Stuffed and Starved highlights the uneven hourglass shape that exists within our global food system and describes the factors that contribute to these gaps. It starts with the decisions farmers are forced to make on the farm and ends with the decisions consumers can make in grocery stores. The purpose of Stuffed and Hungry was to describe the factors attributed to the hourglass shape of the food system. Author Raj Patel highlights who benefits and who suffers in this system, and provides insight into how the system can be improved. The hourglass shape describes the large number of farmers at one end and the large number of consumers at the other. the other. The middle of the hourglass represents the few large corporations that control the food system. Food processors and distributors control food from farm to table. This is where money is taken from the pockets of farmers and consumers and into the bank accounts of big corporations. Throughout Stuffed and Hungry, Raj Patel describes the role of each entity in the food system and its failures. Our nation was founded on agriculture and for hundreds of years we were able to migrate across the country bringing with us our agricultural tools and techniques. Technology has moved people from rural areas to industrialized cities. While money is now being pumped into cities, it is rural farmers who are suffering the most. Farmers take out large loans to maintain their farms, leading to debt and, in some cases, suicide. Patel spoke of a farmer in India whose husband committed suicide because he was unable to live with the amount of debt on his struggling farm. This man left his wife and children... middle of paper ...... struggling to earn any income and sometimes not even being able to eat. Another issue that Raj Patel did not address is the lack of consumer care towards farmers. It seems that consumers care as much about farmers as they do about businesses, which I don't think is a big deal. When consumers only care about low prices and big companies only care about profit, farmers are left behind. Many consumers believe that “food should be available cheaply, a belief that relies on labor exploitation and environmental depletion at many levels of the production chain.” (Wright, 95) Businesses as well as consumers generally tend to be selfish and I think Raj Patel is afraid to mention it. If only these people cared a little more about each other, I believe the food system's hourglass would begin to balance...