ABSTRACT
Obesity is a problem of epidemic proportions, affecting both developed and developing countries. The spread of technology, the rise of global commerce, the changing nature of work and shifts in family social roles are among the factors blamed for changing the food supply and daily activities of people all over the world. Obesity is a medical, public health, public policy, economic, and social problem. It also presents philosophical problems to solve: problems about causation, choice and human agency. Womack Catherine use obesity as a lens through which to examine questions of choice and agency. In particular, given multiplicity of constraints on our abilities to engage in certain types of eating and activity behaviours, how can find avenues of freedom for choice and pathways to real agency for ourselves and our communities? The author examines some ways in which individuals limited with respect to control over eating, and then propose some avenues for collective agency through changing our eating infrastructures.
