Raj Patel
Encyclopedia
Raj Patel is a British
-born American academic, journalist
, activist and writer
who has lived and worked in Zimbabwe
, South Africa
and the United States
for extended periods. He is best known for his 2008 book, Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System
. His most recent book is The Value of Nothing which was on The New York Times best-seller list during February 2010. He has been referred to as "the rock star of social justice writing."
and a father from Fiji
, he grew up in Golders Green
in north-west London where his family ran a corner shop. Patel received a B.A in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE), from Oxford
, and a Masters Degree from the London School of Economics
, and gained his PhD in Development Sociology from Cornell University
in 2002. He has been a visiting scholar at Yale
and the University of California, Berkeley
. As part of his academic training, Patel worked at the World Bank
, World Trade Organization
and the United Nations
. He has since become an outspoken public critic of all of these organizations, and claims to have been tear-gassed on four continents protesting against his former employers.
Patel was one of many organizers in the 1999 protests in downtown Seattle, WA, and has organized in support of Food sovereignty
. More recently he has lived and worked extensively in Zimbabwe
and in South Africa
. He was refused a visa extension by the Mugabe
regime for his political involvement with the pro-democracy movement. He is associated through his work on food with the Via Campesina
movement, and through his work on urban poverty and resistance with Abahlali baseMjondolo
and the Landless Peoples Movement
. He has written a number of criticisms of various aspects of the policies and research methods of the World Bank and was a co-editor, with Christopher Brooke, of the online leftist webzine The Voice of the Turtle.
He is currently a visiting scholar in the Center for African Studies at the University of California at Berkeley, a Fellow at Food First
, also known as the Institute of Food and Development Policy, and a Research Associate at the School of Development Studies at the University of KwaZulu-Natal
in South Africa
.
In 2007 he was invited to give the keynote address at the University of Abahlali baseMjondolo
graduation ceremony. He administers the organisation's website. In 2008 he was asked to testify on the global food crisis before the House Financial Services Committee in the USA. In 2009 he joined the advisory board of Corporate Accountability International's
Value the Meal campaign.
Patel became a US citizen
on 7 January 2010.
In January 2010 some adherents of Share International
after Benjamin Creme
's announcement concluded that Patel could be the Maitreya
. Patel denied being the Maitreya.
he praised the grassroots participatory democracy practiced in the Zapatista
Councils of Good Government
in southern Mexico and has advocated similar decentralist models of economic democracy
and confederal administration
as templates to go by for social justice
movements in the global north.
Patel has also described himself as "not a communist
, I'm just open minded."
(2011)
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
-born American academic, journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
, activist and writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
who has lived and worked in Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...
, South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
for extended periods. He is best known for his 2008 book, Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System
Stuffed and Starved
Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System is a non-fiction book written by Raj Patel. It was published in 2008 by Melville House Publishing...
. His most recent book is The Value of Nothing which was on The New York Times best-seller list during February 2010. He has been referred to as "the rock star of social justice writing."
Biography
Born to a mother from KenyaKenya
Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
and a father from Fiji
Fiji
Fiji , officially the Republic of Fiji , is an island nation in Melanesia in the South Pacific Ocean about northeast of New Zealand's North Island...
, he grew up in Golders Green
Golders Green
Golders Green is an area in the London Borough of Barnet in London, England. Although having some earlier history, it is essentially a 19th century suburban development situated about 5.3 miles north west of Charing Cross and centred on the crossroads of Golders Green Road and Finchley Road.In the...
in north-west London where his family ran a corner shop. Patel received a B.A in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE), from Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
, and a Masters Degree from the London School of Economics
London School of Economics
The London School of Economics and Political Science is a public research university specialised in the social sciences located in London, United Kingdom, and a constituent college of the federal University of London...
, and gained his PhD in Development Sociology from Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
in 2002. He has been a visiting scholar at Yale
YALE
RapidMiner, formerly YALE , is an environment for machine learning, data mining, text mining, predictive analytics, and business analytics. It is used for research, education, training, rapid prototyping, application development, and industrial applications...
and the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
. As part of his academic training, Patel worked at the World Bank
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...
, World Trade Organization
World Trade Organization
The World Trade Organization is an organization that intends to supervise and liberalize international trade. The organization officially commenced on January 1, 1995 under the Marrakech Agreement, replacing the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade , which commenced in 1948...
and the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
. He has since become an outspoken public critic of all of these organizations, and claims to have been tear-gassed on four continents protesting against his former employers.
Patel was one of many organizers in the 1999 protests in downtown Seattle, WA, and has organized in support of Food sovereignty
Food sovereignty
"Food sovereignty" is a term coined by members of Via Campesina in 1996 to refer to a policy framework advocated by a number of farmers, peasants, pastoralists, fisherfolk, indigenous peoples, women, rural youth and environmental organizations, namely the claimed "right" of peoples to define their...
