Analyses of the 'food business' expose some of the most fascinating and disturbing characteristics of contemporary capitalism as well as some of the most significant flaws within contemporary academic discourses; deficiencies in diets are the material manifestations of the deficiencies in common analytical and conceptual categories as well as political will. Much of the voluminous recent discourse about sustainable development is similarly flawed. This paper reflects on the connections between the character of contemporary capitalism and allied discourses on globalisation, hunger (...) and sustainable development and argues that these connections require a vigorous ethically informed critique. (shrink)