I'm dead pleased that the Guardian's Comment is Free section has run this short piece, on obesity and moral panic in Britain, a theme familiar to regulars here at Stuffed and Starved. Article follows, with a different title to the one they chose...

Beggars Can't Be Choosers

Obesity should not be tackled by pharmaceutical means but by looking at the social basis of diet

Raj Patel
Friday August 17, 2007
The Guardian

The head of the British Medical Association caused something of a ruckus this month when he shared his thoughts about how the nation might best tackle rising levels of obesity. Hamish Meldrum's observations came in two parts. First, he made an argument that obesity has fallen hostage to surgeons and pharmaceutical firms. Bariatrics, the medical branch concerned with obesity, is so new that it has yet to find its way into the OED. Its first surgical procedure was only carried out in 1954; today it's a multibillion-dollar industry. At the same time, drug companies are extending their grip on our food through nutraceuticals and unguents designed to stifle appetite. These products are the equivalent of proposing improved gunshot surgery to fix gang violence. ... read more »

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Posted on 17 August, 2007 - 09:40

Brazil’s Landless Workers Movement, or in Portuguese Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (MST), is the largest social movement in Latin America with an estimated 1.5 million landless members organized in 23 out 27 states. The MST carries out long-overdue land reform in a country mired by unjust land distribution. In Brazil, 1.6% of the landowners control roughly half (46.8%) of the land on which crops could be grown. Just 3% of the population owns two-thirds of all arable lands.

The organisation's Portuguese language website is here and the US-based Friends of the MST can be reached through ... read more »

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Posted on 1 December, 2006 - 22:00

Currently headquartered in Indonesia, Via Campesina is

is an international movement which coordinates peasant organizations of small and medium sized producers, agricultural workers, rural women, and indigenous communities from Asia, America, and Europe. It is an autonomous, pluralistic movement, independent from all political, economic, or other denomination. It is integrated by national and regional organizations whose autonomy is jealously respected. Via Campesina is organized in seven regions as follows: Europe, Northeast and Southeast Asia, South Asia, North America, the Caribbean, Central America, and South America. Via campesina has one member and is collaborating with other organisations in Africa. ... read more »

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Posted on 1 December, 2006 - 21:46

The Institute for Food and Development Policy, also known as Food First, has been providing solid analysis on food politics for over 25 years.

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Posted on 27 November, 2006 - 07:50