The Big Business Behind the Brazilian Junk-Food Boom

The junk-food industry is making big business by capitalizing on markets in the developing world. And Brazil is one of their victims.

Here's a story on how Big Food is contributing to an unprecedented epidemic of obesity, type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome - even in the youngest.

As multinational companies push deeper into the developing world, they are transforming local agriculture, spurring farmers to abandon subsistence crops in favor of cash commodities like sugar cane, corn and soybeans - the building blocks for many industrial food products. It is this economic ecosystem that pulls in mom-and-pop stores, big box retailers, food manufacturers and distributors, and small vendors like Mrs. da Silva.

The New York Times: How Big Business got Brazil hooked on junk food