>>DR. MICHAEL SONNLEITER:   Our speaker, Vandana Shiva, 
is an eco-feminist with a PhD in nuclear physics.  How's that?
>>CROWD:  [applause]
>>DR. MICHAEL SONNLEITER:  She is an author 
of over 500 professional articles; over 20 books, including 
"Staying Alive," "Women, Ecology and Survival in India",
"Stolen Harvest: Hijacking the Global Food Supply," 
and "Soil Not Oil."  
There are many books that she. . .that you have read relating to her, 
and that's probably why you're so excited about seeing her.
She is also the winner of a number of awards, including 
the Right Livelihood Award, which is sometimes described 
as the alternative Nobel Peace Prize, and many other awards, 
from the United Nations and other, other locations, 
including the Sydney Peace Prize just this last November 
in Sydney, Australia.
She's active with organizations including 
The Indian People's Campaign Against WTO, 
The International Forum on Globalization, and Navdana, 
which is a movement in India seeking to protect biodiversity 
and food sources while promoting organic farming and fair trade.
I could go on and on, but I'm not because you're here 
to listen to Vandana Shiva, and I hope you can join me now 
in welcoming her. 
>>CROWD:  [applause]
>>DR. MICHAEL SONNLEITER:  Do you prefer to be on the stand?
>>DR. VANDANA SHIVA:  Yes, on the stand.
Thank you so much, Michael.  It's a pleasure to be able to come 
to your college. . .a bit closer?  Okay.
It's a pleasure to be here with all of you,  
and share some of my thoughts, 
both about what globalization has done 
to our societies, as well as alternatives that we can imagine and build.
And of course the alternative I propose is a democracy.  
And for me, a democracy is both a widening of democracy 
to include all beings on Earth.
And that's not a very strange idea, actually.  
Most ancient cultures have thought that way.
My own society in India talked of Vasundhara Kutumbakam. 
Vasundhara is the Earth, the divine, sacred Earth.  
Vesudeva is off the Earth,  Katumbakum is the family of the Earth. 
And in the Earth family are all beings; and not just all living 
beings in terms of biological beings.  In India, we treat mountains 
as beings, so we have sacred mountains.
We've just succeeded in stopping the mining of boxite 
in a mountain in Arisa called Niyamgiri.
"Niyam" stands for law.  "Giri" means the mountain 
that upholds the universal law.
And the ancient, ancient tribe of the Dongria Kondh 
that inhabits this mountain, has been fighting 
one of the biggest aluminum companies of the world 
that wanted to mine the boxite.
And they invited me down, and I did a lot of mobilization with them.
And finally last August the government announced that that mining, 
which had been approved all the way to the Imaman Ministry, 
the approval was withdrawn.
So even today, there are communities that think of us 
as part of the Earth. 
The first nations. . .we have just done a food justice conference 
where the first nations presented a session on first foods.
And it was all about sacred food.  It was all about the fact 
that food makes us, we make food, and it's all a part of the web of life.
Somewhere along the way, partly because of the way 
the worldview of the west changed. . .
and I, you know, 
I interact a lot with, for example, the Orthodox Christian Church, 
where the patriarch talks about the Earth family.
He talks about pollution as sin.  So there's, even in Christianity 
it is possible to talk about us being part of the Earth.
But of course there is. . .there's been mutations in Christian thought.  
Mutations that threw out Mary.  You know?  
There was actually a papal order that said, remove all the images of Mary
Because when I go to Florence I advise the region of Tuscany, 
and chair a commission on the future of food that they have created, 
and they take me to these museums, these ancient museums 
of the Renaissance.  
And Christianity's only Mary!  
All the images are Mary.  
All the paintings are Mary.  All the sculptures are Mary.  
And there's one David.  
And I love that.
The changes that took place started to think of, of the empire 
of man over inferior creatures.  That's the language that was used 
during colonialism.
That's the language that was used when the occupation of this land 
was being done, and land was being taken away 
from the first people.
And what we got then was a way of thinking about ourselves, 
which is called anthropomorphism.  
You know, everything human centered, other beings don't count.
And in that process we still try to define freedom for ourselves, 
and that freedom was named democracy.
And it was described as being of the people, for the people, 
by the people.
And something changed.  Of course, 
the seeds of that change had been sown for colonialism.
The first company that was ever a corporation that was "incorporated" 
was called the East India Company, 1600.
And their main job was to go out and conquer India, Indonesia; 
wherever there was spices.  
Even poor Columbus was setting out for India to get our spices. 
And he thought he landed in India, so he called 
the Native Americans "Indians" forever, so they're called Indians. 
I call it Columbus' big blunder. But as all blunders do 
they have some externality, and I love the fact 
that the Native Americans are called Indians.  
I'd love the whole world to be Indian.
>>CROWD:  [laughter]
>>DR. VANDANA SHIVA:  Indian more in terms 
of this very generous worldview 
that has kept a civilization going.  
And India and China are the two oldest civilizations in continuity.
We've had other civilizations but they went under, largely 
because of the exploitation of the earth.
And we thought. . .and I still do. . .we believe that 
you are more civilized in direct proportion to how little 
you plunder the earth.
Whereas anthropomorphism gave us a measure of progress 
that the more you can destroy the Earth, the more progressive you are.  
The more advanced you are. 
Well, the next mutation that took place, 
even though the corporation was created in 1600, it was still, 
you know, after de-colonization, after our freedom movements. . .
1857, we threw the East India Company out.  
We had a very, very big revolution. 
 And then the British crown took over, 
but the East India Company went, and an Indian firm 
has just bought up the old East Indian Company.  Just the name.
It's really globalization of today's period, because in a way 
one could think of colonization as globalization of an earlier period. 
Today's globalization changed a perception of the world 
one step more.
So we went from the Earth family to the human family, 
with only human beings as beings, 
and now we have this strange situation 
where even human beings don't count, 
and the only being is the corporation.
So if you look at your recent Supreme Court decision, 
which basically said corporations can influence democracy 
as much as they want by paying any amount 
to influence electoral processes, and that is their freedom of speech.
Business corruption of politics has been defined 
as the freedom of speech.  Of a legal fiction: the corporation.  
Because it only exists on a piece of paper that says, 
this corporation is now given legal personality, 
and the legal personality is of "personhood." It is treated as a person.
But when a corporation is treated as a person, 
and it is then given rights,  
and the WTO really is the constitutuion  of corporate rights, 
what you basically get is movement 
from anthropomorphism to what I would call corporatism.  
