Let Them Eat Junk: How Capitalism Creates Hunger and Obesity

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Pluto Press, 2009 - Capitalism - 191 pages
Intro -- Title Page -- Copyright -- Contents -- Preface -- Part I Introduction -- 1 Introduction -- General introduction -- A framework for understanding capitalism -- Part II Understanding Capitalism -- 2 The Management of Agriculture and Food by Capital's Deep Structures -- Capital's profit orientation -- Capital, time and speed -- Capital, space and homogenization -- Capital and workers -- Capital and underconsumption -- Capital, oligopoly and globalization -- Capital and subjectivity -- Conclusions -- 3 The Phase of Consumerism and the US Roots of the Current Agriculture and Food Regimes -- Consumerism's profit orientation: petroleum, cars, suburbs and television -- Consumerism, time, and speed: unchecked toxicity and life on the run -- Consumerism, space and homogenization: suburbanization and monocultures -- Consumerism and workers: hiding the health costs of hazardous working conditions and low wages -- Consumerism and underconsumption: new forms of debt expansion and advertising -- Consumerism, oligopoly and globalization: a command economy of corporations -- Consumerism and subjectivity: the politics of fear -- Conclusions -- Part III The Historical Analysis of the US-Centred Global Food Regime -- 4 The Food Regime and Consumers' Health -- Capitalist agriculture -- The case of tobacco -- The global food regime: a story of irrationality -- The obesity "epidemic"--Sugar -- Meatification and fat consumption -- Hunger and starvation -- Salt -- Soy -- Pesticides -- Food additives -- Microorganisms -- Loss of nutrients -- Genetically modified organisms -- Supermarkets -- Fast food chains -- Conclusions -- 5 The Health of Agriculture and Food Workers -- Workers in the US agricultural and food systems -- Workers in the agricultural and food systems of developing countries -- Conclusions -- 6 Agriculture, Food Provisioning and the Environment

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