Sick Planet Corporate Food and Medicine

by Cox, Stan

• ISBN13: 9780745327402
• ISBN10: 0745327400
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-03-20
• Publisher: UCP

Summary

--Shows that food and drug companies are destroying the planet-- Neoliberals often point to improvements in public health and nutrition as examples of globalisation's success, but this book argues that the corporate food and medicine industries are destroying environments and ruining living conditions across the world. Scientist Stan Cox expertly draws out the strong link between Western big business and environmental destruction. This is a shocking account of the huge damage that drug manufacturers and large food corporations are inflicting on the health of people and crops worldwide. Companies discussed include Wal-Mart, GlaxoSmithKline, Tyson Foods and Monsanto. On issues ranging from the poisoning of water supplies in South Asia to natural gas depletion and how it threatens global food supplies, Cox shows how the demand for profits is always put above the public interest. While individual efforts to "shop for a better world" and conserve energy are laudable, Cox explains that they need to be accompanied by an economic system that is grounded in ecological sustainability if we are to find a cure for our Sick Planet.

Author Biography

Stan Cox is a senior scientist at The Land Institute in Salina, Kansas. He worked for the US Department of Agriculture from 1984 to 1996 and has a Ph.D. in plant genetics.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	p. vii
Preface	p. viii
Health Care's Malignant Growth	p. 1
"If they build it, we'll fill it"	p. 3
An unhealthy industry	p. 6
Growing pains	p. 10
Those bad apples	p. 13
Green health care?	p. 15
The model wealth creator	p. 19
Feeling OK? Are You Sure?	p. 21
Disease mongering	p. 22
Direct-to-patient, direct-to-doctor	p. 27
Side Effects May be Severe	p. 34
Colorful India	p. 36
Side effects	p. 39
Cracking down?	p. 42
Swallowing the Earth Whole	p. 47
Caution: this diet is not for everyone	p. 48
Appearances and reality	p. 50
All the fish in the sea	p. 54
A self-fattening industry	p. 63
"Agroterrorists" Can Take a Vacation	p. 65
The industrialized farm economy	p. 66
Hazards of food production	p. 69
Who wants to take away our freedom?	p. 76
Hunger for Natural Gas	p. 85
Nitrogen, human existence, and economic logic	p. 86
Gas: so good it's bad	p. 88
Coal: a lousy plan B	p. 91
Full jacuzzis, empty stomachs	p. 94
Nitrogen: too little, too much	p. 96
Needs and wants	p. 99
Down-to-a-trickle Economics	p. 103
Dimming, global and local	p. 103
Dark horizon	p. 107
The 66,000-lb gorilla in the living room	p. 111
Supernatural Food	p. 117
Goliath junior vs. Goliath senior	p. 118
Shop where you work?	p. 121
Industrial-strength organic	p. 125
Other routes	p. 127
A gaping hole	p. 130
The World is Your Kitchen	p. 134
Some of the planet's toughest little molecules	p. 134
Turning up the heat on teflon	p. 137
Chemical stewardship	p. 144
Paths of least resistance	p. 146
The chemical amnesty program	p. 149
Political Impossibility vs. Biological Impossibility	p. 154
Three big books	p. 156
Efficiency	p. 162
The European mirage	p. 168
Different kinds of impossibility	p. 172
Notes	p. 176
Suggested Reading	p. 209
Index	p. 213
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.