I’m excited, as many are in the US, by Zohran Mamdani’s resurgent bid to be New York City’s next Mayor, and unsurprised that the Democratic Party has left no pearl unclutched at his proposals. There is one idea, however, that might benefit from a bit more vision: the idea of the public grocery. There’s more … Continue reading "Mamdanimania"| Raj Patel
A few years ago, I was invited to join a meeting to think through the polycrisis. It happened a few weeks after the assassination of Lindokuhle Mnguni, one of the most startlingly wise and visionary leaders I’d ever met – he was 28 years old. The polycrisis – understood as climate emergency, democratic decline, pandemic … Continue reading "Care and Resistance"| Raj Patel
Inflamed: Deep Medicine and the Anatomy of Injustice with Rupa MaryaThe Value of NothingFood Rebellions! co authored with Eric Holt-Gimenez and Annie ShattuckPromised Land edited with Peter Rosset and Michael Courville| Raj Patel
One of the reasons I’ve been quiet recently is because of the reading demands for The National Book Awards this year, which \ come with a requirement that keep quiet about anything published this year, lest I tip the hand of the jury in our deliberations. Also, I’m finishing a couple of books, which means most of my writing time is at the service of my editors. | Raj Patel
The pig lies in its own waste, pressed against the metal grating of an industrial gestation crate in Duplin County, North Carolina. It’s March 2025, and she’s running a fever. Her lungs burn with two different viral infections—H1N1, the seasonal swine flu that routinely sweeps through factory farms, and a version of highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1, which arrived via wild birds roosting in the ventilation system. The combination is killing her and, while it does, it’s mutating. ...| Raj Patel
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 … Continue reading "Agricultural Subsidy Transition Bonds"| Raj Patel
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 … Continue reading "Food Sovereignty in the 2020s"| Raj Patel
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. Revolutionary stand of the Panthers Today we, the ‘Dalit Panthers’, complete one year of our existence. Because of … Continue reading "The Dalit Panthers Manifesto"| Raj Patel
The awful choice between feeding the hungry or paying creditors isn’tjust 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 … Continue reading "Hunger, Debt and Interest Rates"| Raj Patel
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 … Continue reading "The Grammar of a Future New International Economic Order"| Raj Patel