Where only corporations have rights.
Now, democracy used to be of the people, by the people, 
for the people.  They call if free market democracy now, 
which means the rule of the corporation.
And that is of the corporation, for the corporation, by the corporation.
And you know, I'm trained as a physicist.  
I'm not used to using English frivolously 
I'm very prudent about my use of English, 
and so when I use strong words, it's because that is the reality 
that we are in.
We are in the reality of corporate rule.
If you look at the treaties of the WTO. . . 
you know, we've had trade before.  I mentioned Columbus; 
why was he sailing to India?  Because India was exporting pepper.
So we've had trade before WTO.  Trade is not new.
What's new is that now there is an international, 
legally binding agreement which was never an agreement.  
Nobody agreed to it.  It was imposed on the world.
And the main elements of this that take us 
beyond traditional international trade are elements 
that are what I would call elements of invasion into citizen rights.
They're not about trade.  So we normally think of globalization 
as a geographic spread.  
And many people write about how the world is becoming one village.
No.  The world is becoming a global supermarket, not a village.  
But in the process of the world becoming one global supermarket, 
what we really see is a vertical shift.  
Not just a horizontal shift of everyone being brought 
into one global marketplace, but a vertical shift of power and control, 
moving into the hands of corporations. 
And this was in the design of the WTO.
Who wrote that terrible treaty called 
"Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights Agreement"? 
What a mouthful.
Now I'm sure you don't understand what it means.   
And you shouldn't, because every word of it is fabricated.  
With a purpose.
Intellectual property never existed before.  We had industrial property.  
Patents.  All the machinery on this desk has a patent behind it.  
This screen, this telephone, this mic.
And nobody rebelled.  Nobody said, why should a mic be patented, 
because it's either one company or the next company 
that'll make these gadgets.
And patents were about excluding competitors from benefitting 
from an innovation. 
But in the WTO the intellectual property rights agreement 
has not just allowed, but forced countries to start patenting life, 
and patenting seed.
Life is not an invention.  Seed is not created by Monsanto.
All that Monsanto does is put toxic genes into a seed.  
No for that I don't think they should be rewarded with a property right.  
They should be punished for poisoning our food.
>>CROWD:   [applause]
>>DR. VANDANA SHIVA:   And I, I was very fortunate to be invited 
to a very early meeting in 1987 where the biotech industry 
was planning the future.  They were no gm crops at that time 
but they were thinking of it.
And they said, we have to do genetic engineering 
in order to take patents.
And to do all this we need an international treaty 
to force on the world.
So the forcing of GMO's and the forcing of patents 
was made possible by the WTO.
And in '95 when the WTO was created, a representative of Monsanto, 
which had been part of a core group of companies 
that wrote this treaty, they said we've achieved something 
unprecedented in the history of industry and commerce.
We defined a problem. . .and the problem they defined 
was that farmers save seeds.  It's like defining a problem 
that people eat food.  Yeah.
And they said, we'll find a solution, we offered the solution 
and the solution was it should be turned into a crime.  
Seed saving should be turned into a crime.
And we were the patient, the diagnostician, and the physician all in one.
Isn't that dictatorship?  
So, I thought of this as seed dictatorship.
And after this meeting we were having a press conference, 
and during the press conference a journalist asked, 
so how do you deal with this kind of power, this kind of dictatorship.
And I just froze.  Because I didn't know how to deal with it.  
But I had to fly back to India.  And that's a long flight.  
Eight hours of thinking.  
And during this freeze, I turned to Gandhi.
Now, you might remember that when the British ruled the world 
they controlled 85% territories of the entire planet.
And the colonization of that time had taken place 
around controlling cloth and textiles.
The first industrialization took place around mechanized weaving.
Some of you are standing at the back; there are lots of seats.
So, you know, to achieve that people always think 
it's the machines that generated all this wealth.
No.  It's slavery that generated the wealth.  
Africans had to be captured then brought to do cotton picking.
India had to be forced to grow indigo rather than food.  
And, you know, the blues I'm wearing, these indigo colors, 
they used to come only from a natural dye.  
And first in Bengal, then Behar, 
the, at that time the East India Company would force. . . 
initially the East India Company and then the British. . .
would force India to plant indigo while people starved.  
Gandhi was invited to this area when he returned from South Africa.   
And the person who became our first President 
was from these areas, and he had called Gandhi.  
His name was Rajendra Prasad.
And so Gandhi went house to house, hut to hut.  
And he went to one hut and he asked this woman, 
are you the only one?  And she says, no, my mother-in-law is inside.
He says, call her out.  And she said, I can't bring her out 
because we only have one sari; this six yards of cloth we call the sari. 
We only have one sari between us, and she can only come out 
and meet you when I go in and she takes the sari.
And that's what broke Gandhi's heart, and he said, 
these are the people who are running the textile empire, 
whose labor is creating the wealth in the textile empire.
They can't have clothing?  And they are starving?
And then he created this mobilization, which is in our part 
of the world famous as the indigo Satyagraha.
Now the word "satyagraha" in my heart is such an important word.  
Satyagraha means the fight for truth.  "Satya" is truth.  
"Agraha" is the force, the fight from truth.
And he had actually practiced the first satyagraha 
in South Africa.
I was in room number 911 at Heathman Hotel.  
And Margaret Halleck, who's really responsible for my being here, 
she said, oh my god, you're in 911!  
I said it doesn't bother me because there is another 911.  
And that older 9/11, 1901 is the day Gandhi told the Apartheid rulers, 
along with other Indians, we will not wear the identity badges 
that divide us as citizens.
Because the Apartheid regime obviously wanted to divide the blacks 
and the indians and the whites; that's what its entire philosophy 
was based on. 
And he said, we are one set of citizens.  We are equal.
You might also remember he had been thrown out off a train 
because he was a lawyer, and as a lawyer 
he was paid a first class fare, but because he was an Indian 
the racists threw him out.
He stayed on in South Africa mobilizing, 
and then eventually created a garden, and a farm called the Phoenix Farm.
Phoenix of course means to rise again.
But his first satyagraha was South Africa.  
His second satyagraha was the indigo satyagraha.
And then he went on to do the salt satyagraha where 
when the British forced us to stop making salt he said, 
we'll continue to make our salt.
But there was another part of Gandhi that is the part that inspired me.
