctic Circle and McFatties, and puts them in a blender to make an intoxicating cocktail. Stuffed and Starved takes us into the supermarket aisles and reveals the stories behind the products in our trolleys, some of them very dark indeed.

Raj Patel's definitive account of the global food system ranges across GM crops, history and export issues, rising levels of obesity and other health crises. It's a mad world where we encounter Coca Cola "cosmeceuticals" that promise to improve complexion and breast size, where Nestli owns Jenny Craig - and Unilever, home of Ben and Jerry's ice-cream, owns Slimfast. It is also a positive story of resistance in the paddy fields of India, the maize ejidos of Mexico and the Italian Slow Food kitchens, to name but a few.