Rating:
(6 reviews)
Author: Visit Amazon's Julie Guthman Page
ISBN : 0520266250
New from $26.06
Format: PDF
Download electronic versions of selected books Free Weighing In: Obesity, Food Justice, and the Limits of Capitalism from with Mediafire Link Download Link
Review
“Weighing In is the book that fat studies and critical geographers of fat have been waiting for.”
(Deborah McPhail, University of Manitoba
Social & Cultural Geography 2013-04-17)
“Guthman usefully challenges healthism in obesity research and food movements where consumption eclipses production.”
(Lee F. Monaghan
Sociology Of Health & Illness 2012-07-09)
From the Inside Flap
"A bold, compelling challenge to conventional thinking about obesity and its fixes, Weighing In is one of the most important books on food politics to hit the shelves in a long time." —Susanne Freidberg, author of Fresh: A Perishable History
"Weighing In is filled with counterintuitive surprises that should make us skeptics of all kinds of food -- whether local, fast, slow, junk or health -- but also gives us the practical tools to effectively scrutinize the stale buffet of popularly-accepted health wisdom before we digest it." —Paul Robbins, professor of Geography and Development, University of Arizona
"If you liked Michael Pollan, this should be your next read. Guthman gives us the research behind the questions we should be asking, but, falling all over ourselves in the rush to consensus, we have overlooked. A self-described Berkeley foodie, Guthman takes on the self-satisfaction of the alternative food movement and places it in rich context, drawing on research in health, economics, labor, agriculture, sociology, and politics. This marvelous, surprising book is a true game-changer in our national conversation about food and justice." —Anna Kirkland, author of Fat Rights: Dilemmas of Difference and Personhood
“This groundbreaking book calls into question the ubiquitous claim that ‘good food’ will solve the social and health dilemmas of today. Combining political economic analysis, cultural critique, and clear explanation of scientific discoveries, the author challenges our deeply held convictions about society, food, bodies, and environments.” —Becky Mansfield, editor of Privatization: Property and the Remaking of Nature-Society Relations
"Step back from that farmer's market -- Guthman shows us that good foods and good eating are not enough. By questioning the fuzzy facts on obesity, the impact of environment, and capitalism's relentless push to consume, Weighing In challenges us to think harder, and better, about what it really takes to be healthy in the modern age." —Carolyn de la Peña, author of Empty Pleasures: The Story of Artificial Sweetener from Saccharin to Splenda
See all Editorial Reviews
Download latest books on mediafire and other links compilation Free Weighing In: Obesity, Food Justice, and the Limits of Capitalism (California Studies in Food and Culture) Paperback
- Series: California Studies in Food and Culture (Book 32)
- Paperback: 248 pages
- Publisher: University of California Press; 1 edition (November 5, 2011)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0520266250
- ISBN-13: 978-0520266254
- Product Dimensions: 0.7 x 6 x 9 inches
- Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Free Weighing In: Obesity, Food Justice, and the Limits of Capitalism
Erratic
Guthman's second book is one of the most wildly uneven works of nonfiction I have read. Parts of it border on brilliant. Others are clumsily assembled and hardly convincing. The strong sections are the ones in which she applies a political economy perspective to her personal research and experience in agriculture and what she calls the `alternative-food movement' (farmers markets, CSAs, community gardens, etc.). She has consider insight into this, though it's easy to tell when she's moved beyond her own work -- e.g., not as thorough exposure to the food justice movement and a few sloppy sentences like one commenting on how Obama agreed to cut food stamps in 2014 [actually, the time that a temporary increase in benefits meant to cover the Great Recession is scheduled to end, though the current 2012 Farm Bill may very well have such cuts and be signed by him].) In these chapters, Guthman gores many a sacred cow.
Then there are the chapters that are more theoretical or are focused obesity. They're so bad that it's hard to believe that the author of this book also wrote the excellent _Agrarian Dreams_. These parts tend to be toward the beginning. The prose in these academic in the worst sense, and the arguments are not persuasive. For instance, Guthman rejects the `balanced energy model' explanation for the rise of obesity since the 1980s. That is, she does not accept that people are fatter because they are eating more. The way she handles this is odd, however. She talks at length as if she's going to disprove this, but then when she gets to it, she devotes two pages to it, relying heavily on a single USDA study about demographics of calorie consumption.
-
Download Link 2