The global south has free trade to thank for its obesity and diabetes epidemic | Ramón Vera Herrera

Junk food companies seeking growth markets are flooding poor countries with cheap, unhealthy food. And the consequences are devastating

You wouldn’t think that free-trade deals could lead to a diabetes and obesity epidemic, but they have. Today, many countries in the global south are seeing an explosion of these afflictions - all because their governments welcomed in transnational food companies looking for new “growth markets” for poor quality, heavily processed or just plain junk food.

For big conglomerates to increase their profits, they need to develop and sell products aimed at hundreds of millions of the world’s poor. Many of these people and communities still eat food that they produce themselves, or buy from informal markets that sell local produce. These local food systems and circuits are their livelihood for untold numbers of people.

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