And when I was thinking of the dictatorship I said, you know, 
Gandhi pulled out a spinning wheel and started to spin cloth 
in the face of the empire.  And everyone laughed and said, 
how do you think some little pieces of wood can bring you freedom?
Because everyone thought, if you've got cannons 
you've got to shoot back.  That violence is the response to violence.
And Gandhi said, this is the only thing that can bring us freedom, 
because it is so small.
And it is so humble that it can be in the hands of the last person.  
This handspun, handwoven cloth which we call KhÄ dÄ«
can be in every hut, the poorest of huts.
And the poorest and most marginilized of Indians can become 
a freedom fighter.  
And that's exactly what happened.  Indians started 
to spin their own cloth.  People had a boycott of British clothing.  
And the beauty of our doing these small things is that 
it gives you a sense of power.  It's an education 
in discovering how powerful you can be.
Because when all you do is look at the mills in Lancashire 
and Manchester you feel powerless.  They are far.  
You can't influence them.  What do you do?
You start spinning your cloth.  My god!  
Those mills are irrelevant to my life.  
And I can generate my own freedom.
So I started to think, and as a physicist I did a little matrix: 
first industrial revolution, second industrial revolution, 
third industrial revolution.  Textiles, chemicals. . .life.
And I said, if the third industrial revolution is 
about the industrialization of life through genetic engineering 
and biotechnology, then the spinning wheel of our times is the seed.
And so I got off the plane.  I was doing lots of work.  
I was working on the Nirvana.  
I was working on the Bopa rehabilitation.
And I told colleagues in Papa Narmada, 
I said, you look after all this.  I'm just going to save seeds. 
And I pulled every book I could find in my parents' library 
and trotted after the villagers where I had been involved 
with another very important Gandhian movement 
during my college days at the age where you are.
And that movement was called chipko, which means "to embrace."  
Women in my region came out in the early '70s to stop logging 
and deforestation.  And they said, before you kill the tree 
you'll have to kill us.  We'll embrace the trees.
And it took a decade, but by 1981 we got a logging ban.  
There's no deforestation, no cutting of trees commercially 
allowed anymore in my part of the Himalaya where the Ganges 
and the Yamuna rivers rise.
>>CROWD:   [applause]
>>DR. VANDANA SHIVA:   And it was, you know, peasant women 
who led this movement, that imagined this movement, 
that found the solution, again through non-violence.   
And it was a very Gandhian movement.
And so I went back to these villages where I had worked 
as a volunteer and started to ask women, do you have these seeds.  
Do you have this seed, do you have this seed, do you have this seed.
And I must tell you a side anecdote; two little anedotes.
The women would giggle and say, you know, we have, 
we have the millets.  Which are dark.  You know, 
the millets are always dark.  The barnyard millets. . .
Barnyard millets, seven kinds of millet.
And the reason they're called millets is because 
each seed in a millet gives rise to a million seeds.  
The millet comes from millions.
But of course, again, because we had racism, we had racism in food, 
and all the dark foods were defined as inferior crops. 
There literally were called inferior crops 
as if they were a secondary race because they were colored.
And the women would giggle and say, you know, 
we've kept growing them because we know they're nutritious.
And the men think the rice is the more privileged crop, 
and they eat the rice and they can't do any work.  
And we eat the millets and we can climb the mountains. 
and take 40 kilograms on our backs.
So I started to save millets.  We called them forgotten foods.  
Foods humanity has stopped eating.
And these are the future foods.  This year in fact is dedicated for us 
to these forgotten foods, these future foods.
They could be viable foods.  They could be unharvest-, you know, 
uncultivated foods.  But the millets are my absolute favorite.  
They have 40 times more nutrition; use 1/10th the water 
that industrial farming does, and are so resilient 
that any kind of climate change, they can deal with.
The other anecdote is equally funny because of course, you know, 
the books were in English.  And as Indians, 
we eat a lot of dhals,
the pulses.
Normally you only think in terms of lentils, but we eat urad, urhar, 
moong, gehet.
Now, we have Indian names for all of this, but when I looked at 
the English names I couldn't believe it.  They were chickpea, 
pigeon pea, cow pea, horse gram.
And the problem had been the British didn't know what to do with this.  
So they just fed all these crops to animals and named it 
as cattle field, even though they are most important for our nutrition 
because for vegetarians, they are the only source of protein.
And then the green revolution wiped them out further, 
and now we have such huge pulse scarcity 
because these are nitrogen fixing crops.
We have such pulse scarcity that first 
the US is fine subsidizing  the production.  
But they can't get it right because, you know, for them 
they're just selling a commodity.
They sell us something called the "yellow pea dahl."  
Which makes no sense because either it's a pea or it's a dahl.
>>CROWD:   [laughter]
>>DR. VANDANA SHIVA:   You know, and it's sort of just, you know, 
[Unintelligible] stuff, and the only time I eat it, it is really if I'm on a flight 
and they serve it.  Totally tasteless.
But they [go] one step further because the price rise, you know, 
food prices are just keep rising.  And in India they haven't come down 
since 2008.
And the price of pulses is gone up very high.
Last year the urad dahl, which the British named pigeon pea, is. . .
the price rose to 150 rupees a kilogram. 
So the government used this as an opportunity to do something 
that the soil industry has been wanting to do for very long.
They introduced something called the I-dahl.  
Now why would you think a dahl is called an I-dahl?  
All I can think of is, you know, everything is sold to us 
in the name of technology.  And these days high tech is iPad, iPhone, 
i-whatever.  And they thought, put I before dahl and you, 
you'll have everyone eating it.
And these poor women who couldn't afford the 150 dahl 
weren't buying this 25 rupee dahl.
And when they were asked, why aren't you buying it, 
they said it's not a dahl.  It has no taste, it has no flavor.  
If we want, if we eat dahl we want it for the taste it brings to us.
Guess what this I-dahl is.  Soya flour, 
extruded into the shape of a dahl and dyed yellow.
And they actually have this program called analog dahls 
where they will cook up.  These are not just false food.
The other day at the University of Oregon I said what, 
what the corporations have done is turn seed into anti-seed.
Seed is supposed to give forth life.  If you have a terminator seed 
you made it the opposite of what a seed should be.  
Seeds multiply.  When you force farmers to not be able to save seeds,
and not multiply their seeds, you have again, 
made the seed the opposite of what it should be, and I call that anti-seed.
Monsanto is not selling seed.  It's selling anti-seed.  
