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Neoliberals often point to improvements in public health and nutrition as examples of globalization'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.
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Sick Planet Cox 00 pre i 10/12/07 19:18:00 Cox 00 pre ii 10/12/07 19:18:00 Sick Planet Corporate Food and Medicine STAN COX Pluto P Press LONDON • ANN ARBOR, MI Cox 00 pre iii 10/12/07 19:18:00 First published 2008 by Pluto Press 345 Archway Road, London N6 5AA and 839 Greene Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48106 www.plutobooks.com Copyright © Stan Cox 2008 The right of Stan Cox to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN ISBN 978 0 7453 2741 9 (hardback) 978 0 7453 2740 2 (paperback) Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data applied for This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Designed and produced for Pluto Press by Chase Publishing Services Ltd, Fortescue, Sidmouth, EX10 9QG, England Typeset from disk by Stanford DTP Services, Northampton Printed and bound in the United States of America Cox 00 pre iv 10/12/07 19:18:00 CONTENTS Acknowledgements Preface Cox 00 pre v vii viii 1. Health Care’s Malignant Growth “If they build it, we’ll fill it” An unhealthy industry Growing pains Those bad apples Green health care? The model wealth creator 1 3 6 10 13 15 19 2. Feeling OK? Are You Sure? Disease mongering Direct-to-patient, direct-to-doctor 21 22 27 3. Side Effects May be Severe Colorful India Side effects Cracking down? 34 36 39 42 4. Swallowing the Earth Whole Caution: this diet is not for everyone Appearances and reality All the fish in the sea A self-fattening industry 47 48 50 54 63 5. “Agroterrorists” Can Take a Vacation The industrialized farm economy Hazards of food production Who wants to take away our freedom? 65 66 69 76 10/12/07 19:18:00 vi C O NTEN TS 6. Hunger for Natural Gas Nitrogen, human existence, and economic logic Gas: so good it’s bad Coal: a lousy plan B Full jacuzzis, empty stomachs Nitrogen: too little, too much Needs and wants 7. Down-to-a-trickle Economics Dimming, global and local Dark horizon The 66,000-lb gorilla in the living room 103 103 107 111 8. Supernatural Food Goliath junior vs. Goliat