I'I've been getting a lot of calls about the industrial food system's vulnerability to fertilizer import shocks. Here's an interactive widget: slide through the months to see who imports what, when, and through which chokepoint.
rajpatel.org/2026/03/06/f...
Stop the war. Stop the dependency.
Fertiliser Import Vulnerability Map
This widget shows the chokepoints and seasonal vulnerability of different countries to import shocks. The Strait of Hormuz is going to matter a great deal in the coming months....
https://rajpatel.org/2026/03/06/fertiliser-import-vulnerability-map/
You can't fix the care crisis without fixing the tax system. Fair taxing rights, corporate transparency, and progressive wealth taxation should fund care as a human right—not women's unpaid labor. Vol. lII of Framing Feminist Taxation Guide out now. globaltaxjustice.org/wp-content/u...
Want to help reduce gestational hypertension and diabetes? Make sure workers have, and use, their rights. Terrific new study shows how the Fair Food Program in Florida made *many* lives better. read.dukeupress.edu/demography/a...
Adam Calo and Madeleine Fairbairn expose the white supremacist tilt of USDA demands for California to abandon farmland equity. Vital reading in Civil Eats. civileats.com/2026/03/03/t...
The Strait of Hormuz is closed just as spring planting starts. Here's a quick illustrated guide on how 'warflation' will make your food more expensive later this year: newsletter.rajpatel.org/p/how-the-wa...
This deep dive into the coordinated web of far-right politics is just starting. Find out more, and contribute, at reactionary.international
Statement from the Cabinet of the Progressive International progressive.international/wire/2026-02...
What Is Innovation in Agriculture?
I'll dig into this a bit more next week in the newsletter, but here's a report to which I contributed, just out from IPES-Food, on what counts as agricultural...
It's Amazon's world. Benjamin Y. Fong continues his wonderful journey to reveal how we're just living in it. The latest at Phenomenal World: The Apotheosis of Point of Sale Data www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/the...
The Class Worrier Returns
Many years ago, back when blogging was new and I was a graduate student, I ran an effort called Class Worrier. I thought I might dust it off now...
https://rajpatel.org/2026/02/27/the-class-worrier-returns/
🚨 New report from @IPESfood: Head In The Cloud
Who controls innovation in agriculture?
The report examines how Big Tech is reshaping farming – and highlights farmer-led alternatives already building resilience.
📖 Read: ipes-food.org/report/head-...
#HeadInTheCloud
5 forces reshaping food systems in 2026: Aid redesign amid scarcity; defence budgets crowd out food/climate ; trade & compliance rules squeeze small producers; “stable” prices ≠ resilience; philanthropy can’t replace public investment. odi.org/en/insights/...
Hamba kahle Susan George. Her 1988 Fate Worse than Debt connected so many dots for me. She offered clarity without jargon, rigour without deference, and a platform for scholarship in service of struggle at TNI. 91 years, very well lived. www.tni.org/en/article/s...
I've started writing in a new place. It began with a walk along Waller Creek and a conversation about the three things that change the world. open.substack.com/pub/classwor...
James Petras, In Memorian petras.lahaine.org/james-petras...
Another Abahlali baseMjondolo leader assassinated in broad daylight in Gauteng, South Africa. Hamba kahle Khabazela Mkhize abahlali.org/node/18590/ www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/zwel...
Among the perils of opening India's agricultural market to United States business is the death of folklore. With the extinction of peasant lifeways comes the end of their songs and storytelling. It's the price of cheap milk. thewire.in/agriculture/...
These Haitian meatpacking workers may be deported. They voted to strike against JBS anyway. Excellent Mother Jones x Food and Environment Reporting Network collab thefern.org/2026/02/thes...
In Sri Lanka, The Microfinance Bill pushed by the Asian Development Bank has a 2nd reading in Parliament on Feb 12. It threatens the progress won against microfinanciers by peasant community credit systems. Amali Wedagedara explains at ProgIntl
progressive.international/wire/2026-02...
Donald Trump has signed an executive order to block all oil to Cuba.
Even without robust data for v small farms, a recent Nature Food article finds "very-small-scale (≤2 ha) and small-scale (>2–20 ha) farmers make a considerable contribution to national food consumption across all studied countries" www.nature.com/articles/s43...
Farm Action's Angela Huffman looks behind the duel at the top of the land-ownership charts to ask what land concentration means for farming. But, just fyi, the US' largest landowner is no longer Bill Gates, it's Stan Kroenke. angelasuehuffman.substack.com/p/forget-bil...
Oops, they may or may not have done it again. ADM settle fraud allegations without admitting liability. But if you've not seen The Informant!, it's a terrific primer on agribusiness chicanery. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Inf...!
Correction: yesterday, I shared some info about SNAP and sent y'all to the wrong link to the get the full report from NIQ / FoodHealth.co - here it is, properly www.foodhealth.co/healthofamer...
Subisidizing Big Food is a centuries-long habit that I'm keen for governments to kick. But sanctioning and policing the food of working class people to do it is pure class prejudice. More proof via Errol Schweizer and NIQ: 954ef859-12e3-4f54-beaa-1a7f0a6f0e39.usrfiles.com/ugd/954ef8_c...
"To those hands of za’atar / and darkened stone, / I voice this cry: / To Ahmad / Forgotten and alone." A wonderful exploration of the politics of Za'atar portside.org/2026-01-26/z... and here's Darwish's poem in full www.poemhunter.com/poem/ahmad-a...
From fields to food waste recovery, inside and outside the home, Laura-Anne Minkoff-Zern and Teresa Mares' "Will Work For Food" compasses the many fronts in which food chain workers fight. It's approachable, thorough and, for more, see foodchainworkers.org
Rae Gomes' brilliant history of NYC Black co-op organising is one of many treasures in The Land, Food and Freedom journal. The physical copies are beautiful - and available on sliding scale pricing... www.landfoodfreedom.com/post/when-we...
Michael Grunwald's reliance on pesticide industry talking points gets the debunking it deserves from the Johns Hopkins A-list: Sara Lupolt, Patti Truant Anderson, Keeve Nachman, and Tom Philpott clf.jhsph.edu/viewpoints/n...