And in the same way, the agri-business is not selling food.  
They are selling anti-food.
It's anti-food both in the sense that it's harming the Earth. . .
food is supposed to nourish the earth.  You grow a crop, 
you put some of it back into the earth as organic matter, 
forever you can get food.
There's no reason you should ever run out of nutrients 
because the very production of food is the production of nutrients.
Now you get the opposite.  Agriculture has become a soil depletion process.
You are not just taking away from the earth, you're taking away 
from the farmer.  A food producer.  
For in India, in Sanskrit, we call food "anna."  
And the farmer is the anna devatha.  He's the one who gives us the food
He/she gives us the food.
Today the farmers are in debt.  Losing their land.  
And that's universal across the world.  But in India 
because this was pushed so violently on a peasant society, 
on an agrarian culture. . .you know, we have 1.2 billion people 
of which 70% are still on the land.
And overnight, corporate power tried to push gm seeds,  
trade and commodities. . . the WTO rules of agriculture were written 
by Cargill, just like the rules of patenting on seed were written 
by Monsanto.
So I call one a Monsanto treaty, I call the other a Cargill treaty.  
And the first cases in WTO, because the WTO is both a court, 
it's a treaty making place. . ..like we elect legislators to write law, 
they're lawmakers. . .the WTO writes the laws, 
or the corporations write the laws for the WTO. . .
and then it's the executive that implements the decision.  
So it's all in one.  Totally dicatatorial body.
So if Monsanto was the diagnostician, the physician all in one, 
the WTO is the executive, the courts and the parliament, all in one.
And the first cases against, in WTO were all brought against India.  
One, that we should change our patent laws to allow patenting of seed, 
and patenting of medicines.
And the second, that we should allow the dumping 
of artifically subsidized food.
So, of course I had started Navdanya in 1987.  
Navdanya means "the nine seeds."  It also means "the new gift."  
The nine seeds are diversity.  The new gift is reclaiming our commons.  
And the beginning of Navdanya really was again inspired by, 
on the one hand the spinning wheel, so we call it seed sovereignty: 
Beej Swaraj.  This concept of swaraj.
And we started with the concept of satyagraha, 
that we will not recognize patents which make it illegal for us 
to save seeds.  Because saving seeds is the highest duty.
And just like Gandhi has said, nature gives it for free, we will. . .
we need it for our survival, we'll continue to make salt.  
We say the same: that nature has given us these seeds.  
Our ancestors have evolved them.  We owe it to future generations 
to take care of the seed diversity and hand it over for the future.
We will not obey laws that make it a crime because seed saving 
is not a crime; it's our ethical and ecological duty, 
and we will not allow corrupt corporate law come between us 
and the earth and the future.
>>CROWD:   [applause]
>>DR. VANDANA SHIVA:   So we've saved seeds of the millets.  
We've saved seed of rices that can grow 18 feet tall 
and survive a flood in the Ganges Basin.
We've saved salt tolerant rices.  The genetic enginnering industry 
keeps saying they are "inventing" salt tolerance. 
They're stealing the seeds from our farmers. 
And we've saved seeds of the dahls.  And we've made seed saving
the basis of bringing diversity back into the food system.
We've connected it to eaters.  And we tell everyone: 
the more you eat this, the more you save it.  
And people get a bit complexed.  You know, how can you say. . ?
But the point is with life, the more you use what life gives, 
the more you enhance life's processes.
You can literally have your cake and eat it too. . .
something that is not possible in a mechanical universe 
but is totally possible in an ecological universe.
When we started seed saving, we weren't thinking of fiber.  
But fiber is where Monsanto first entered India, illegally.  I sued them, 
we stopped them from selling for four years 
because they didn't take any approval.  
But they did get approval in 2002.
We used to have 1,500 cotton varieties. Now all you have is bt cotton, 
bt cotton, bt cotton.
Most seeds were saved by farmers themselves.  
And the remaining seeds used to be brought by the public sector.  
Breeding.  Twenty varieties a year.  Good seed.  
Seed that you could save.  Open pollinated.  Open source seed.
And a handful of companies. 
When Monsanto first entered, the first thing it did 
was start buying up the Indian seed companies 
and started to tie them up with the liscensing agreements.
So today, 95% of all cotton seeds sold in India is sold by Monsanto.  
The price of seed used to zero if it was the farmer's own seed, 
5 rupees if the seed was bought.
When Monsanto entered they shot the price up 
between 3,600 rupees and 4,000 rupees.  
That's an 8,000% increase in prices. 
And the technology is supposed to control pests.  
The idea is you put a toxic gene into the plant, 
and now the plant will make its own pesticide 
and will control one pest family called the bollworm.  
And you won't have problems.
But two problems with that.  First, the bollworm is becoming resistant.  
Because nature evolves.  
And new pests are getting created every year, 
an attack of new pests.  So far, farmers are having to use 
more pesticides, not less.  And the increase from our surveys 
is 13 times more.  That's a 1,300%
So 8,000% increase in seed.  In one year!  If you extend it 
to ten year period it's 80,000%  Extend it to a 20 year period, 
it's 160,000. 
No. . .a hundred. . .yeah.  160,000, yeah.  
One, six , zero, zero, zero, zero.  Right?
We are talking about a genocidal impact.  
And that is the impact that has been. 
So the farmers were sold these seeds using gods. . .
and we don't have a dearth of gods in India. 300 million divinities
So they pull a Hanuman, and they put a Lachman, 
they pull a Gurunan; wherever they were, 
they picked the favorite divinity or saint and say you'll be a millionaire.  
Meantime, the companies were being told you will not sell any seed 
except. . .the part of the contract. . .
in America, they make a farmer sign a contract.  
In India, they make companies sign a contract, 
that you will not sell anything else but our seed. 
So there's a seed famine; I call it a seed famine.  
We have, of course. . .so what other rates 
besides the background note you've received?  
200,000 since Monsanto entered the seed market.  
And it keeps growing.
Of course we've continued to use our Gandhian philosophy 
in intervening in this genocide and this violence.
We started community seed banks in the area.  
And this area where the worst suicides are, are precisely the area 
where Gandhi did his spinning.  Sevagram. 
 His ashram in Sevagram  in Wardha. 
We've gone there and we've started seed saving.  
I did a pilgrimage of the seed to find out 
why the farmers were not using their own seed, 
and that's when I realized there had been a deliberate creation 
of the seed famine.
