Why are there dozens of food brands-in sachets, bottles, cans, and other packaging-sold in every sari-sari store in the slums of Metro Manila and beyond ?

PACKAGED FOOD, PACKAGED LIFE argues that the abundant consumption of corporate brands in slums does not merely stem from individual lifestyle choices but also is the result of historical circumstances that preclude good living conditions and limit opportunities for people who resort to corporate packaged food. Drawing on his own fieldwork and exhaustive review of related literatures, Heriberto Ruiz Tafoya identifies the constraints that characterize a packaged life not as a definitive status but as an ongoing process. His perspective comes from his own experiences as urban poor in Mexico and from the eclectic amalgamation of the Latin American ethical and political approach of buen vivir (living well or life in fullness) and its Philippine counterpart ginhawa (vital spirit that animates our well-being).

The book is a pioneering work on packagedfood diets in the global south, serving as a reliable reference for readers interested in the retail and consumption of processed food especially by marginalized communities.

AJIA KEIZAI, Vol.65 No.3, 152-155 pp
by Natsuko Shiraishi

Heriberto Ruiz Tafoya

Born in Mexico City, Heriberto Ruiz Tafoya received his doctoral degree in economics from Kyoto University. He is guest associate researcher at the Center for Southeast Asian Studies in Kyoto University and researcher at the Institute of Social Theory and Dynamics in Hiroshima.