Stuffed And Starved Summary

Throughout the book “Stuffed and Starved”, Raj Patel, the author, makes connections between the current state of the world food system, and the Malthusian and Rhodes dilemmas, the first, proposing that the world population is growing exponentially, but the resources to feed this growing population are finite, whereas the second suggests that hunger leads to unrest, hence as long as people are kept fed, they won't revolt. Patel sections the system and points out to the defects at all levels—starting from the fundamental unit—the seed, going broader touching upon redistributors, consumers, corporations, and, above all, governments and policies. The five major areas Patel criticizes I would like to emphasize are: prevalent selection of desirable

Profit-oriented leaders of new diet fads surely would be infuriated while reading the words of Michael Pollan in his work, Unhappy Meals—not necessarily because of his aim to disprove diet fallacies but, rather, the possible ramifications of Pollan’s words on their bank accounts. Explained in the article, the world’s understanding of diets and their effects on the human body has improved steadily—if not exponentially—throughout recent history. Here, the advocates of new diets claim the changing world and its understanding of health requires changes in diet; the human body will adapt to the new times. To counter, Pollan argues that is definitely true, but we have to be open to the idea of the death that occurs during the process.

Monsanto positions itself as a relatively new agricultural company having formed in 2002, and focused on supporting local farmers around the world. They also promote themselves as a guardian of the environment with a mission “to produce more food while conserving more” (Monsanto.com). Today’s Monsanto conglomerate also promotes itself as the “New Merchants,” a leading research company in the field of agriculture-crop production, as well as a strong supporter of public and private research through its grant, donations and University scholarship programs.

The world continues to face a wide-scale food crisis. The effects of this crisis reach from the farmers who grow and raise the food to the very system of laws that are in place to govern the system itself. Food giants are reaching deep into their pockets for lobbying in order to take advantage of both the producers and the consumer all in the name of profit. Moreover, farmers are being driven to suicide, and the ecosystem’s livelihood is treading a fine line. Both Michael Pollan and Raj Patel bring to light these problems and offer suggestions to help lessen their severity. Though there are many philosophies on which they both agree, they both have their own ideas to fight back. Pollan seeks to challenge the consumer as an individual while

Author Elizabeth Kucinichstates, wrote Monsanto: The Enemy Of Family Farmers, which states, “Monsanto is no friend to the family farmer or the communities they live in and support. In fact, Monsanto (and other chemical companies like Dow Chemical, Syngenta, BASF, Pioneer/Dupont, and Bayer) have forced small farmers into a dying breed. The cost of industrial agriculture forces farmers to get big or get out. This is particularly true of GE herbicide-resistant seeds, which USDA economists tell us have contributed to increased consolidation of farmland in fewer hands” (par. 5). Seed is especially too expensive and complex for family farmers, which is why farmers should be able to reuse the seed that they

It is also interesting to note the striking similarity to the peasant diets of old, but with substantially more meat. Other than quantity and quality, many of the vegetables remained with the addition of corn. Other than ketchup and how people created food, many of the dishes were copies of the old ones. There is a whole chapter about kasha and there is not much new about what the finished product would be: either sweet or savory with animal fats. Bread is expected at every meal.42 The dishes in the book that were actually available were disturbingly similar to what the peasants of old Russia ate

Raj Patel’s Stuffed and Starved analyzes the paradoxical content in its title statement. Patel demonstrates how the world food system has created two opposite, but inherently linked epidemics: obesity and crippling hunger. Throughout the course of this book, it becomes painfully clear that the majority of the world’s population is being manipulated by our global food system and by the corporations and their CEO’s who control it. Patel encourages his readers to make themselves politically responsible (313) and through Stuffed and Starved, highlights the discrepancies and major imbalances of our world food system, the small percentage of people who benefit from it, and the vast majority of humanity who does not. He does all this while

If one company owned an entire food crop, it would result in a huge profit of money for that company. However, it would also result in destroying the tradition of farming for farmers and their families. A primary reason why companies would want to own an entire food crop is because they will make a lucrative amount of money. A statistic involving this is stated by www.not-gmoreport.com, “ The cost for Monsanto’s Roundup Ready 2 soybeans in 2010 was $70 per bag, a 143% increase in the price of GM seed since 2001.” This inflation is called seed monopoly. One reason people strongly dislike seed monopoly is because of the way it affects not only farmers, but also the consumers. Farmers will have to pay more money for seeds, which will eventually

