Raj Patel

Excited to host Adrian Lipscombe, Alex Racelis and Edwin Marty at Food Glorious Food: How We Will Beat Hunger. If you're in Austin, Friday 13 Nov, join us! www.eventbrite.com/e/food-glori...

On World Food Day, it's worth counting the cost of the Gates Foundation's failure to end hunger in Africa. What should come next are not more dollars to the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, but reparation for its harms. www.ft.com/content/fff4...

The good folk at Progressive International are helping coordinate this strike fund for dockworkers refusing to load weapons on 30 Oct. Pitch in if you can! refusetomove.org/strike-fund/

If you can, join us for the launch of Food Work in half an hour. ipes-food.org/launch-webin... And if you can't, do have a look at the report itself. It's a landmark, and couldn't be more timely. ipes-food.org/report/food-...

Fired from the FAO for attending a Gaza protest - Thin Lei Win reports on Benjamin Davis’ commitment to ending hunger for all www.thenewhumanitarian.org/interview/20...

IPES' excellent study on workers in the food system is out Monday 5 October. Join Olivier De Schutter, Sue Longley (former General Secretary of IUF-UITA-IUL), Sumitha Kishna (Founding Director of Our Journey Malaysia) and me! lnkd.in/euNkniRE

I'm on a sidequest to read everything Richard Flanagan has published, and this brilliant essay in Equator explains why: www.equator.org/articles/gaz...

The good folk at Terra Madre have released another block of (free) tickets to join Edward Mukibi, Thin Wei Lin, Jessica Duncan and me next Friday. Looking forward to talking about communism and Slow Food! 2026.terramadresalonedelgusto.com/en/event/foo...

Join Morgan Ody, of La Via Campesina, Ruth Nabaggala of the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa, and UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food Sofía Monsalve (and me) for the launch of the Agribusiness Atlas, 30th September. 327262.eu2.cleverreach.com/m/17376621/

My copy of @naomiaklein.bsky.social @astra.bsky.social 's End Times Fascism arrived today -very excited to dive in to the extended analysis. A taster here: www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...

Heartbroken to learn that Abahlali baseMjondolo's deputy president, George Mqapheli Bonono, is gravely ill. He's an incredible leader, friend and visionary. peoplesdispatch.org/2021/05/21/p...

The Rise and Fall of America's Exorbitant Privilege I'm working through some ideas on the end of American hegemony. Here's a piece from my Substack. Keen for more? Subscribe here. Adam Tooze’s recent post...

For a reasoned and exacting take on how South Africa's xenophobia sets the poor against the poor, see Abahlali general secretary Thapelo Mohapi's moving interview in Amandla www.amandla.org.za/amandla103/

The Edible Empire podcast is now available in its entirety, along with study guides for high schoolers and university students. Useful last-minute syllabus material! thesalmonandthetomato.org/edibleempire...

'Food Social Security' has been around for a while in the Francophone world. Spain's even running an experiment. For English speakers, Gaëtan Vanloqueren and I put together a short introduction in Nature Food, out today. rdcu.be/rHXaD9LgjY8a

Episode 34 is out now! Food system scholar @rajpatel.org cuts through the mess of the industrial food system and points us toward a better future. clf.jhsph.edu/unconfined-p...

“Farm to fork” smuggles a faulty metaphor, a journey from seed to harvest. For many, the food systems means having to stay very firmly in place. The idea of 'food circuits' helps make that clearer. New writing with Seth Holmes in SciencePolitics sciencepolitics.org/2026/08/19/f...

The death toll of H5N1 in Australia looks catastrophic. One in five birds and mammals are vulnerable, and some species will suffer apocalyptic population loss. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a... www.theage.com.au/environment/...

The victory against Walmart in Mississauga deserves far more play than it's getting in the media. Benjamin Y. Fong explains why, in this excellent piece in Phenomenal World. phenomenalworld.org/analysis/wal...

Cristina Rivera Garza is an incredible talent. I'm very excited to read her recently translated Autobiography of Cotton, covered here by Tony Wood. newleftreview.org/sidecar/post...

A recent attack on Marion Nestle starts to make sense if you're far less kind to the Make America Healthy Again movement than Marion has been. newsletter.rajpatel.org/p/marion-and...

Hamba Kahle Njoki Njehu - Njoki and her partner Soren Ambrose, who died in 2020, were such vital forces in the alter globalisation scene in the 2000s. I'm deeply grateful for all they taught me. globaljusticeecology.org/rest-in-powe...

Lights, Camera, Authoritarianism! Progressive.International's Reactionary International dossier has a fantastic new entry, on national chauvinism on film and phone, from India to Israel to Hungary to the US. buff.ly/yGlB6dc

The flames of xenophobia in South Africa are burning. Yesterday's deadline for exodus could have been far worse, but things still looking grim. Richard Pithouse is excellent on this Al Jazeera panel. aje.news/34io1l

Armed xenophobic groups are moving through poor and working-class neighbourhoods in South Africa right now. Progressive.International is fundraising for Abahlali baseMjondolo and the Congolese Solidarity Campaign's efforts to get people to safety. Please help if you can. chuffed.org/project/stan...

