You can tell I’m looking for excuses not to knuckle down and finish my next book project, because I’m catching up with posting things here. I’m very pleased to have put together a bit of research on the Andhra Pradesh Community-Managed Natural Farming programme with Vijay Kumar Thallam, just out in Nature Food. The reason we wrote it is prompted in part by the Indian Government’s PM-PRANAM policy, a plan to wean India off industrial fertilizer imports.
Continue reading “Agricultural Subsidy Transition Bonds”Food Sovereignty in the 2020s
The Alameda Institute, whose research director is the excellent Sabrina Fernandes, has put together a fantastic dossier on food sovereignty called Seeds of Sovereignty: Contesting the Politics of Food. There’s a lot of confusion about what food sovereignty is, and isn’t. (I wrote a short introduction a few years ago, and it holds up.) Many of my fellow International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems panelists have explored what it means, including Jennifer Clapp and Million Belay, as does Sabrina herself. My contribution has also been doing the rounds, and I thought I’d share it here. If you’re in the citation business, it’s Patel, Raj. “Food Sovereignty in the 2020s.” In Seeds of Sovereignty: Contesting the Politics of Food, 22-29: Alameda Institute, 2024.
Continue reading “Food Sovereignty in the 2020s”The Dalit Panthers Manifesto
It’s harder to track down the Dalit Panthers’ manifesto than it should be. Here’s an attempt to fix that, reproducing the text from “The Dalit Panthers and Their Manifesto.” Religion and Society 22, no. 2 (1975): 24-38.
Continue reading “The Dalit Panthers Manifesto”Hunger, Debt and Interest Rates
The awful choice between feeding the hungry or paying creditors isn’t
just one faced by indebted households. Countries are in similar straits. Hunger is both a fiscal issue and a monetary one. I put together this short piece, for Nature Food, on how to understand what that means, and how the debt crisis is making global hunger far worse…
The Grammar of a Future New International Economic Order
I’m on the road for an exciting new book project. It’s hard to imagine posting with even less frequency here, but to make up for an absence of New Things, here’s a piece I wrote for the good folk at Progressive International, which I forgot to share a little while back. If nothing else, I hope the opening quote, from Stefano Harney and Fred Moten, points you to their incredible work.
Continue reading “The Grammar of a Future New International Economic Order”The Ants & The Grasshopper: The Series
One of the reasons I’ve been neglecting my writing here, and in the academic world, is because I’ve been exploring new ways of sharing and connecting over ideas with folk outside the worlds in which I usually write.
Continue reading “The Ants & The Grasshopper: The Series”Save Tierras Milperas
I don’t often post here but it’s not often that I think that letter-writing can make a difference. This is one such occasion.
EPA Pesticide approvals 1975-2022
It has been so long since I updated this site, it’s a little beyond embarrassing. The reasons are many: the promotional tour for book and film, teaching two courses, plotting a lot of writing with IPES, etc. But now that I’m working on a big solo book – more on that in the months to come – I’m falling back into the rhythms of research and writing that once used to make maintaining a blog both viable and useful. Watch this space for more.
Continue reading “EPA Pesticide approvals 1975-2022”Ants, Grasshoppers, and Agroecology
The fine people at the Scientific American have released an article explaining agroecology in time for today’s UN Food Systems summit. In it, I talk about my time in Malawi working with Soils, Food and Healthy Communities, and share a few ideas that we couldn’t cover in the film The Ants & The Grasshopper.
Continue reading “Ants, Grasshoppers, and Agroecology”