Raj Patel

Raj Patel is an award-winning author, filmmaker, and academic. He is a Research Professor in the Lyndon B Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas, Austin, and a Senior Research Associate at the Unit for the Humanities at Rhodes University, South Africa.

He holds degrees from the University of Oxford, the London School of Economics, and Cornell University. Patel has both worked for and protested against institutions like the World Bank and the WTO. His expertise has led him to testify about the causes of the global food crisis to the US, UK, and EU governments. He is also a member of the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems. In 2016, he received a James Beard Foundation Leadership Award.

Patel is the author of several influential books, including "Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System," "The Value of Nothing," which is a New York Times best-seller, and "A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things," co-authored with Jason W. Moore. His latest collaborative effort with Rupa Marya, "Inflamed: Deep Medicine and The Anatomy of Injustice," has also been highly acclaimed. He has co-directed the award-winning documentary "The Ants & The Grasshopper" with Zak Piper. Additionally, Patel co-hosts the fortnightly food politics podcast "The Secret Ingredient" with Tom Philpott and Rebecca McInroy and contributes regularly to publications such as The Guardian, the Financial Times, and the New York Times. Currently, he is working on a documentary project about the global food system with director Steve James and completing a book on world ecology with Jason W. Moore for the University of California Press titled "Seven Cheap Things."