Let Them Eat Junk: How Capitalism Creates Hunger and Obesity [Paperback]

Robert Albritton (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0745328067 | ISBN-13: 978-0745328065 | Publication Date: March 31, 2009 | Edition: 1

This is the first book to analyse the food industry from a Marxist perspective.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.

Editorial Reviews

Review

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 Let Them Eat Junk pulls no punches in its analysis of the contradictions of 21st Century food systems. To understand how starvation and obesity can coexist in the same populations, follow the flow of capital. Everyone who cares about food equity and the preservation of democracy should read this book. -- Marion Nestle, Paulette Goddard Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health at New York University, author of Food Politics (2003) In Let Them Eat Junk, Robert 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. -- Debora MacKenzie, New Scientist

About the Author

Robert Albritton is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Political Science at York University, Toronto, Canada. His recent publications include Economics Transformed (Pluto, 2007).

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Pluto Press; 1 edition (March 31, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0745328067
• ISBN-13: 978-0745328065
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #939,429 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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