We at Ethical Markets highly recommend this interview with Raj Patel, relating our food crises with the new levels of speculation in financial markets, brought to our attention by Allan Savory , pioneer in restoring land and a member of our Advisory Board, – Hazel Henderson, Editor
by Jonny Gordon-Farleigh
MST: The Landless Workers Movement
With the announcement of the surprising and remarkable fact that the obese now outnumber the hungry — both forms of malnourishment — we need to be looking deeper into our food system and the industry that has created a world that is stuffed and starved. In his recent books Raj Patel looks at this open secret and the battle between an increasingly aggressive industry and the social movements who are responding to this assault by reclaiming food sovereignty for their communities.
STIR: You have just published the second edition of Stuffed and Starved, a worrying yet inspiring account of the battle for the world food system. Since the original publication, what new extremes has the food industry gone to and what advances have we seen from the social movements who are responding to this assault?
RAJ PATEL: Well, things have certainly got worse in terms of the people who are stuffed and starved. When the first book came out the figures showed that around 800 million people are malnourished and 1 billion are overweight. Now the number of people who are malnourished is around 1 billion and the number of people who are overweight are, by some calculations, nearly 2 billion. In the space of 6 years, more or less, the numbers have gone bonkers. That is a reflection of a number of things.