The Ecology Book

327

Fertilizers have hugely increased

food grain production in India—whose

population of 1.3 billion people makes

food security paramount—but the

chemicals also destroy soil fertility.

ENVIRONMENTALISM AND CONSERVATION

From the late 1960s, a technology

transfer to the developing world

included high-yield varieties

of cereals in association with

chemical fertilizers, pesticides,

and herbicides, mechanization,

and more efficient irrigation.

Known as the “Green Revolution,”

this transformation shifted the

focus of agriculture in the developing

world away from biodiversity to

higher crop yields. New Green

Revolution crops such as “miracle

rice” (IR8) boosted production, but

there was a downside. As more

emphasis was placed on fewer

productive strains, the genetic base

of traditional seed varieties for

grains, potatoes, fruits, vegetables,

and cotton declined.

The United Nations Food and

Agriculture Organization estimates

that 75 percent of crop biodiversity

has been lost from the world’s fields.

Some environmentalists have

argued that traditional varieties are

more compatible with local farming

conditions, cheaper for farmers to

use, and more environmentally

sustainable than new, high-yield

varieties. Additionally, many of the

new strains are patented by the

companies that created them.

Trade deals impose regulations

on who can use what. These work

against small-scale farmers but

favor the powerful agricultural

corporations that produce the seed.

Seed sovereignty

Shiva argues that rural farms are

threatened if the appropriate seed

is no longer available. Traditionally,

most small-scale farmers routinely

save their seed from one harvest to

the next. Now, when farmers buy in

seed—especially if it is genetically

modified—they often have to agree

not to save it. Having to buy seed

from a company every year can

leave them worse off financially.

Shiva criticized the practice of

corporations patenting seed varieties

as “biopiracy” and set up Navdanya

to support “seed sovereignty.”

It campaigns for agro-biodiversity

via a network of seed-keepers and

organic producers and has helped

found more than 100 community

seed banks, effectively gene banks,

where seeds of crops and rare plant

species are stored for future use. ■

See also: Human activity and biodiversity 92–95 ■ Pesticides 242–247

■ Humankind’s dominance over nature 296 ■ Ecosystem services 328–329

Vandana Shiva

Environmental campaigner

Vandana Shiva was born in

northern India. Her mother

was a farmer, and her father

a forester. She studied in India

and Canada, obtaining a

doctorate in the philosophy

of physics. After returning

to India, in 1982 she founded

the Research Foundation for

Science, Technology, and

Ecology. Following the Bhopal

pesticide plant disaster in

1984, her interest in agriculture

grew and three years later she

founded Navdanya to protect

biodiversity and native seeds.

Shiva campaigns against the

World Trade Organization’s

Trade Related Aspects of

Intellectual Property Rights

(TRIPS) agreement, which

broadens patents to include

plants and animals. TIME

magazine hailed Vandana

Shiva as an Environmental

Hero in 2003.

Key works

1989 The Violence of the Green

Revolution

2000 Stolen Harvest:

The Hijacking of the Global

Food Supply

2013 Making Peace with

the Earth

Seed patents threaten

the very survival and

freedom of peasants ...

and farmers ...

Vandana Shiva

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