Whole Farm Warrior: Dr. Vandana Shiva and Organics

The conflict over whether our future food will be produced either via natural process or via genetic and chemical modification has brought several stoics and adversaries into the public debate. Perhaps the most notable of all champions for biodiversity and organic farming in this embattled arena is the Indian environmentalist, researcher, and author, Dr. Vandana Shiva.

Dr. Shiva, through her biodiversity research group Navdanya and her own contagious charisma, has almost single-handedly become a wrecking ball in the plans of transgenic corporations. Tirelessly campaigning for more than three decades against the powerful opposition of chemical multinationals, who are driving the so-called Green Revolution network in India, Dr. Shiva has compiled an impressive list of reversals and setbacks for further GMO penetration into the global food market. For her tireless work, she has been awarded numerous prizes and recognitions. During the 1990s, Dr. Shiva received the Right Livelihood Award, the Order of the Golden Ark, the Global 500 Roll of Honor by the UNEP, and the Earth Day International Award, amongst many others.

A Flood of Adversity

Dr. Shiva’s presence on the world food scene could not come at a more critical time. Within the last 15 years, 270,000 farmers in India have committed suicide, mostly within the belt region that utilizes genetically modified BT cotton. In these parts of India, chemical multinationals currently control 95% of the cottonseed supply and their associated intellectual property claims. Meanwhile, since the entrance of genetically modified crops, the costs of cottonseed have effectively jumped a staggering 71,111%, as pointed out by Dr. Shiva. Simultaneously, chemical multinationals have shaped the Global Intellectual Property and Patent Laws to define seeds as their creation and invention, which prevents farmers from seed saving and sharing, forcing instead dependence on GMO seeds. The Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) Agreement of the World Trade Organization is founded upon this tactic.

When engaging in such tactics and drafting TRIPs agreements, chemical and genetics multinationals act as patient, diagnostician, and physician all at once. This is consistent with a planned, successful campaign of conscripting assets and property on a grand scale from farmers throughout much of India. In the end, a handful of multinational companies became the major suppliers of food, while also bringing despair to rural farming communities throughout the country.

The GMO Farmer Trap

Multinational chemical and genetic modification companies lure Asian farmers into contractual procedures that ultimately lead to their ruin. First, communities and farmers are indoctrinated into the GMO program with inspiring slogans, alongside promises of bumper crops and detritus about feeding the world. Secondly, initial discounts on the new “super-seed” program are presented to the bedazzled farmer, who is offered special training on this “advanced technology”. Likewise, credits are extended, land is offered as collateral, and contracts are signed. However, soon enough, as seed prices are raised, the crop fails and the chemical regimen proves ineffective. Unable to meet his financial and legal obligations, the same farmer may be stripped of his land, which is often a generations-old family heirloom and his only source of livelihood.

Rise of a Global BioFront

Dr. Shiva, the Navdanya research group, a cooperative network of like-minded scientists, data-collecting farmers, and activists throughout the world, have effectively countered the intentions of chemical multinationals with information gathering, widespread distribution of documentary data, and even legal contest. With Dr. Shiva as celebrity role model and spokesperson on the world public stage and the Navdanya research group by their side, this Global BioFront (GBF) has disproved false claims and discredited various efforts by chemical multinationals. The GBF has succeeded in legally revoking several ‘life patents’ that had been previously held by these corporations. Furthermore, Dr. Shiva has been given majority association with three major patent revocations thus far (neem, wheat, and Basmati rice), which have subsequently been released into the free marketplace for natural production.

Basmati Rice and Neem

In 1997, the United States initially granted a broad Basmati patent to a GMO rice producer. This created an uproar as bitter Indians expressed frustration that successive governments had let India lose its claim to basmati, which had never been trademarked. More than 50,000 people demonstrated in front of the United Sates Embassy in India against the patent. Amidst intense international pressure led by Dr. Shiva, the Basmati patent was reduced in 2000 to include only a few varieties, which ostensibly does not harm India’s claims or market.

Another patent victory, this time for neem, was also realized in 2000. “Denying the [neem] patent means upholding the value of ‘tradition’ for millions of [people] not only in India, but throughout the South. The free tree will stay free”, said then-RFSTE director Dr. Vandana Shiva. “This victory is the result of extremely long solidarity. It is a victory of committed citizens over commercial interests and big powers.”

The TRIPs clause on patents on plant life was due for a mandatory review in 1999 and India in its submission stated: “Clearly, there is a case for re-examining the need to grant patents on life forms anywhere in the world. Until such systems are in place, it may be advisable to…exclude patents on all life forms”. In 2017, the India Patent Office rejected a claim by a chemical multinational to trademark a climate-resilient plant modification, a decision subsequently backed by the Appellate Board. Again, this protection on plant varieties is precisely what prohibits the free exchange of seeds between farmers, threatening their subsistence and ability to save and exchange seeds amongst one another.

Celebrity Conundrum

Those who might profit from GMO do not look favorably upon those who abrade an existing system’s design. In Ladakh, India, during the 2015 local organic festival, the Ladakhi Women’s Alliance hosted Dr. Shiva. During the lunch hour, the author had the opportunity to ask Dr. Vinod Bhatt, her Executive Director, if they were in fact cautious of any possible retributions or attacks in some form, as punishment for Dr. Shiva’s publicizing and exposure of the GMO debacle, which boasts an eager and avid worldwide following. Dr. Bhatt explained that no, they were not concerned. Dr. Shiva has grown too large, is too key and obvious of a figure to harm. In fact, an attack aimed at Vandana Shiva would trigger a firestorm, dragging decision makers, legal recourses, media flurry and investigation into the spotlight.

Navdanya Biodiversity Conservation Farm

Navdanya’s response to the global farming crisis is their Biodiversity Farm in Dehradun, India, where programs are actively engaging farmers and affected communities in rethinking the organic life and taking action. This 47-acre spread has been described as ‘a sanctuary of biodiversity’, which attracts life of all forms such as bees, birds, insects, and microorganisms. More than 1500 varieties of seeds are saved there: over 690 varieties of rice, 200 varieties of wheat, 60 types of millets, lentils, vegetables, oilseeds, and spices, amongst others. The farm has grown from its original seed bank and office to include cattle sheds, a storage warehouse, a vermicomposting unit, a medicinal plant garden, a soil laboratory, and a large orchard with nine varieties of mango. The farm is where the Navdanya methods of agro-ecology and organic farming are practiced. It functions as a living system, and effective counter to GMO farming – from which farmers, school groups, and course participants can learn. Perhaps more key to this context, over the years, Navdanya and the farm have subscribed more than 400,000 Indian farmers in a comprehensive program of organic education, training, and opportunity, which aims to return more farms back to organic methods, holistic practices, and replace despair with inspiration to prevent further tragedy amongst traditional communities.

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