Let Them Eat Junk: How Capitalism Creates Hunger and Obesity - Softcover

Albritton, Robert

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0745328067 ISBN 13: 9780745328065

Publisher: Pluto Press, 2009

Synopsis

Respected economist Robert Albritton argues that the capitalist system, far from delivering on the promise of cheap, nutritious food for all, has created a world where 25% of the world population are over-fed and 25% are hungry. This malnourishment of 50% of the world's population is explained systematically, a refreshing change from accounts that focus on cultural factors and individual greed. Albritton details the economic relations and connections that have put us in a situation of simultaneous oversupply and undersupply of food.

This explosive book provides yet more evidence that the human cost of capitalism is much bigger than those in power will admit.

About this title

About the Author:

Robert Albritton is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Political Science at York University, Toronto, Canada. He has published seven books on Marxist theory.

Review:

'Albritton speaks a language that has gone unheard for too long. Karl Marx felt that capitalism's focus on short-term profit was a recipe for disaster when it came to agriculture. Now Albritton shows that, in many ways, the old man was right' New Scientist; 'Pulls no punches in its analysis of the contradictions of 21st Century food systems' Marion Nestle, Paulette Goddard Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health at New York University, author of Food Politics; 'Marx understood the dynamics of the current food crisis over a century ago. Robert Albritton has written a fine primer, bridging the best thinking of the nineteenth century to the urgent needs of the twenty-first' Raj Patel, author of Stuffed and Starved

About this edition

• Publisher: Pluto Press
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0745328067
• ISBN 13: 9780745328065
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 272