Apr 15, 2026
Season 5 Episode 3 – “Only as good as the organizing that accompanies it”: Filmmaking as Food System Solidarity, a Conversation with Raj Patel
Featuring: Raj Patel
In this special episode of Handpicked: Stories from the Field, we sit down with renowned author, activist, and filmmaker Raj Patel for an intimate, wide-ranging conversation about food justice, climate change, and solidarity across difference. The discussion takes listeners behind the scenes of his decade-long documentary project The Ants and the Grasshopper, co-directed with Zak Piper and centered on the powerful leadership of Malawian farmer and activist Anita Chitaya, and the work of Soils, Food, & Healthy Communities.
This episode explores how farmer-led agroecology, gender justice, and climate action are deeply intertwined. Raj reflects on the challenges and lessons of creating a truly participatory and decolonizing filmmaking process, one that ultimately shifted creative control toward Anita herself demonstrating a more ethical approach to telling stories from the Global South. The conversation dives into key themes raised by the film: the gendered burdens of food and care work, the links between climate change and domestic violence, and the role of religion, race, and class in shaping food systems politics.
Listeners also hear about the film’s impact beyond the screen, from grassroots screenings in churches and social movements to its use as a tool for organizing. Throughout the episode, Raj emphasizes that real change comes not from individual actions or pity, but from collective organizing, movement-building, and an ethic of mutual liberation.
Contributors
Co-Producers & Hosts: Dr. Laine Young & Dr. Charlie Spring
Sound Design & Editing: Laine Young
Guests
Support & Funding
Wilfrid Laurier University
The Laurier Centre for Sustainable Food Systems
Balsillie School for International Affairs
Music Credits
Keenan Reimer-Watts
Resources
Soils, Food & Healthy Communities (please support if you can)
Where to Watch
Organizations/Projects
La Via Campesina (international food sovereignty movement)
MST (Brazil’s Landless Workers Movement)
Connect with Us:
Email: Handpickedpodcast@wlu.ca
Glossary of Terms
Agroecology
A way of
farming that combines ecological science with farmer knowledge,
emphasizing sustainability, biodiversity, and social
justice.
Climate
Justice
The idea that climate change is
not just environmental, but social and political, with the greatest
harms often falling on those least
responsible.
Decolonizing Storytelling /
Filmmaking
Practices
that shift power over narratives toward the communities
represented, challenging extractive or colonial approaches to
media.
Food
Justice
An approach to food systems that
focuses on equity, who has access
to good food, who produces it, and how power
shapes those realities.
Food
Sovereignty
The right of
people and communities to define their own food systems, including
cultural foodways, land access, and governance.
Global North / Global
South
Terms
describing global inequalities rooted in colonialism, where wealth
and power are unevenly distributed.
La Vía
Campesina
A global
movement of peasants and farmers advocating for food sovereignty
and agrarian justice.
Mutual
Liberation
The principle that justice and
freedom are interconnected. No group can be free while others
are oppressed.
Patriarchy
Social systems in which power
is largely held by men, shaping
inequalities in labor, decision-making, and control over
resources.
Reproductive Labor (Care
Work)
Often unpaid or undervalued
work (cooking, caregiving, and
subsistence farming) that sustains households and
communities.
Solidarity
Collective
action rooted in shared struggle and mutual responsibility, not
charity or pity.
Discussion Questions
How does the film challenge conventional representations and documentaries of hunger and food insecurity, especially in the Global South?
“You can’t tackle hunger without tackling gender inequality”. How does the Ants and the Grasshopper convey different threads of Anita’s story (e.g. her marriage, her journey to America) to reveal connections between patriarchy, food systems, and racial capitalism (a framework asserting that capitalism is inherently dependent on racism)?
How does Anita organize effectively for change across the huge geographical and wealth gaps evident in the film? For example, what is the role of religion? How can discomfort and difference be leveraged as potent nodes for conversation and change?
What does it mean to be an activist for just food systems, for a liveable planet? What is the role for feelings of pity or even empathy, and how can we move beyond this towards solidarity or ‘mutual liberation’? What is the role for social movements? And what does Raj mean by saying ‘to be an activist is to liberate yourself’?