. More recently he has lived and worked extensively in Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...
and in South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
. He was refused a visa extension by the Mugabe
Mugabe
Mugabe can refer to:*Robert Mugabe, President of Zimbabwe.*Sally Mugabe, first wife of Robert Mugabe.*Grace Mugabe, second wife of Robert Mugabe.*Omugabe , a title given to kings of Ankole of Uganda.*Mugabe Were, a Kenyan politician....
regime for his political involvement with the pro-democracy movement. He is associated through his work on food with the Via Campesina
Via Campesina
Via Campesina describes itself as "an international movement which coordinates peasant organizations of small and middle-scale producers, agricultural workers, rural women, and indigenous communities from Asia, Africa, America, and Europe"...
movement, and through his work on urban poverty and resistance with Abahlali baseMjondolo
Abahlali baseMjondolo
Abahlali baseMjondolo , also known as AbM or the red shirts is a shack-dwellers' movement in South Africa which is well known for its campaigning for public housing. The movement grew out of a road blockade organized from the Kennedy Road shack settlement in the city of Durban in early 2005 and now...
and the Landless Peoples Movement
Landless Peoples Movement
The Landless People's Movement is an independent social movement in South Africa. It represents rural people and people living in shack settlements in cities. The LPM boycotts parliamentary elections and has a history of conflict with the African National Congress...
. He has written a number of criticisms of various aspects of the policies and research methods of the World Bank and was a co-editor, with Christopher Brooke, of the online leftist webzine The Voice of the Turtle.
He is currently a visiting scholar in the Center for African Studies at the University of California at Berkeley, a Fellow at Food First
Food First
Food First, also known as the Institute for Food and Development Policy, is a nonprofit organization based in Oakland, California, USA. Founded in 1975 by Frances Moore Lappé and Joseph Collins, it describes itself as a "people's think tank and education-for-action center".Its mission is “to...
, also known as the Institute of Food and Development Policy, and a Research Associate at the School of Development Studies at the University of KwaZulu-Natal
University of KwaZulu-Natal
The University of KwaZulu-Natal or UKZN is a university with five campuses all located in the province of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. It was formed on 1 January 2004 after the merger between the University of Natal and the University of Durban-Westville.-History:-University of...
in South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
.
In 2007 he was invited to give the keynote address at the University of Abahlali baseMjondolo
Abahlali baseMjondolo
Abahlali baseMjondolo , also known as AbM or the red shirts is a shack-dwellers' movement in South Africa which is well known for its campaigning for public housing. The movement grew out of a road blockade organized from the Kennedy Road shack settlement in the city of Durban in early 2005 and now...
graduation ceremony. He administers the organisation's website. In 2008 he was asked to testify on the global food crisis before the House Financial Services Committee in the USA. In 2009 he joined the advisory board of Corporate Accountability International's
Corporate Accountability International
Corporate Accountability International is a non-profit organization, founded in 1977. Their campaign headquarters are in Boston, Massachusetts and they have offices in Oakland, California, Seattle, Washington, and Bogotá, Colombia...
Value the Meal campaign.
Patel became a US citizen
Citizenship in the United States
Citizenship in the United States is a status given to individuals that entails specific rights, duties, privileges, and benefits between the United States and the individual...
on 7 January 2010.
In January 2010 some adherents of Share International
Share International
Share International Foundation is a spiritual movement founded by Benjamin Creme with its main offices in London, Amsterdam, Tokyo and Los Angeles...
after Benjamin Creme
Benjamin Creme
Benjamin Creme is a Scottish artist, author, esotericist, and editor of Share International magazine, a monthly non-profit magazine and website....
's announcement concluded that Patel could be the Maitreya
Maitreya
Maitreya , Metteyya , or Jampa , is foretold as a future Buddha of this world in Buddhist eschatology. In some Buddhist literature, such as the Amitabha Sutra and the Lotus Sutra, he or she is referred to as Ajita Bodhisattva.Maitreya is a bodhisattva who in the Buddhist tradition is to appear on...
. Patel denied being the Maitreya.
Political views
Patel is a Libertarian Socialist and has described himself as "someone who has very strong anarchist sympathies." In his book The Value of NothingThe Value of Nothing
The Value of Nothing: How to Reshape Market Society and Redefine Democracy is a book by Raj Patel about the economic crisis and its effect on consumers...
he praised the grassroots participatory democracy practiced in the Zapatista
Zapatista Army of National Liberation
The Zapatista Army of National Liberation is a revolutionary leftist group based in Chiapas, the southernmost state of Mexico....
Councils of Good Government
Councils of Good Government
Councils of Good Government were organized by the Zapatista Army of National Liberation guerrilla movement in their areas of influence .-Background:...
in southern Mexico and has advocated similar decentralist models of economic democracy
Economic democracy
Economic democracy is a socioeconomic philosophy that suggests a shift in decision-making power from a small minority of corporate shareholders to a larger majority of public stakeholders...
and confederal administration
Confederation
A confederation in modern political terms is a permanent union of political units for common action in relation to other units. Usually created by treaty but often later adopting a common constitution, confederations tend to be established for dealing with critical issues such as defense, foreign...
as templates to go by for social justice
Social justice
Social justice generally refers to the idea of creating a society or institution that is based on the principles of equality and solidarity, that understands and values human rights, and that recognizes the dignity of every human being. The term and modern concept of "social justice" was coined by...
movements in the global north.
