The Political Economy of Diet and Health continues the exploration of food systems theory begun in the author's previous publications. It presents a critical exposition of food systems theory and analyses the existing approaches to food consumption. Subjects include: * resolving the diet paradox * the impact of the EU * the lack of policy in the UK
This comprehensive work starts by charting the origins and evolution of the shift from public administration to public management and moves on to assess the main theories and debates about its character, benefits and problems. After consideration of the party political issues, debates, continuities, and discontinuities between the approaches of Thatcher, Major and Blair, the core of the book discusses change in public sector organization more broadly.
This comprehensive text provides the latest research on key concepts, principles and practices for promoting healthy and sustainable food systems. There are increasing concerns about the impact of food systems on environmental sustainability and, in turn, the impact of environmental sustainability on the capacity of food systems to protect food and nutrition security into the future. The contributors to this book are leading researchers in the causes of and solutions to these challenges. As international experts in their fields, they provide in-depth analyses of the issues and evidence-informed recommendations for future policies and practices. Starting with an overview of ideas about health, sustainability and equity in relation to food systems, Healthy and Sustainable Food Systems examines what constitutes a food system, with chapters on production, manufacturing, distribution and retail, among others. The text explores health and sustainable diets, looking at issues such as overconsumption and waste. The book ends with discussions about the politics, policy, personal behaviours and advocacy behind creating healthy and sustainable food systems. With a food systems approach to health and sustainability identified as a priority area for public health, this text introduces core knowledge for students, academics, practitioners and policy-makers from a range of disciplines including food and nutrition sciences, dietetics, public health, public policy, medicine, health science and environmental science.
Mexican cuisine has emerged as a paradox of globalization. Food enthusiasts throughout the world celebrate the humble taco at the same time that Mexicans are eating fewer tortillas and more processed food. Today Mexico is experiencing an epidemic of diet-related chronic illness. The precipitous rise of obesity and diabetes—attributed to changes in the Mexican diet—has resulted in a public health emergency. In her gripping new book, Alyshia Gálvez exposes how changes in policy following NAFTA have fundamentally altered one of the most basic elements of life in Mexico—sustenance. Mexicans are faced with a food system that favors food security over subsistence agriculture, development over sustainability, market participation over social welfare, and ideologies of self-care over public health. Trade agreements negotiated to improve lives have resulted in unintended consequences for people’s everyday lives.
Few nutritionists and economists fully appreciate how the political environment shapes policy and subsequently affects the relevance of their policy recommendations When governments fail to follow the recommendations of nutritionists and economists and are unable to design and implement cost-effective nutrition programs and policies, it is often attributed to politics or to lack of political will on the part of decisionmakers Past nutrition planning efforts frequently failed to understand the goals and behavior of the various agents and institutions inside and outside the government that, in the final analysis, determine whether the planning effort is successful In The Political Economy of Food and Nutrition Policies, Per Pinstrup-Andersen brings together a group of distinguished authorities to improve the understanding of how nutrition policies are formulated within larger political and economic contexts and how public-sector agencies behave with regard to food and nutrition.
The politics of food is changing fast. In rich countries, obesity is now a more serious problem than hunger. Consumers once satisfied with cheap and convenient food now want food that is also safe, nutritious, fresh, and grown by local farmers using fewer chemicals. Heavily subsidized and underregulated commercial farmers are facing stronger push back from environmentalists and consumer activists, and food companies are under the microscope. Meanwhile, agricultural success in Asia has spurred income growth and dietary enrichment, but agricultural failure in Africa has left one-third of all citizens undernourished - and the international markets that link these diverse regions together are subject to sudden disruption. Food Politics: What Everyone Needs to Know® carefully examines and explains the most important issues on today's global food landscape, including international food prices, famines, chronic hunger, the Malthusian race between food production and population growth, international food aid, "green revolution" farming, obesity, farm subsidies and trade, agriculture and the environment, agribusiness, supermarkets, food safety, fast food, slow food, organic food, local food, and genetically engineered food. Politics in each of these areas has become polarized over the past decade by conflicting claims and accusations from advocates on all sides. Paarlberg's book maps this contested terrain, challenging myths and critiquing more than a few of today's fashionable beliefs about farming and food. For those ready to have their thinking about food politics informed and also challenged, this is the book to read. What Everyone Needs to Know® is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press.
The European economic crisis has been ongoing since 2008 and while austerity has spread over the continent, it has failed to revive economies. The media have played an important ideological role in presenting the policies of economic and political elites in a favourable light, even if the latter’s aim has been to shift the burden of adjustment onto citizens. This book explains how and why, using a critical political economic perspective and focusing on the case of Ireland. Throughout, Ireland is compared with contemporary and historical examples to contextualise the arguments made. The book covers the housing bubble that led to the crash, the rescue of financial institutions by the state, the role of the European institutions and the International Monetary Fund, austerity, and the possibility of leaving the eurozone for Europe’s peripheral countries. Through a systematic analysis of Ireland’s main newspapers, it is argued that the media reflect elite views and interests and downplay alternative policies that could lead to more progressive responses to the crisis.
At the global level, sport is ruled by a set of organizations including giants such as the IOC (Olympics), FIFA (soccer), and the IAAF (athletics) as well as sporting minnows such as the World Armsport Federation (armwrestling). Many of these bodies have been surrounded by controversy during their histories, after having to adjust to the reali
This bold and ambitious book attempts to diagnose and remedy what is wrong with economics, so that it can become an emancipatory form of knowledge. It will be of interest to serious economists and philosophers of social science everywhere.