Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System - Revised and Updated

Stuffed and Starved is foremost an activist book that seeks to improve the condition of the participants in the global food chain. The food chain has a large number of producers and large number of consumers. However, the bottleneck is the small number of big companies in the middle. Food processing and food retailing are dominated by a few very large companies. Often most of the money spent on food goes to these middlemen. These companies have also helped to encourage monoculture in the name of efficiency.

The author spends a significant amount of time detailing the suicide epidemic among farmers. They are stuck in a spiral of debt to increase yield. This can be followed by a quest for even more production even as prices decline. He also covers small scale "communes" that seek to have more control of the system itself. He advocates a food system where there is more local production and more of the money goes back to the farmers. However, he does give acknowledgement to the challenges. Many of the poorest consumers are living in food desserts where there are few options for quality food. What remains is usually the most shelf-stable, calorie-dense junk food. They would like to have more food options.

Globalization has also played a role in the food industry. After World War II, the United States fed much of the world. The country provided "food aid" dominated by the primary agricultural products (soybeans, corn and wheat.) This encouraged these people to adopt the cheap American staples (such as bread) over local foods. As food aid dropped, there was still demand for the American foods. In Mexico, the US won on price. The subsidized factory-farmed corn was much cheaper to produce than the small scale corn production in Mexico. This hurt the local farmers, even while the cost of tortillas did not significantly fall for most consumers. 

Agriculture giants also provide seed, fertilizer and pesticides. Genetically engineered crops have built in resistance to pesticides or pests. However, they are also costly and must be purchased yearly. The companies encourage the use of their products rather than focusing on soil fertility. This may provide short term gains, but also creates a dependence with some long-term negative impacts.

Farm workers are also some of the lowest paid workers. Most of the major fruit and vegetable crops in the US are picked by low wage migrant workers. However, the crops go through multiple layers of middlemen before they make it to consumers. More direct farm to consumer produce can help, but it is challenging. The author proposes activism and high wages for all. But will it scale? Are people ready to pay more for a more diverse, yet limited supply of food?