Gerardo Otero is a professor of international studies and sociology at Simon Fraser University. He is the author or editor of seven previous books, including Food for the Few: Neoliberal Globalism and Biotechnology in Latin America.

• List of Tables and FiguresAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Obesity and the Neoliberal DietChapter 1. The Neoliberal Food Regime and Its Crisis: The Dynamic FactorsChapter 2. Neoregulation of Agricultural Biotechnology at the National and Suprastate ScalesChapter 3. Food and Inequality in the United StatesChapter 4. Class Diets in the NAFTA Region: Divergence or Convergence?Chapter 5. NAFTA, Agriculture, and Work: Mexico’s Loss of Food and Labor SovereigntyChapter 6. Globalizing the Neoliberal Diet: Food Security and TradeChapter 7. Food Security, Obesity, and Inequality: Measuring the Risk of Exposure to the Neoliberal DietConclusion: What Is to Be Done?ReferencesIndex

A closely argued sociological treatise...Otero draws on realms of data to demonstrate that neoliberal ideology-the belief that human welfare is best achieved through state-supported private enterprise-results in market-based agricultural systems that destroy subsistence farming, traditional diets, and health, while blaming the displaced victims for their own fate. - Marion Nestle (The Lancet) In the neoliberal era, cuisines and daily eating are always in conversation with state powers that both facilitate and limit access to particular ingredients. Otero offers a historical framework for thinking about how “food regimes” in Latin America have shifted over time...Although the neoliberal diet caused a crisis of obesity, Otero wisely focuses on this as a social problem that requires structural solutions, even though it causes health issues in individual bodies. (Latin American Research Review) A remarkable, comprehensive book that gives the reader the sense of attending an advanced lecture series on global food politics led by a seasoned food expert…The Neoliberal Diet is critical reading for food studies scholars, but it is also useful for anyone interested in understanding transformations in the global political economy over the last several decades and their effects on food production, diets, migration, labor rights, and social movements...[The Neoliberal Diet] takes us very far in understanding the origin and scope of the problems we face and where we need to go. (Contemporary Sociology) This volume is a 'must read' for agriculture, food, and nutrition science and policy professionals…[a] path-breaking analysis. - Ellen Messer (Human Ecology) Otero makes several points that warrant the attention of food policy analysts and advocates. - Nicholas Freudenberg (Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development) The cogency, clarity, and significance of Gerardo Otero's [The Neoliberal Diet] has become more apparent since the Covid-19 pandemic upended livelihoods across the globe...The Neoliberal Diet interrogates how the combined effects of neoliberal economic policy have engendered vast health inequalities around the world... Otero’s study is an ambitious critique of neoliberalism’s tendency to situate the consumer as almost solely responsible for their health and well-being...Even as the Covid-19 pandemic rages on, Otero reminds us that the neoliberal food regime has, in many ways, laid the groundwork for our present unhealth. (Food, Culture & Society)