Short description
This is an analysis of the impact of globalisation on diet and health which shows how the global food economy contributes to ill health and greater inequality. It argues for an alternative approach providing wholesome food and a healthy environment.
Long description
The growth of a single global market is having far-reaching implications for what we eat and for public health. In developing countries, endemic problems of a "Western" diet are found alongside food shortages. What matters now is not just what we eat, but how it has been produced, distributed and processes - a global politics of food and health. In a full examination of these developments, the authors describe the two quite different paradigms of the production and supply of food that are competing to replace the industrial productionist model dominant over the last century. One centres on life sciences, the other on an ecological approach. "Food Wars" argues that both have strong support, but one dominates investment. Both draw on biology, but differ in their social and political understanding. The authors argue that the outcome of these food wars is hugely important for food security and whether the enormous inequities in the present system are tackled.
Review
Lang and Heaseman's book 'offers a panorama' of the modern-day, global food industry to impress on policy makers, decision-makers in the industry, and the public that there are alternatives to the current practices which deliver much unhealthy food and at times leave food shortages in places. At the core of their recommended alternatives is a 'new conception of health...linking human and ecological health.' A professor and researcher respectively at London's City University, Lang and Heasman have a comprehensive grasp of the structure and workings of the food industry that goes beyond the perspectives and policies of any particular government or region. With this impressive grasp, they are able to propose workable alternatives to problems such as obesity, diabetes, and starvation caused mainly by shortsighted practices and ends of major institutions in the food industry. -The Midwest Book Review
Table of contents
- Diet and health
- diseases and food
- policy responses to diet and disease
- this food wars business
- the consumer culture war
- the quality war
- putting public and environmental health together?
- food democracy or food control?
- the future(s)