I was just with farmers in our seed bank, and an old variety 
that has been saved by a farmer has now been multiplied 
and is being distributed.
And it is. . .if the average rates of bt cotton are 500 kilograms, 
this seed is giving 900 kilograms. 
So it is not true at all that genetic engineering produces more.  
There's a very strong report from the Union of Concerned Scientists 
that is titled "Failure to Yield."  There is no yield gain anywhere.
But the industrial food system is not just creating a seed famine.  
It is creating a food famine.
When I say a food famine, I mean a famine in terms of the soil 
not getting enough food.  
The soil doesn't need urea.  What the soil needs is organic matter, 
which feeds the soil organisms that then create fertility.
There's a food famine for the grower.  
Today, Indian farmers are committing suicide.  
But half of the hungry people of this world are today farmers.
Because farmers are not growing food; they're growing commodities.  
And they're growing commodities with very high levels of debt.
And the minute they grow corn as a commodity 
they sell it to pay back the debt.  They grow rice as a commodity; 
they sell it to pay back the debt.  And they're not eating. 
And because of the economics of this whole system, 
where the farmer receives less and less and less, 
and that's also part of the corporate rule through globalization, 
and the prices in the market keep going up, you have a bigger 
and bigger profit margin.
It used to be 2%, 6% in India.  Now it's 80% in certain food items.
And that polarization is pushing the farmer deeper into hunger 
and into debt.
But there's a food famine also for those who are having to buy 
more expensive food.
We had a 2008 food crisis, and the food crisis has re-emerged.  
As I mentioned, in India it never went away, 
but globally it has re-emerged. 
And now all those companies that played with our lives, 
in Wall Street, the financial investment companies who destroyed 
the housing market in this country and created the sub-prime crisis, 
those very same companies, the J.P. Morgans and others, 
are now speculating on food as a commodity.
So the people who are fixing the price of food is not the farmer, 
is not society, is not national governments.  It's speculators 
and gamblers.  We've put food on the global casino.
And of course people are going to die of starvation.  
Already a billion people are hungry.  My guess is, this year 
the food prices' rise will push another, between 250 million 
to 500 million people to hunger who are just barely making it, 
but will not be able to buy enough food if the food prices keep increasing. 
So we have to reclaim our food.  And food, of course, 
is the web of life.  
We have a beautiful [unintelligible] in India 
that says, "Everything is food; everything is something else's food."  
And it's so true we forget it.  
When we think of man's empire over nature you've got man on top, 
everything else below.
It should be a cycle, you know?  We do cremation, you do burials.  
But what happens, you know, in a burial?  Whose feast is it?   
All the soil microorganisms that eat the human. 
So it isn't that we are on top of the universe.  
We are one in the web of life.  And food is the web of life.  
That is why for me, the most radical actions of our times 
are like the spinning wheel of Gandhi.  They're small, 
but they're small in a strategic way that starts to change 
the balance of power between corporations and citizens.
They bring back power and democracy in the hands of citizens.
We organize our search for freedom around five fundamental freedoms.
The freedom of the seed. . .and for us, when we say 
"freedom of the seed" we don't just mean the farmer's freedom 
to have seed.  We mean the seed's freedom to evolve on its own integrity.  
To not be poisoned with bt's poison. To not be patented.  
To not have a scrambling of its genomic structure.  
Seed freedom, food freedom.  And we always talk of freedom 
as sovereignty so seed sovereignty, seed freedom, food sovereignty, 
food freedom, land sovereignty, land freedom, water sovereignty, 
water freedom, and forest sovereignty and forest freedom.
Because in every one of these areas, these gifts of nature, 
are being appropriated as the "private property" of corporations 
who turn it into a commodity and take our commons, 
that which belongs to all of us, and sell it back to us at a high price.
They have reduced life to a market.  And as we started 
when we stopped WTO in Seattle our slogan was, 
"our world is not for sale."
We will defend our commons.  We will keep protecting both nature, 
and our rights to nature's gifts.
And as far as nature is concerned, she does not discriminate.  
She does not discriminate between the human being 
and the non human animal.
She does not discriminate between the poor and the rich.  
And as Gandhi put it so powerfully, this earth has enough 
for everyone's needs, but it does not have enough for a few people's greed.
Greed has become a poison for this planet.  
Greed is threatening life so severely that within a century 
we could see our own annihilation as human being.  
And that's why  we have to take up the courage, the power, 
the imagination, to deal with the rule of corporations who only know 
how to deal with greed, and bring back our economies 
of democracies, and embed them in an earth democracy.
That's why I talk of living democracies, living economies 
and living cultures in place of the killing democracy, killing economy 
and killing cultures that corporate rules and globalization 
has given us.  Thank you so much.
 >>CROWD:   [applause]
>>DR. VANDANA SHIVA:   Thank you.
>>DR. MICHAEL SONNLEITER:  I'll stimulate the first question 
if I may, because I was very stimulated by your, by your talk.
I'm also concerned about the use of words in an accurate way.  
I would like to use the word "fascism" and see what you have to say about it. 
I mean, as we teach. . .as I teach, political ideologies, 
among other things. . .the core, the idea of the corporate state, 
or a state organized like a corporation, or a corporation 
growing to have the power of a state, is the classic definition of fascism. 
In your opinion would you see the corporatization 
that is part of globalization as really being appropriately described 
as a growing global fascism? 
 >>DR. VANDANA SHIVA:   I have used that term.  
I have talked about the emergence of food fascism. 
>>DR. MICHAEL SONNLEITER:   Thank you.  Please, begin.
Identify yourself, perhaps.  And if it's on, you have to push it 
so it has a green light.  You see it?
>>AARON:  Yes.
>>DR. MICHAEL SONNLEITER:   Identify yourself, 
ask a quick question, and we'll move along.
>>AARON:  Hello, Shiva.  Name is Aaron, and I had a quick question 
about what the current structure of control over the food market 
is in the world, if you know any details about that that you mentioned.
>>DR. VANDANA SHIVA:   I mentioned that the control 
of the food market is out of control. 
>>AARON:  Okay.
In the sense, just like in the sub-prime crisis 
and when Wall Street came down, nobody really knew who's doing what.
>>AARON:  Yeah.
>>DR. VANDANA SHIVA:  By the, by the destruction of the difference 
between banks where people put their savings and investment firms, 
and the merging of the two in this country, by the removal of the act 
which was called. . .?  Right.  
