raj patel
Raj Patel: DN! 01/23/12
Raj Patel, author and activist, compares the food and hunger movement with the occupy movement. One of the most recent incarnations of the food movement, he says, is La Via Campesina. They came up with the idea that communities need to come up with their own food and agriculture policies. These policies will differ between communities, but it allows the democratic debate for each community. They found that they cannot have these democratic debates until they eradicate inequality. That is where Patel makes the connection to the occupy movement; that democracy will be possible when inequality is eradicated.
Email this pageGRITtv: Raj Patel & David Kirby: Fixing Food Policy
"We are heading toward a two-tiered food system in this country," notes David Kirby, author of Animal Factory. The food safety bill that just passed Congress puts some safety standards back into the U.S. food system, but does it do anything to change the ability of poor folks to buy healthy food? Raj Patel points out that when wages are kept low and work is devalued, it doesn't matter how cheap food is; people won't be able to afford it. Raj and David join us for a special extended conversation about the state of food policy in the U.S.: safety, subsidies, wages and working conditions. Does bipartisan acknowledgement that there is a problem bode well for our food system, and what's going on with local activism toward sustainable food production?
Democracy Now!: Wed. Sept. 8 2010
Author and activist Raj Patel says Mozambique’s food riots are the true face of global warming; jailed for Facebook friending, animal rights activist Rod Coronado was ordered back to prison after accepting a friend request from a fellow activist; the Gainesville Muslim community organizes vigils and teach-ins to counter a planned Quran burning. Democracy Now! is a daily independent newshour.
"Democracy Now!": Fri. June 11 2010
Rolling Stone’s Tim Dickinson reports on the inside story of how Obama let the world’s most dangerous oil company get away with murder; a mine workers union and mine vicitims' families sue to open a federal probe into the deadly Massey coal mine explosion; in "Upside Down World Cup," Raj Patel reports on how South Africa has cracked down on the poor and the shack dwellers’ movement ahead of the World Cup. "Democracy Now!" is a daily independent newshour.
GRITtv: International Women's Day: Still Work To Do
Monday, March 8 is International Women's Day, a holiday honoring the contributions of women around the world. While we pause to celebrate achievements, we also have to talk about how far we have yet to go to achieve true equality.
Joining us to talk about women around the world are Kavita Ramdas, president and CEO of the Global Fund for Women, and Sharon Bhagwan-Rolls of femLINKpacific: Media Initiatives for Women in Fiji. They discuss war and peace, media use, and women's rights as human rights.
GRITtv: Raj Patel: What Do We Really Value?
Raj Patel has spent a lot of time studying the way resources are distributed among people, and he's watched spiraling inequality leave many people with nothing while concentrating wealth in the hands of the few. From the food system, which he studied in Stuffed and Starved, to the bank bonuses still being handed out, he argues that something has to change. In his new book, "The Value of Nothing: How to Reshape Market Society and Redefine Democracy," Patel lays out some solutions. He joins Laura in studio to talk about consumerism, labor, violence against women, and the way we need to think about happiness.
GRITtv: What's the Value of Government Regulation?
The hearings on the financial crisis are getting underway, but the real solutions will need to come out of Congress. Katrina vanden Heuvel notes that we've seen meltdown capitalism; is it possible to create a conscious capitalism to take its place, or do we need to radically rethink our economic system? We ask author Raj Patel, Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor of The Nation and of the book Meltdown, and Daniel Gross, Newsweek columnist.
Democracy Now!: Tues., Jan. 12, 2010
A federal appeals court is hearing arguments in a landmark apartheid reparations case against several international corporations accused of aiding South Africa’s apartheid regime, including Daimler AG, General Motors, Ford Motor Company and IBM; prosecutors in Chicago are targeting a group of Northwestern journalism students working to exonerate wrongfully convicted prisoners; despite a US Supreme Court ban, Texas continues to send mentally retarded criminals to death row; author and activist Raj Patel on "The Value of Nothing. "Democracy Now!" is a daily independent newshour.
GRITtv: Raj Patel: The Value of Nothing
"The opposite of greed isn't thrift, it's generosity" says Raj Patel, author of the new book The Value of Nothing: How to Reshape Market Society and Redefine Democracy. Patel looks at why we value certain things, how consumption and greed became goods, and the problem with profit. He'll be appearing on GRITtv soon to talk about his new book, but meanwhile, enjoy this preview.
Democracy Now!: Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2009
Leaders from most of the world are gathered in Rome to tackle hunger on a global scale at the UN World Food Summit, but leaders of the world’s richest countries are largely absent. We talk with author Raj Patel about why that is. In the news: University of California regents are meeting Thurs. to vote on a major tuition hike; students and staff, meanwhile, prepare for system-wide strikes that day to protest funding cuts. And a coalition of more than 80 environmental, family farm and consumer advocacy organizations has asked the Senate Finance Committee to reject Pres. Obama’s nominee for the Chief Agricultural Negotiator in the office of the U.S. Trade Representative. Islam Siddiqui is a vice president at CropLife America, a coalition of the major industrial players in the pesticide industry. "Democracy Now!" is a daily independent newshour.
