The International Market

In his book Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System Raj Patel argues that  problems of hunger -- affecting more than 1 billion people on earth -- are connected to problems of overeating -- obesity affecting over 1 1/2 billion.  The connection is through food systems organized in the global economy.  Ironically, many of the hungriest people in the world are farmers, "pitted against one another across vast distances by the international market." And obesity is the leading preventable cause of death worldwide.

Patel argues that "at some stages in the chain that links field to plate, power is concentrated in a very few hands."  At those points are usually large corporations in shipping and processing that are able to make substantial profit and lobby governments to write laws that favor their interests.

The desperation of rural farmers is tied to urbanization, perhaps the most dramatic transfer of population in human history.

The global proportion of urban population rose dramatically from 13% (220 million) in 1900, to 29% (732 million) in 1950, to 49% (3.2 billion) in 2005...  likely to rise to 60% (4.9 billion) by 2030.

UN State of the World Population 2007 

I can see this evolution in my own family.  Both of my parents grew up in cities, but my grandparents, all born in the 19th century, were born on farms.  The food my mother served came to us from supermarkets.

One of Patel's first examples of the way that food corporations impact laws and policies is the story of the United Fruit Company and Guatemala in the 1950s.  More anon.