We obviously all need food and water to survive.

But Elizabeth Telfer quickly hints to the fact that we also often eat only for the purpose of pleasure or as more or less a  freetime activity. This is strange because we normally spend our expense time with something we do not have to do.

She simply defines those activities as feeding and watering and by that introduces the topic of the first chapter:

"Feeding the Hungry"

Telfer says that those nations that die from hunger would never ask philosophical questions about food.