It’s harder to track down the Dalit Panthers’ manifesto than it should be. Here’s an attempt to fix that, reproducing the text from “The Dalit Panthers and Their Manifesto.” Religion and Society 22, no. 2 (1975): 24-38. Revolutionary stand of the Panthers Today we, the ‘Dalit Panthers’, complete one year of our existence. Because of its clear revolutionary position, the ‘Panthers’ is’ growing in strength despite the strong resistance faced by it from many sides. It is bound to grow because it has recognized the revolutionary nature and aspirations of the masses with whose smiles and tears it h ..read more

The awful choice between feeding the hungry or paying creditors isn’t just one faced by indebted households. Countries are in similar straits. Hunger is both a fiscal issue and a monetary one. I put together this short piece, for Nature Food, on how to understand what that means, and how the debt crisis is making global hunger far worse ..read more

I’m on the road for an exciting new book project. It’s hard to imagine posting with even less frequency here, but to make up for an absence of New Things, here’s a piece I wrote for the good folk at Progressive International, which I forgot to share a little while back. If nothing else, I hope the opening quote, from Stefano Harney and Fred Moten, points you to their incredible work. “Logistics emerges as much as the science of loss prevention as the science of moving property through the emptiness, of making the world as it travels by filling it…This is converting everything in its path into ..read more

One of the reasons I’ve been neglecting my writing here, and in the academic world, is because I’ve been exploring new ways of sharing and connecting over ideas with folk outside the worlds in which I usually write. One fruit of that labour was The Ants & The Grasshopper. If you’re a regular here, chances are that I’ve encouraged you to see it. But if you’ve not much time to read a book, do you really have 74 uninterrupted minutes to watch a documentary? Enter the very good people at WNET’s Peril and Promise initiative. They took the original film and re-edited five web-based episodes arou ..read more

I don’t often post here but it’s not often that I think that letter-writing can make a difference. This is one such occasion. I had the chance to spend some time this past week with the communities behind Tierras Milperas. They’ve shared a call for folk to sign a petition, and to shame the church authorities in Watsonville, California, into rescinding their eviction order. If you’re so moved, and I have been, you can also mail letters to All Saints/Cristo Rey Episcopal Mission Deacon in Charge: Robert Sommer Bishops Warden Norma McLean 437 Rogers Avenue, Watsonville, CA 95076 and Cc: The Epis ..read more

It has been so long since I updated this site, it’s a little beyond embarrassing. The reasons are many: the promotional tour for book and film, teaching two courses, plotting a lot of writing with IPES, etc. But now that I’m working on a big solo book – more on that in the months to come – I’m falling back into the rhythms of research and writing that once used to make maintaining a blog both viable and useful. Watch this space for more. Meantime, though, I’m doing a bit of research on US industrial agriculture. I was rather surprised to find that there’s no public information at all about how ..read more

The fine people at the Scientific American have released an article explaining agroecology in time for today’s UN Food Systems summit. In it, I talk about my time in Malawi working with Soils, Food and Healthy Communities, and share a few ideas that we couldn’t cover in the film The Ants & The Grasshopper. Credit: Thoko Chikondi for Scientific American Read the article, in all its glory, here and in next month’s print issue. And if you’re interested in seeing the film, the Community Alliance for Global Justice is hosting a screening this weekend. More details here ..read more

It was a huge honour to spend the past year writing Inflamed with Dr Rupa Marya. The result is a 400 page book, referenced to the gills, and already drawing in some kind reviews. For those in a hurry, Aaron Kierbel – animator, healer, and drummer in Rupa’s band – helped us put this intro to the book together. Enjoy ..read more

Before he was a war criminal, Donald Rumsfeld was a common chauvinist, of the variety easily found in government today. My friend DBS sends this observation from Nick Kotz’ Let Them Eat Promises: Donald Rumsfeld, director of the Office of Economic Opportunity, the agency with legal responsibility to promote “maximum feasible participation of the poor,” opposed inviting representatives of the poor to the conference, because he feared an embarrassing militant protest. In Rumsfeld’s view, the black poor in America could be represented by Negro doctors or nurses. The battle over who wou ..read more

My excellent comrade Anirvan Chatterjee just did me a solid favour. He reminded me that there are people who read this blog. And then he reminded me that I should probably share the news that The Ants & The Grasshopper, the film I’ve been working on for a decade, just won a Moving Mountains award at its World Premiere at the Mountainfilm festival in Telluride. And that you can, until June 6th, watch it online for $15. Thanks, Anirvan ..read more