Review of The Value of Nothing by Raj Patel

It was reported recently that Raj Patel had been declared a Messiah by a religious organisation. Apparently, this was misleading, as the group did not name him specifically. Patel's response was a good-humoured, slightly embarrassed, denial and a statement that we shouldn't be relying on Messiahs of any sort to tell us what to do anyway.



Patel is a writer, activist and academic who has both worked for the World Bank and the World Trade Organisation, and protested against them, as described on his website. Stuffed and Starved: Markets, Power and the Hidden Battle for the World Food System was his first book, clear and convincing in its arguments as to why so many people are obese and so many are starving, and why we need to rethink food production. Patel continues to emphasise in The Value of Nothing the need for us to think beyond being mere consumers if we are to change the inequities in our system, to reinvigorate democracy everywhere and at every level, and to understand how power inequalities cause poverty and suffering throughout the world.


Review continued at M/C Reviews 'words'.