Congratulations Neal Haddaway and team on the launch of Edible Empire, a new podcast on the hidden costs of our food system, from food imperialism to the fight for something fairer. I’m excited for the series, and to hear the episode I’m in! thesalmonandthetomato.org/edibleempire...

Xenophobes declared a June 30 deadline for migrants to leave South Africa. Abahlali baseMjondolo secretary-general Thapelo Mohapi went viral with this piece about the last time xenophobia burned across the country. iol.co.za/news/opinion...

The connection between the violence in Belfast and the humanitarian disaster in Durban isn't an accident. Progressive International have sent an alert. Here's some background. open.substack.com/pub/classwor... progressive.international/observatory/...

David Bacon's black and white photography is always heartstopping. Use it to find out about what Coachella was before it was #Coachella, out now in the excellent US rural news source BarnRaiser barnraisingmedia.com/for-coachell...

Operation Dudula & March and March set a 30 June deadline for migrants to leave #SouthAfrica. ~10,000 are now penned in a Durban field — and the state's response is to deport them, not protect them. The world's gaze is Pretoria's weak spot. Don't look away. mg.co.za/news/south-a...

Last week saw the funeral of Edgar Morin, who coined #polycrisis. He meant it as an indictment of compartmentalized, technocratic, elite thinking. Its second life has been stranger: a sophisticated ¯\(ツ)/¯ for those who cry 'fire!' while letting it burn. newsletter.rajpatel.org/p/where-the-...

Loka Ashwood and team have an incredible dataset on who owns what in agribusiness. Shells, subsidiaries, and executives are catalogued and linked. A gift for anyone curious about who, exactly, runs the world food system. acre.wisc.edu/big-ag-network

Joy's Great Democrat Here's an appreciation of Carlo Petrini and his politics from my newsletter. If you're not signed up, join in here! Carlo Petrini died on the evening of 21 May,...

The anti-Congolese xenophobia in Durban is horrific. It's particularly scandalous that one of the parties fanning the flames was invited to the SACP's conference. More here: progressive.international/movement/art... richardpithouse.substack.com/p/a-moment-o...

Dzonot & Toh UPDATE: Please sign this petition to support Sergio Oceransky Beneath Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula there is a waterworld. The cenotes — a Spanish word derived from the Mayan dzonot, meaning abyss — form...

I don't often circulate petitions, but this one could do with 15 seconds of your time. Sergio Oceransky's persecutors don't like the limelight and your attention can bring it to them. c.org/W4pJ9g9pjv

Arizona leads the way in SNAP enrollment declines as the US government makes it harder than ever for working people to access food. www.cbpp.org/research/foo...

Remember Covid? The next pandemic could emerge from industrial factory farms being funded by the World Bank Group (IFC). 📽️Watch the video and share >> www.youtube.com/watch?v=U79p...

progressive.international/wire/2026-05... If you're in the US, see you on the streets: maydaystrong.org

As war and political turmoil disrupt fertilizer and fuel supplies globally, agroecology is a way to build resilience in a destabilized world. Listen to episode two of Agroecology Uprooted now! www.iatp.org/agroecology-...

One element of the of the polycrisis is violence, and peasants have always been on its front lines. The brilliant Jun Borras and Maria Malaya de la Tierra explain www.tni.org/en/article/c...

In the US war on the poor, the rich are scoring one victory after another. Most recently, following Trump's bill, enrollment in food assistance is falling at the same time as prices are rising and wages are falling behind.

In the US, there are plenty of reasons to oppose the upcoming Farm Bill, the SNAP cuts foremost among them. The National Young Farmers Coalition lists them, and makes it easy to contact representatives to express outrage: youngfarmers.quorum.us/campaign/HR7...

If a worker earned Rs 10000 per month in 2015, they would need Rs 15,466 per month in 2026. Most earn far less. Excellent reporting from Anumeha Yadav themigrationstory.com/post/our-wag...

In 2003, Florida produced 242 million boxes of oranges... 25 years later it's 12 million. Why? Climate change, private equity, disease, developers. A brilliant long-read slate.com/business/202...

Canadians! If you're curious about public groceries, you need to join this A-list deep dive, later this week. fcn-rcn.ca/uncategorize...

"All gains, countless improvements, and not a single concession" Meatpackers' strike against JBS wins! www.foodmanufacturing.com/labor/news/2...

🚌 Fast buses. 🏙️ Green social housing. ⚡ Public utilities. 🛠️Union-made batteries. What do these all have in common? They’re part of a winning strategy for a Working Class Climate Agenda. Climate+Community has the details: stopgreedbuildgreen.org

If you're in Toronto next month, come say hi. I'll be at the Culinaria Research Centre and other fine folk, trying out some new ideas. Tix are free, get 'em here: www.eventbrite.com/e/raj-patel-...

Sergio Oceransky is out of jail, but not yet free. His press conference is now live here: www.facebook.com/CEPAD.GDL