Rajeev Patel

Raj Patel is a research professor in the LBJ School of Public Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin and a senior research associate at the Unit for the Humanities at Rhodes University. He studies the world food system and alternatives to it. He recently completed a documentary project about the food system with award-winning director Steve James. He has testified about the causes of the global food crisis to the U.S. House of Representative’s Financial Services Committee and was an adviser to Olivier De Schutter, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food. In addition to publications in journals about economics, philosophy, politics, international development, and public health, he writes for a range of newspapers and co-hosts "The Secret Ingredient" podcast. His books include Stuffed and Starved (2012) and The Value of Nothing (2010). He also co-authored with Jason W. Moore A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things: A Guide to Capitalism, Nature and the Future of the Planet (2017). His latest book, co-authored with Rupa Marya, is Inflamed: Deep Medicine and the Anatomy of Injustice (2021).