Vandana Shiva: Radical Science

[Dissident Heart]

I am excited to introduce the work of Dr. Vandana Shiva to Booktalk, and I look forward to hearing what ideas and questions and comments her efforts elicit from the community.Dr. Vandana Shiva is a physicist, ecologist, activist, editor, and author of many books. In India she has established Navdanya, a movement for biodiversity conservation and farmers' rights. She directs the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Natural Resource Policy. Her most recent books are Biopiracy: The Plunder of Nature and Knowledge and Stolen Harvest: The Hijacking of the Global Food Supply.In her book Water Wars: Privatization, Pollution, and Profit (South End Press, 2002), Vandana Shiva confronts a globalization process that is devastating human lives, destroying ecosystems, and waging a war of economic terror as dangerous as any other. In this small, but powerful book, she carefully outlines the suffering that water privatization and international trade agreements inflict on literally billions of people. She also identifies some of the most important conflicts of our time, mistakenly seen as ethnic or religious wars, to struggles over vital resources. This book also traces an integral source of international terrorism to the economic insecurity, cultural subordination and ecological dispossession that results from economic globalization. Water Wars: Privatization, Pollution, and Profit offers ample evidence to the correlation between the historical erosion of communal water rights and the sustained assault on political freedoms and democracy across the globe.Enjoy!

[Dissident Heart]

Vandana Shiva, who is Director of the Research Foundation for Science, Technology, and Natural Resource Policy; as well as a leader of the International Forum on Globalization and winner of the Alternative Noble Peace Prize (the Right Livelihood Award) in 1993, identifies a clash between two cultures,Quote:"A culture that sees water as sacred and treats its provision as a duty for the preservation of life; and another which sees water as a commodity, and its ownership and trade as fundamental corporate rights. The culture of commodification is at war with diverse cultures of sharing, receiving and giving water as a free gift. The non-sustainable, non-renewable, and polluting plastic culture is at war with civilizations based on soil and mud and the cultures of renewal and rejuvenation" Water Wars (ix-x).This dangerous conflict is played out in hundreds of ways across the planet, but, as Shiva argues, it is essentially a war. A terrible battle of ideas and weapons that causes profound misery in the everyday lives of millions and creates widespread ecological havoc. She describes this war as taking two forms: Quote:"Paradigm wars- conflicts over how we perceive and experience water; and Traditional wars, fought with guns and grenades" (ix). This dual war between belief systems and attitudes, soldiers and armies, has, like everything else in this age of globalization, developed across borders and regions into a global conflict. Quote:"Taking place in every society...water wars are global wars, with diverse cultures and eco-systems, sharing the universal ethic of water as ecological necessity- pitted against a corporate culture of privatization, greed, and enclosure of the water commons" (xii).Shiva argues that this water crisis Quote:"results from an erroneous equation of value with monetary price" and that Quote:"(S)acred sites like sacred forests and rivers are examples of resources that have a very high value but no price." Ultimately, Quote:"protection of vital resources cannot be ensured through market logic alone. It demands a recovery of the sacred and a recovery of the commons." A fundamental and radical step towards making peace in these water wars involves identifying the value of water not Quote:"in terms of its market price but in terms of its spiritual worth" (xii). Thus, in seeking the spiritual worth of water, accentuating what is sacred and holy in its value, I thought these web sites might be useful:Earth Ministry: www.earthministry.orgThe Web of Creation:www.webofcreation.orgEvangelical Environment Network: www.creationcare.orgEarth Justice: www.earthjustice.orgSojourners:www.sojo.net Edited by: Dissident Heart at: 5/10/04 11:11 pm

[Dissident Heart]