Monsanto is involved in a variety of ways,“The company produces the herbicide RoundUp, and also seeds whose genes have been engineered to survive RoundUp's active plant-killing ingredient. Now the vast majority of this country's soybeans, corn, sugar beets and canola possess those engineered genes,”(Boyle). Initially, this seems quite innocent, however, there’s no telling what kind of chemicals are being introduced into the food supply in order to allow these plants to survive. Also, sugar and corn are contained within almost every non organic product Americans consume, which means virtually everyone is ingesting these potentially harmful chemicals. Monsanto’s RoundUp resistant seeds should seem to be a farmer’s best friend, but it’s not always so simple, “As Rinehart would recall, the man began verbally attacking him, saying he had proof that Rinehart had planted Monsanto’s genetically modified (G.M.) soybeans in violation of the company’s patent. Better come clean and settle with Monsanto, Rinehart says the man told him—or face the consequences,”(Barlett). Simply dogmatic in his manner, the mysterious Monsanto man would not take no for an answer, even though later in the article Mr. Rinehart states that he isn’t a farmer and they have the wrong guy. Commonly referred to as seed police, even gestapo or mafia, this elite force of Monsanto maniacs are lifeless and drone-like in the sense that they will stop at nothing in order to obtain a profit, and if it’s the wrong person they’ll still use scare tactics to weasel cash out of innocent civilians. Saying that Monsanto is heavily involved in the production and distribution of genetically modified crops and seeds is a massive understatement, to demonstrate this,“In 1996 when Monsanto introduced RoundUp Ready Soybeans, the company controlled only 2% of the U.S. soybean market. Now, over 90% of

Many factory farms are owned by corporations, who have the funds to invest in their farms to make them better than their competition. They’re able to sell their products at a lower price due to their efficiency and as a result, many groceries and supermarkets choose to buy from them rather than more expensive rivals. This poses a threat to smaller farms, that for the most part don't have expensive equipment or larger spaces. Therefore, they can’t compete with their larger and technologically advanced rivals.

Monsanto and other companies profit at the expense of hard working farmers across by disallowing seed saving and enforcing their patents with private investigators.

It doesn’t help that Monsanto also has power in politics, one of the Monsanto chiefs for food safety, Michael Taylor was actually appointed by Barrack Obama himself. Barrack Obama also appointed his Supreme Court judge: Elena Kagan, who happens to be the chief defender of Monsanto and GMO’s. Whether Republican or Democratic, Monsanto wields a strong power within politics that helps give them an edge in keeping their company going. (Obama). There are good aspects of Monsanto, like the efficiency of cheap seeds, and crops that can withstand the harsh behaviors of weathers, and the ability the crops have to survive a longer time. But not even the cheapest crops can cover up Monsanto’s long history of evil, from polluting the environment with PCB’s, the chemical Agent Orange, and the weed killer “Round-Up Ready”, to Monopolizing itself to being the owner of 90% of the seed industry and shutting down small

Genetically modified seeds patent protection is vital for every firm and this does make the cost of seeds more expensive to the point were some of the poorest farmers are not able to afford them. In order to ensure that farmers are not saving seeds for their next crop they Monsanto has “seed Police” to protect the productions of their seeds. The company maintains that their products are patented and cannot be reproduced or saved for future use. Buyers sign an agreement containing this information at the time of their purchase stating they understand this agreement. Although not all farmers abide by these stipulations and it has resulted in court hearings due to the cost to purchase their seeds, which has resulted in the seed police.

Additionally, big business controls the farmers by capitalizing on widely used commodities. For example, the company Monsanto which is based in St. Louis, Missouri protects its dominance over the genetically modified crops such as the soy bean with the use of a patent law. Because of this, Monsanto’s patented genes “account for 95 percent of all soy beans and 80 percent of all corn grown in the U.S.,” (Associated Press). Although genetically modifying the soy bean crop has made it more readily available and more sustainable, this comes at a high price to farmers. Monsanto continues to raise their prices, which forces farmers to accrue even more debt, and there is no sign of the rise in the seed prices stopping. Since a lot of the farmers are under contract with Monsanto, there is nothing they can do about this unethical policy in fear of losing their job.

Monsanto Company is the world’s largest seed company. They specialize in genetic manipulation of organisms.