Money Makes the World Go 'Round

As I continue to read Stuffed and Starved by Raj Patel, I grow more astonished with every turning page. Many things stick out to me from this book, but there seems to be an underlying theme to almost every situation: money. We all know food fuels our bodies to help us stay alive, but with the way society acts one would think money is essential to our survival. I have always known there have been greedy people in the world; however, I always pictured them as corporate lawyers or financial managers of some sort. I never pictured executives of food companies as greedy or abusive. “Corporations are the first to admit that they’re in business not for any wider social goal, but for profit” (Patel, 114). There it is right from the text, in black and white stating all they want is money! How can people be so blind to their own detrimental fixation with money?

 If you want to get down to it, greed is the leading cause of people being stuffed and starved. The people who are rich and wealthy have plenty to eat because they abuse their power over the weak or starved. In addition, the obese people of the world are ignorant or oblivious to the way their food is being improperly made with shortcuts to save the food companies a couple million here or there. Basically food corporations’ greed is causing the world to become progressively more unhealthy and poor as the years progress.

What is even worse is how the government is involved in the situation. Companies will “buy[] government goodwill” in order to make their careers more successful (Patel, 116). These executives will donate to political officers’ careers in order to receive good favor with their business at a later date. Nothing is safe if the government officials can be bought. This statistic alone is appalling, “the top four companies in many sectors of the food system are responsible for more than half the political contributions” (116). That is a lot of money to put into politics! In addition, the companies would not have that money if they did not find the cheapest (link to video giving insight to possible future of our world) way to produce the most amount of food with little regard for anyone else it might affect. I am not saying the government is being outright deceitful. They are merely persuaded to “shape the rules” in the food corporations’ favor (115).

Our food system seems to be even more corrupt and discriminating than I originally thought. As I get further into the book I can only hope greed will become less evident in the people’s lives…. one can only hope.