Stuffed and Starved

Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System is a 2008 work of non-fiction by British-American author and food-policy expert Raj Patel. Examining the global system of food production and consumption, Patel argues that the profit-driven imperialism of global corporations and organizations like the World Trade Organization (WTO) has created starvation in some countries and an obesity epidemic in others. American author and activist Naomi Klein described Stuffed and Starved as “one of the most dazzling books I have read in a very long time.”

The book begins with an introduction highlighting some of the stranger facts about the global food system. While 800 million people live in hunger, more than one billion are overweight. Debunking the idea that obesity is the result of poor diet choices, Patel argues that the food system is all but designed to create an epidemic of obesity. How is this possible? Patel explains that the global “market” in food is controlled by a small number of massive food corporations so powerful that they can set the terms of international trade agreements. Under their regime, farmers have little choice about what to grow, and consumers little choice in what they buy. The result is impoverished farmers, obese or starving consumers, and even greater wealth and power for the corporations.

Patel examines the impact of the global food system on farmers by highlighting the recent epidemic of farmer suicides in South Korea, India, Mexico, the U.S., Brazil, and many other countries. He tells the story of Korean farmer Lee Kyung Hae, who killed himself in protest against the World Trade Organization. In the days after his death, tens of thousands of poor farmers marched worldwide, chanting, “We Are Lee.” Patel explains how the WTO’s rules serve the interests of major corporations at the expense of poor farmers.



Patel interrogates the globalization of food from another angle: the increase in migration from rural to urban areas, spurred by the impoverishment of farming areas. Again, Patel finds that trade agreements tend to spur this trend, and that food corporations tend to benefit.

Patel draws these threads together with the example of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). When this agreement was signed, the price of staple Mexican foodstuffs rose overnight. At the same time, tens of thousands of Mexican farmers lost their entire incomes as state-subsidized US corn displaced their corn in the Mexican market. With the local producers out of business, Mexicans were forced to turn to Wal-Mex (the Mexican arm of Walmart) for their food. The result: many Mexicans became obese or diabetic.

Patel examines the development of this system, musing on the words of British colonialist and businessman Cecil Rhodes, who advocated imperialism as a solution to domestic food shortages: “The Empire, as I have always said, is a bread and butter question. If you want to avoid civil war, you must become imperialists.”



Patel shows that in the global food system, trade organizations have taken their cues from the colonial system and essentially continued it. He focuses on his former employers the World Bank, the World Trade Organization, and the United Nations.

He turns to the food corporations and agribusinesses, which benefit from—and largely determine—the global food system. He adduces some startling statistics. Forty percent of the world’s food is controlled by multinational corporations. Just 20 companies control the entire global coffee trade; six control 70% of the wheat trade, and one company controls 98% of the tea trade. These facts are disguised from consumers by the fact that these companies market their products under many different brand names. Patel explains how these companies are able to extend and maintain their influence through national political systems.

Patel focuses on the use of scientific development to further corporate interests. He shows how the development of seeds and grains is controlled by agribusinesses to ensure that the world’s farmers remain dependent on them. Patel concludes that much of the rhetoric of global development and food security is empty hypocrisy.



The first half of the book is summarized and its conclusions demonstrated through an examination of the journey a single crop, soybeans, takes from farm to market.

Patel then turns to the consumer end of the market with an analysis of supermarkets. He shows that supermarket buying desks have a globalized and unchecked power: to fire farmworkers, make or break small farmers, and control the price and output from larger farmers. He moves on to study how supermarkets push customers into buying more food, often by manipulating people vulnerable to the allure of addictive and unhealthy products.

He examines this manipulative process more broadly, examining how marketing and the design of products shape our tastes. Patel argues that this manipulation constrains us not only as consumers but also as people and as global citizens.



Patel proposes some remedies. He praises movements like the Slow Food Movement and Via Campesina, arguing that we should take control of our own taste, and eat locally as well as seasonally and ecologically. He also argues that global food workers have a right to security and dignity, with living wages for all. He advocates for universal sustainability. Patel acknowledges that such reforms will require collective action to break the power of global corporations.