marketing (the latter with the power to influence consumer decision-making) offer and sell products that contribute to numerous diet-related diseases, among them obesity—particularly affecting children, who are hyper-vulnerable.52 A clear example is ultra-processed foods, contrasted with the urgent need for proper labeling practices53 that should suffice to meet duties of information, precaution, and prevention54. The issue is worrisome, considering the externalities for public health, while also recognizing that alongside this “engineering of ultra-processed foods” it is necessary to preserve the individual and the free development of personality55. Yet a contradiction arises. Alongside these harmful food types that cause weight gain among consumers, there coexist the “slimming industries,” marketing strategies, and even public policies that condemn obesity, opening the way for the “obesity epidemic,” stigmatization56 of overweight individuals, culpabilization of fat bodies, and discrimination through fatphobia57—with serious damage to the mental health of millions. Added to this stage are the so-called “weight-loss injectables,” accessible only to consumers with financial resources, creating a social cleavage: the “poor obese” and the “rich thin,” both equally neglected due to the lack of food education. From the global food chain that causes obesity and discriminates against the obese, the pharmaceutical sector has found its lucrative niche. The global food chain also presents other considerable obstacles in matters of: (i) Sustainability: greenhouse gas emissions, intensive and harmful water use (as in sugarcane cultivation), biodiversity loss through deforestation, and impacts on the climate crisis.58 (ii) Social inequalities: child labor, conditions analogous to slavery, strong asymmetry between producers and large wholesalers, irrational 52 PATEL, Raj. Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System - Revised and Updated. London: Meville House, 2012. 53 TUMELERO, Naína Ariana Souza; BAHIA, Carolina Medeiros. As doenças crônicas relacionadas à alimentação e as relações de consumo alimentar: a rotulagem nutricional frontal e o modelo chileno em foco. Revista de Direito do Consumidor. v. 126. São Paulo: Revista dos Tribunais, 2019, p. 51 – 77. 54 ARRUA, Alejandra et al. Warnings as a directive front-of-pack nutrition labelling scheme: comparison with the Guideline Daily Amount and traffic-light systems. Public Health Nutrition, [s.l.], v. 20, n. 13, p. 2308-2317, 19 jun. 2017. Cambridge University Press. 55 MOREIRA, Rodrigo Pereira. Direito ao livre desenvolvimento da personalidade: proteção e promoção da pessoa humana. Curitiba: Juruá, 2016. 56 GOFFMAN, Erving. Estigma: notas sobre a manipulação da identidade deteriorada. 4. ed. Rio de Janeiro: LTC, 2017. 57 RODRIGUES, Ale Mújica. Compliance antidiscriminatório: lições práticas para um novo mundo corporativo. Gordofobia e pressão estética. São Paulo: Ed. RT, 2022. p. 255-264. 58 BOSSELMANN, Klaus. O Princípio da Sustentabilidade: transformando direito e governança. São Paulo: Ed. RT, 2015. “Which contrasts the concept of ‘sustainability’ with that of ‘sustainable development’.” 80 FERNANDO RODRIGUES MARTINS | MIGUEL CABRAL DE ARAÚJO MARTINS
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