What's basically happened. . .what has happened is 
there's really a free play out there.  Unaccountable, 
nobody's keeping track, and nobody really knows.  
Which is why it was such chaos.
Now those same chaotic phenomena have entered 
but those who invest are making huge money.
The difference between food and housing is this.  
If you can't pay your mortgage, you just leave your house.  
But for food you have to keep eating.  And you'll keep borrowing.
And that's where the guarantee that these companies are seekingÉ
let me just read out an ad for you from these investment firms.  
It, it's criminal, if you ask me. 
It says: 
"Do you enjoy rising prices?"  This is asking people to invest.  
"Everybody talks about commodities.  With the agricultural fund 
you can benefit from the increasing 
and the value of the seven most important agricultural commodities."
So those who are profiteering from the speculation 
of course are doing very well.
Cargill has gone on record. . .and I would recommend to you, 
read an article in Harper's called "The Food Bubble"; 
I think it's 2010 sometime, where this journalist realized that 
all this investment was moving into food.
And in that article there's a quotation where Cargill says 
our profits have increased 80% because of speculation.
So the speculators are doing well; Cargill is doing very well.  
But everyone else is doing very badly 
because they're spending more on a vital need. 
So, essentially anybody could be and we don't know 
and we need to find out?
>>DR. VANDANA SHIVA:  We need to find out, and I think one of, 
if you were to ask me, I think revoking that, um. . .
>>AARON:  The charter?
>>DR. VANDANA SHIVA:   No.  A charter, of course; 
that would be the best.  But you know, that separation 
that gamblers should not be allowed to play with our money.?
That was the separation.  And that's necessary 
so that pension funds and others don't get used against us, you know.
You work all your life, put your money into a pension fund.  
Then it's taken on and bundled by investors and they work 
to work against you. . with their investment strategies.
So I think basically it's about reclaiming democracy.  
And accountability.  Which is why the Tea Party is totally wrong. 
If you didn't. . .the problem is we have no regulation.  
We need regulation.
>>AARON:  Thank you.
>>AUDIENCE:  [applause]
>>JC:  Hi, Vendana.  My name's J.C.  I'm just curious.  
My roommates and I are going to be growing a garden this season.  
We're starting actually in a couple days. 
I'm curious because I did watch a documentary. . .
I think it was Food Inc.. .how they were saying that 
it is actually illegal to have seed that isn't, you know, owned 
or operated by Monsanto, and I don't care about breaking that law.
So I would like to know where to find some seed that isn't tainted like that.  
Where, where would you find that?
>>DR. VANDANA SHIVA:  Well, there are now lots 
and lots of local groups that are doing seed saving.  
I probably in my bag have a gift that was given to me yesterday; 
some seeds by a woman who was doing seed saving.  
I can pass on her contact to you.  You get in touch with her. 
>>JC:  Yeeaaah.  Thank you.
>>AUDIENCE:  [laughter/applause]
>>AUDIENCE MEMBER:   Hi, Dr. Shiva.  Thank you so much 
for coming and bringing your wisdom.  I really appreciate it.  
My concern is that a basic issue like you mentioned in India, 
being around textile and salt, that people were able to take that back.
Now one of the two main issues I see in the United States 
is sovereignty around food and water, and how all of that 
comes through a system; rather it's the grocery store, or a pike.
And that. . .where . . .what is the path to gaining that sovereignty 
for ourselves?
>>DR. VANDANA SHIVA:  Well, I think the first part 
is much more intimate direct links.
So for example, buying directly from a farmer.  
Creating urban gardens so that a community can have its food.  
Farmer's markets.  Those are all places 
for reclaiming food sovereignty.
In terms of water, of course if you have your own well, nothing like it; 
but if you live in a city and you depend on a municipality, 
to insure that your town water stays in public hands 
and is not privatized.
And the defense of the public spaces and the public goods 
and the commons, in my view is going to be the terrain 
for shaping democracy, an earth democracy, in the future.
That's why what's happening in Wisconsin is so important 
for the future of this country. 
>>AUDIENCE MEMBER:  Thank you.
>>AUDIENCE:   [applause]
>>JASON:  Hi, I'm Jason.  I'm actually a Portland State student 
who's focus is on resource management.
And I realize that Monsanto's harms go so much deeper than just the seeds.  
I mean, they've modified their plants to be  resilient to Roundup, 
which is a product they also make, so you can use more Roundup 
on your crops.
And other than buying locally with the farmers, when it comes 
to a political aspect in getting your voice heard. . .
you know, I've been writing the letters to the White House each time 
that another GMO goes up to pass or something. . .
but what do you feel would be the most effective way for us 
to pool our resources and actually make a change 
against those types of corporation setup?
>>DR. VANDANA SHIVA:   Well, as far as Monsanto's concerned 
I think the two more sort of more political responses 
besides saving non gm seeds growing non-gm food 
is creating gmo-free regions.
It's the strategy we've used in India.  It's a strategy used very, 
very effectively and strongly in Europe.
There are 50 governments, of which I work with about five of them, 
who have said we'll never use gm seeds 
and they've declared themselves gmo free.
They've told the national government we won't obey you.  
It's like a satyagraha.  And they've told the European Commission, 
which. . .Monsanto has 80 lobbyists sitting in Brussels 
to influence European Commission decisions.
So every time there's a push, these gmo free reasons rise, 
and the European Commission has to step back.
I also think we need to very directly target Monsanto itself, 
because it has become in my view the company 
that is having the longest term impact 
in terms of damaging the evolution of life on this planet.
There's been research recently released that the Roundup 
that's. . .who's use increase because of Roundup ready crops, 
is causing abortions in animals, and therefore could be in humans.
But also a very important Argentinian study 
where they spray Roundup all over the country 
because the whole country's now Roundup resistant soil, 
the children are being born with birth defects.
So we are talking not just of the plants, but also the humans 
and other species being seriously affected.
So I'm going to start a campaign this, hopefully by May or June.  
We are consolidating all the experience in every part of the world.  
What the Argentinians have been through, 
they're writing the Argentina chapter.  
What the Mexicans have suffered in terms of corn.  
What the Africans have had to suffer. 
We are covering the failure, the risks, as well as the corruption 
of government and decision making.
Of course the United States will have a chapter, 
India will have a chapter.  And everywhere you have a record 
of genetic contamination.  Political contamination 
of our governments, stealing our governments from us.