Patel has also described himself as "not a communist
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
, I'm just open minded."
Quotes
The question is: why are there markets of food at all? -About global food economy
We in the global north need to remember the legacy, what it is the damage we have caused, the damage that has been done in our names in developing countries, so we need to be talking about reparations as part of the local food movement, and we need to be looking at relations of power within the local, we need to be talking about things like gender justice, we need to be talking about racial justice, because these are the things that can also get papered over in terms of a local food movement, and I also think that’s one of the exciting things the Oakland Food Policy Council is how well they are taking these things on board. -On Reparations for the Global South
We go to supermarkets because they are convenient...Bunny chow becomes convenient because of the rhythm of our worklives, the time that we have to allocate to our food, and the way that we are allowed or not allowed to eat together and make space for food and the natural world. So all of a sudden this idea of convenience becomes a social construct...although you go into a supermarket and are told ‘here everything is made for you, you can have whatever you like and its fresh and available’ .. actually the way modern capitalism works for food is precisely the opposite...in every way that matters we are being made for our food, into the kinds of people who find this [snickers bar] to be palatable, the strangest things to be normal, all of a sudden its normal for people to live in slavery so that our food and our tomatoes in our burgers can be made cheaply...things like redbull become an integral part of the way to work.. we need fast food for example because your holding down two jobs your trying to run from one place to another you need the healthcare, of course you dont have time to cook the only place you can eat in our laps...the way we live today, the way in which we have no healthcare, the way in which we are educated to think this is normal [snickers bar], the way in which we are forced to work for minimum wage for very little, all of this is part of our food system. -On How We Are Being Made For Our Food
Food Sovereignty is about an end to all forms of violence against women...The food crises is gendered, 60% of the people going hungry are women or girls, in the developing world the majority of food eaten there is grown by women, and the violence that happens domestically is just one form of violence against women, the violence of not being able to sell your product in the open market, the violence of having your agricultural knowledge devalued compared to those of the scientists in the west, the violence of not being able to send your daughter to school, the violence of not being able to be regarded as an equal participant in politics, all of these are forms of violence that need to be fought on the way to achieving food sovereignty. It requires nothing less if we are to be truly democratic. - On Food Sovereignty and the Ending of Patriarchy
See also
- Abahlali baseMjondoloAbahlali baseMjondoloAbahlali baseMjondolo , also known as AbM or the red shirts is a shack-dwellers' movement in South Africa which is well known for its campaigning for public housing. The movement grew out of a road blockade organized from the Kennedy Road shack settlement in the city of Durban in early 2005 and now...
- Via CampesinaVia CampesinaVia Campesina describes itself as "an international movement which coordinates peasant organizations of small and middle-scale producers, agricultural workers, rural women, and indigenous communities from Asia, Africa, America, and Europe"...
- Landless Workers' MovementLandless Workers' MovementLandless Workers' Movement is a social movement in Brazil; it is the second largest social movement in Latin America with an estimated 1.5 million landless members in 23 out of Brazil's 26 states. The MST states it carries out land reform in a country it sees as mired by unjust land distribution...
- Zapatista Army of National LiberationZapatista Army of National LiberationThe Zapatista Army of National Liberation is a revolutionary leftist group based in Chiapas, the southernmost state of Mexico....
(Zapatistas) - Slow FoodSlow FoodSlow Food is an international movement founded by Carlo Petrini in 1986. Promoted as an alternative to fast food, it strives to preserve traditional and regional cuisine and encourages farming of plants, seeds and livestock characteristic of the local ecosystem. It was the first established part of...
- Landless Peoples MovementLandless Peoples MovementThe Landless People's Movement is an independent social movement in South Africa. It represents rural people and people living in shack settlements in cities. The LPM boycotts parliamentary elections and has a history of conflict with the African National Congress...
Books
- Stuffed and StarvedStuffed and StarvedStuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System is a non-fiction book written by Raj Patel. It was published in 2008 by Melville House Publishing...
: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System, by Raj Patel (2008) - Food Rebellions! Crisis and the Hunger for Justice, Eric Holt Giménez, Raj Patel (2009)
- The Value of NothingThe Value of NothingThe Value of Nothing: How to Reshape Market Society and Redefine Democracy is a book by Raj Patel about the economic crisis and its effect on consumers...
, by Raj Patel (2010)
Forwards and Introductions
Forward to No Land! No House! No Vote! Voices from Symphony Way, by the Symphony Way Pavement DwellersSymphony Way Pavement Dwellers
Symphony Way Informal Settlement is a small community of pavement dwellers that have been living on Symphony Way, a main road in Delft, South Africa, since February 2008...
(2011)