From Vandana Shiva, Biotech Wars: Food Freedom Vs. Food Slavery www.zmag.org/sustainers/c...5shiva.cfmQ ... ainability and science are being sacrificed for a reckless experiment with our biodiversity and food systems which is pushing species and peasants to extinction. We need to re-imbed technology in ecology and ethics to ensure that the full ecological and social costs are taken into account. What is at stake is the evolution of nature and survival of people, our food sovereignty and food freedom, integrity of creation and our food systems based on the evolutionary freedom of nature and democratic freedoms of farmers and consumers. The choice before us is bio-imperialism or bio-democracy. Will a few corporations have a dictatorship over our governments, our knowledge and information, our lives and all life on the planet or will we as members of the Earth family liberate ourselves and all species from the prison of patents and genetic engineering? We need to reclaim our food freedom and food sovereignty. Our movement in India seeks to defend our seed freedom (Bija Swaraj) and food freedom (Anna Swaraj) by defending our rights, and refusing to cooperate with immoral and unjust laws (Bija Satyagraha). We save and share our seeds, we boycott corporate seeds, we are creating patent free, chemical free, genetic engineering free zones of agriculture to ensure our agriculture is free of corporate monopolies and chemical and genetic pollution. Our bread is our freedom. Our freedom will ensure our bread. And each of us has a duty to exercise bread freedm (Anna Swaraj) -- for the sake of the earth, for all species, and for ourselves and the generations to come.

[Dissident Heart]

Quote:We expect a farmer centered budget from a government brought to power by the distress and discontent our farmers are experiencing as a direct result of trade liberalization and deregulation policies. We want to see reform, but farmer centered reform to prevent farmers suicides, protect farmers livelihood security and food sovereignty.For this the economic policies of the new government will have to address the following :Seed Sovereignty1. Rebuilding seed security in public hands by reviving seed farms and starting community seed banks. 2. Regulate seed MNCs and hold them liable for crop failure, and false promises, and genetic contamination. Regulate seed prices - put ceiling on seed costs.3. Exclude food staples from IPR regime - both patent laws and the plant variety legislation.4. Prevent biopiracy and patenting of traditional varieties eg. Basmati by Ricetec, Wheat by Monsanto in both national and international law.5. Shift subsidies to organic farming / low external input agriculture to reduce costs of production for farmers and conserve natural resources.Livelihood And Income Security1. Bring back QR's to defend farmers livelihoods in the context of dumping and artificially low international prices.2. Ensure that both private and public procurement is governed and regulated by a Minimum Price, which guarantees peasants a just price fair wages and sustenance. Put a floor on procurement price.Freedom From Debt1. Increase rural credit through cooperative and public sector banks.2. Regulate interest rates charged by private moneylenders, and make high interest rates illegal. Put ceiling on interest rates charged by private lenders.3. When crops fail because of unreliable, untested seeds, the private company selling seed should pay compensation to farmers.4. Write off debt of farmers based on high seed costs, unreliable seed supply and high interest rates.These steps are necessary to stop the "leakage" of our rural economy. Many of these actions need public investment to rebuild seed sovereignty and food sovereignty. The withdrawal of the state from creating the context of livelihood security and income insecurity of farmers is the real cause of the farming crisis. To address the crisis fully, some actions are needed by other ministries. But you hold the key to public investment in agriculture. We hope your budget will reflect the mandate rural India gave you and the commitment the CMP of the UPA has made to the Indian farmers. Your budget will be a litmus test for the new governments commitment to take concrete steps to stop farmers suicides. If you fail the farmers, they will fail your government like they failed the last one. Do not betray the mandate given to you by India's farmers. Yours sincerely,Dr. Vandana ShivaManaging TrusteeFrom, To India's Finance Minister: An Open Letter

[Chris OConnor]

I'm going to have to read this book. The July & August poll was rough as I'd like to read all of the books. Thanks for the information. Chris "For Every Winner, There Are Dozens Of Losers. Odds Are You're One Of Them"

[SunSprite86]

Dissident Heart,Thanks for posting this information. Back when Water Wars was first nominated, I did some looking on Amazon and added it to my wish list. Between budget and time constraints, I'm having a hard time prioritizing my reading. So many books... so little time...I'm hoping to get to this one as a nice follow-up to The Future of Life that I read back in April or May. Karen

[Dissident Heart]

This page features the latest audio, talks and interviews given by Vandana Shiva. It also contains an archive of more dated material and will be updated regularly.