And knowledge contamination by polluting science itself 
and telling lies in the name of science.
>>AUDIENCE:  [laughter/applause] 
 >>JASON:   Yes.
>>DR. VANDANA SHIVA:    So when we have this report ready 
we're going to call for a disinvestment.  
And. . .a boycott.   
Now Gandhi started with a boycott of British clothing.  
Because when you want to defend your own democracy 
you also have to resist that which colonizes you.
And in this case, Monsanto is the colonizer.  So you have to say, 
don't put your money into it.  And for farmers to say "have a boycott", 
but for that we'll have to build up very rapidly an alternate seed 
supply system.  
We'll have to bring back, bring up the local seed firms.  
We'll have to bring back seed, community seed banks, etc. 
But I think, I think if we name it it's like, a bit like the emperor 
has no clothes.
I think that should be the title of the report: 
"The Emperor Has No Clothes."
>>AUDIENCE:  [laughter]
>>JASON:  Thank you.
>>DR. MICHAEL SONNLEITER:   Two things.  It looks like 
we now have two lines.  And we might be forced to take turns 
if we're a civilized people.
Second, if you're asking a question, 
you need to be within about one inch of the microphone 
or others might not be able to hear you.  So you have to be right up 
like I am here.
I think it's the turn of this line to ask a question.  
Please, identify yourself and ask your question.
>>COLIN:  Hi there.  My name is Colin, and I am currently 
in a social justice community theater group that uses theater 
of the oppressed to talk about issues in the community.
And focusing on the intersections of racism and sexism and all, 
all these sorts of social justice issues I'm finding that 
a lot of people have trouble bringing it around to food equity.
And I've not found the words to describe how. . .
to describe the intersections of racism and sexism 
and sort of the global food economy, and I was wondering 
whether you could help me with that.
>>DR. VANDANA SHIVA:   Read my book, "Staying Alive." 
>>COLIN:  I have.
>>DR. VANDANA SHIVA:   You have.  So you know the new edition 
has an entire updated chapter, because I wrote it 
before globalization. 
But it has an updated chapter on the food issue.
>>COLIN:  Yeah.
>>DR. VANDANA SHIVA:   And it definitely sort of addresses 
that interaction between, you know, racism and sexism.
And how, how these two distorted worldviews impact.  
What, what our relationship to food is.
And of course I go one step further to say, if we're to have a future 
of food, we've got to turn to the peasants of the south 
and we have to turn to women.
That's where we know what food, growing food sustainably is like.  
Even today, 70% of the food is produced by the small farms 
of the third world, not by Cargill.
>>COLIN:  Thank you.
>>AUDIENCE:  [applause]
>>LIZ:  My name is Liz and I'm a Portland State University student.  
And I've noticed that here in America there seems to be a silent war 
on a type of knowledge, which to me is cooking.
And cooking the basics is the soul of a home in my opinion, 
and it seems like the more corporations want to move us 
in the direction of accepting genetically modified seeds, 
and accepting genetically modified animals, 
and buying into their propaganda led campaigns, 
the more I find people accept it.
And there's. . .it's kind of hard to get people 
to understand these ideals and to reclaim these values.
And I don't. . .do you see this a lot also in the countries 
that you visit and in your home that there's that secret eradication 
of knowledge in how to cook, as well.
>>DR. VANDANA SHIVA:   Well actually, there's such an irony 
because while there's an attack on cooking, which is power 
of the ordinary person, there is an explosion of cooking programs on TV
>>AUDIENCE:  [laughter]
>>DR. VANDANA SHIVA:    And an explosion of fancy cookbooks 
in bookstores.
I've faced this very directly.  Because there's an assault directly 
on women's cooking.  
And the corporations are very clever. . .
and this is related to the question that just came before. . .
where they're making it look like cooking is women's enslavement.   
And as if they're here to liberate us.  
And I have this debate at the World Economic Forum with McKinsey, 
which has written a report who's acronym is FITHA, 
which means profit. 
And then they go on to say people shouldn't be cooking.   
And, and the head of McKinsey actually tried to say, you are trying 
to keep women in the kitchen.  I said no, we are trying 
to keep our food in the kitchen.  And we would like men and women 
to share the cooking.
And you are not our liberators!
 >>AUDIENCE:  [applause]
>>LIZ:  Yes. Yes.  Thank you.
>>DR. VANDANA SHIVA:   And maybe I should just add 
because I've just. . .so your mother was a grandmother.
There's also an assault in ads on grandmothers, you know?  
There's an older woman who'll bring a dish to a child 
who will push it away and sulk 'til the mother brings maggi noodles.  
Or a pizza.
Or, you know, the typical things they want to push on the Indians.
And so we've started something we call the grandmothers university.
Because they are putting grandmothers down 
and we want to celebrate grandmothers' wisdom, knowledge, skills 
and their love.
>>AUDIENCE:  [applause]
>>ANNIE:  Hi, my name's Annie, and it's a great privilege 
to be hear today to hear you talk.   I'm a little nervous.
My question goes along the lines of what the prior questions 
were about women and gender and you being a very highly 
looked at environmentalist or a person who speaks out for. . .
and you are of a different race and color 
say that the white generation, and you're female.
Being a female, was it. . .did you find a lot of miles or steps against you?  
Was it harder for you, do you think, than. . .
is it a male dominated world when it comes to environmental. . .?
>>DR. VANDANA SHIVA:   Well, you know, sometimes it's hard, 
and sometimes it's easier because you're a woman.
And they get so taken by surprise.
>>AUDIENCE:  [laughter]
>>DR. VANDANA SHIVA:   You're not supposed to exist!
>>ANNIE:   That's it exactly.  Okay, thank you.
>>KIM SMITH:  Hello, my name's Kim Smith and I teach Sociology 
at Sylvania, and I'll be hosting you later.
I'm curious about. . .well, I specialize in social movements, 
and I'm curious about how to stand up to corporations 
without the fear of them oppressing us in terms of safety, 
and lawsuits, and death threats, and those kinds of things.
Like how. . .in your reality, I know you have to face 
those kinds of things, and I'm wondering for all of us too, like, 
how do you find the strength to know that they are trying to 
not just repress us through our food but also through our safety.
As activists.
>>DR. VANDANA SHIVA:   I think that's why the concept 
of satyagraha is so important.
Because what is satyagraha?  You work from your truth.  
And that is what's your ground, that is what's your power.  
That's what gives you the strength.
