Food Insecurity, the Obesity Crisis, and Exploitation in the US Food System

Abstract

Examines the factors contributing to obesity as a product of food insecurity and explores its relationship to the exploitation of vulnerable communities. Suggests that the conceptualization of food security should be changed from a problem of undernutrition and famine to a problem involving obesity and obesity-related diseases. Explores the notion of exploitation and develops a test to determine when market exchanges are exploitative. Applies a consent-based test to ask whether exchanges with the contemporary American food system are exploitative. Suggests that governments intervene more forcefully to regulate food markets to shift diets to those more similar to traditional diets in order to address the harms associated with the processed-foods-rich diets that are a by-product of how the American food system has come to be structured. Offers suggestions for future research. Loo is Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies at the University of Minnesota, Morris. Skipper is Professor and Fellow with the Graduate School in Philosophy at the University of Cincinnati. Bibliography; index.