Description
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Book Summary
What is really behind the products that fill our shopping baskets? Nazaret Castro and Laura Villadiego, two investigative journalists with international experience, offer us an essential guide for the conscious consumer. This book unveils the hidden human and environmental costs of food, textiles, and cosmetics, from palm oil to meat or cheap clothing. With rigor and an approach that combines social advocacy with technical data, the work invites us to understand the inequalities between the Global North and South, transforming every purchase into an act of knowledge and responsibility.
What is it about?
The book analyzes the real origin of everyday goods, exposing production chains that usually remain hidden. Through concrete cases, the authors investigate how the opacity of labels and packaging masks not only nutritional deficiencies but also dynamics of labor exploitation and ecological devastation. It addresses the impact of palm oil production in Indonesia, the deforestation of the Amazon linked to livestock, the conditions of textile workers in Bangladesh, and the true costs of coffee, sugar, milk, and eggs. The work combines field experience with deep technical knowledge to offer a comprehensive vision of the damage that certain consumption models generate for people and the planet.
Main themes
- Environmental and social impact of the production of food and consumer goods.
- Analysis of opacity in labeling and product traceability.
- Structural inequalities between countries of the Global North and South in supply chains.
- Ecological consequences of intensive agriculture, industrial livestock, and deforestation.
- Labor conditions and exploitation in the textile and food industry.
Who is it recommended for?
It is aimed at consumers interested in the origin and real impact of what they buy, as well as readers of social commentary essays, investigative journalism, and political ecology. It will also be very useful for students of social sciences, economics, environmental sciences, and nutrition who are looking for a critical perspective on the agri-food system and global trade.
What this book offers
- A practical guide to deciphering labels and understanding the origin of products.
- Rigorous and documented information on the hidden human and environmental costs of production.
- Tools for making more informed and responsible purchasing decisions.
- A critical look that connects daily consumption with global dynamics of inequality.
Technical Specifications
- Author: Castro, Nazaret; Villadiego, Laura
- Publisher: Clave Intelectual
- Language: Spanish
- Topic: LITERARY ESSAYS, SOCIOLOGY, COOKING/FOOD AND DRINK, ETC.
- Collection: CLAVE INTELECTUAL
- Publication date: November 2020
- Number of pages: 300
- Weight: 600 g
Editorial Review
This is a work of investigative journalism that is accessible yet uncompromising, managing to bridge the gap between lived experience and structural analysis. Its main value lies in its ability to make complex problems tangible, offering the reader not only an exposé but also the keys to understanding the system that sustains our consumption model. It is a necessary read for those who wish to look beyond the surface of the products they acquire daily.