English for Humanities

2014-15

Ferran Pibernat Casademont

Our big contradiction

In the introduction of his book Stuffed and Starved Raj Patel starts exposing how
nowadays, in every country around the world, food is stored away and wasted even as
many people starve. For example, as he says, the quality of the food eaten by Indias
poorest is the worst since Independence in 1947, leading this country to be the home to
largest number of diabetics due to the establishment of soft drinks and food
multinationals in those towns where malnutrition had begun thanks to the government.
Therefore, Patel proposes that the assumption that to be overweight is to be rich no
longer holds. Because of poor nutrition, peoples bodies have trouble breaking down
food and store more food as fat. Apparently, as he points, this becomes more of a
problem in Mexico the closer the citizens get to the USA. As a result, Patel explains that
Mexican teenagers are becoming increasingly more obese and at the same time
becoming less wealthy. On the whole, Patel ends up the introduction to his book
explaining that the world food system is full of contradictions and that we have come to
a point where the poorest cant afford to eat well and they can only access to poorquality food. Thats why, as he says, obesity will affect life expectancy amongst future
generations.