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.

Website of author, film-maker and academic, Raj Patel
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.
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”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”Before he was a war criminal, Donald Rumsfeld was a common chauvinist, of the variety easily found in government today. My friend DBS sends this observation from Nick Kotz’ Let Them Eat Promises:
Continue reading “A quick note on Donald Rumsfeld”The Indian government has done all kinds of things in the name of modernisation. To get food rations and social grants, for instance, Indians have to submit to a state of the art biometric scanning system. When farmworkers fingertips are rubbed away through manual labour, they render themselves unidentifiable to machines, and are denied benefits. Witness, progress.
Continue reading “#ResignModi”About a decade ago, I started working on a film project called Generation Food, with an amazing group of activists and film makers. Today, I’m very pleased to share the first fruits of that project: The Ants & The Grasshopper. It’s premiering at the Mountainfilm festival later this month, with more opportunities to see it coming later this year. But for now, here’s the trailer.
Continue reading “How do you change someone’s mind about the most important thing in the world?”The good people at The Guardian just published this piece. Do check out the others by the excellent Nina Lakhani.
Continue reading “Food Injustice: As American as Apple Pie”I was lucky enough to have the chance to talk with Rupa Marya and Anna Lappé at the 2021 Oxford Real Farming Conference. Here’s our take on philanthropy, and what’s wrong with it.
Continue reading “Against Philanthropy”