And it also created fearlessness.  Because if the right thing to do 
is defined by truth that you experience. . .and when I say truth 
I'm not meaning it in some abstract form.
I'm talking of truth in a lived reality of interconnections.  
With duties, responsibilities, rights, all fully experienced.
The. . .
that's really the counter.  That's the strength.
If you first start thinkng about the corporation and becoming afraid of it,
then you'll never act.  
So satyagraha really is centering yourself in yourself 
and your community, and the earth, 
and acting from there.
Now abusive power, any violent form of power, 
will of course try violence.  But it only works for a short time.  
Threats only work for a short time.
Because if what you're acting on is the right thing 
then your next neighbor, your next person, your next person, 
will multiply.
I mean, I started this '87, as I mentioned.  '87, nobody cared 
about what's happening to seed.  
Nobody knew that  it's under danger.
But each of you is today concerned.  So it grows, you know?   
The communication spreads.
When Gandhi went to Dundee, he went alone.  
But people followed him and others joined.  
And then across the country action spread.
So, just think of Tahrir Square, Egypt.  Think of Tunisia, 
that first man that triggered what has become 
an uncontrollable phenomena.
But didn't come from someone saying, I'm going to be a leader, 
and I will lead the masses.  It came from someone saying, 
this is the right thing to do.
And because it's the right thing to do, it resonates and others join.
So I think overcoming the fear of the corporations, 
and I'll mention just a little bit.  
You know, when I first started to come and talk about the gm question 
in this country people would say we can't.  
We can't organize a conference, Monsanto will sue us.
We can't write a book. I'd say, document it.  They'd say, 
we've written it!  And our publisher was sued.
We made a film; we were sued.  
So I said, you know what I'm going to do, is come to St. Louis; 
let's organize a conference.  And we did a conference called 
"Bio Devastation."
And I think it must have been 2002 or something.  And I said, 
we'll come there and we'll be international.  
We'll be from all over the world and say the same things 
and let's see how Monsanto goes after 70 countries.  Yeah?
They hid behind the bushes.  And from then on was Bio Devastation 
has been an annual conference.  It's been possible for people 
to write about Monsanto.  I give speeches about Monsanto.
They sometimes hide at the back but that's about the worst 
they can do.
>>AUDIENCE:  [laughter/applause]
>>KIM SMITH:  Thank you. 
>>AUDIENCE MEMBER:  My question is, you know, 
I'll give a little background to the question maybe is, 
now that we're in technology, you know, we've, 
we've come in to technology from the natural world.
Man has progressed.  The agricultural revolution, 
the Industrial Revolution, capitalism, you know, maybe, 
I'm not sure what's next.  
But can the synthetic world have a sustainable relationship 
with the natural world?
>>DR. VANDANA SHIVA:   The synthetic world, 
given that it constantly must expand its greed, 
cannot have a relationship with the natural world.
Let me just mention:  the same industries 
that first grabbed our food are now grabbing food for bio-fuel.  
Yeah?  30% of your food is now. . .of corn is going into making fuel 
for cars.
And the imagination, if you read the literature, the imagination 
of the corporations, which are five in oil, five in agribusiness, 
five in seed, five in water, five in forests, they're all converging into one.
And they want to control all the biological systems of the planet 
to create a synthetic world.
Not only will the natural world not survive, they synthetic world 
won't survive with that kind of predatory appetite.
>>AUDIENCE MEMBER:   Can I take that further maybe?
>>DR. VANDANA SHIVA:   It depends on the moderator, 
who is missing.
>>AUDIENCE:  [laughter]
>>DR. MICHAEL SONNLEITER:  I'm right here.  I think follow up one 
but we need to move along with other speakers.
>>AUDIENCE MEMBER:   Sure, sure.  
I guess then the question is more specifically then, 
closed loop industries where there's no off gassing in the process, 
you know, like plastics that are a closed loop industry, that, 
that would be a form of synthetic that mimics nature.
>>DR. VANDANA SHIVA:   But it. . .the point is, 
normally when we talk about synthetic it means: 
sucks up natural resources and throws out waste.
So the minute it's closed loop [Unintelligible]
And, you know, when you frame the question you've said 
we've left nature for technology.
I think part of what corporate rule has done 
is created a very alienated understanding of technology.
Technology is merely tools.  The stone man, 
the stone age man had tools; he had technology.
Human beings have technology; every stage, all the time.  
The point is, not only is it bigger and more powerful. . .
like often they'd say, oh, you know, 
genetic engineering's a more sophisticated technology.
And I say it's like the equivalent of bringing in a JCB machine 
to put up one of those paintings.   Yeah.
For that painting all you would need is a nail 
and some kind of hammer that puts in the nail.  
It's the most effective way to put a painting up.
You don't bring a JCB machine.  They're bringing JCB machines 
to deal with life and seeds.  Not smart; it's crude.
So I don't talk of it as high tech.  I talk of it as crude tech. 
>>AUDIENCE MEMBER:   Thank you very much.
>>AUDIENCE:  [applause]
>>AUDIENCE MEMBER:   Hello, Dr. Shiva.  Thanks so much 
for coming.  I am a graduate of Portland State University, 
which is close to here, in conflict resolution.  
There's a master's program there.
And we'll hope that maybe one of these days 
you'll speak at our university too.
My question, actually. . .I am really glad that you're speaking 
about Monsanto because  as far as I'm concerned, 
there's a lot of different images in the media. . .and I'm sure that 
you have a lot to say about image manipulation as far as advertising.
I, I even think that Monsanto actually sponsors shows on PBS 
including the news hour, and then it projects itself 
as being this very altruistic corporation that's trying to, 
to grow this rice that gets like a double fold crop, for example 
for the starving people in Africa.
So I was wondering, with the world food shortage as something 
as a problem, although a lot of that, the reason 
why the food doesn't get to those people is 
because of corrupt governments there, and if you wanted to talk 
about that too within the question, but how would you say 
if there's anything we can do for taking down 
and dismantling the incorrect images that Monsanto's trying 
to put out there in the world when we talk about 
what Monsanto's doing as far as preventing farmers 
from keeping their own seeds.
>>DR. VANDANA SHIVA:   Well, for one, as I mentioned already earlier, 
there is no single seed that Monsanto has sold 
that's genetically engineered that has higher yields 
because of the genetic engineering.
It's technologically not possible.  And empirically it's not there.
So one of the first steps is to counter it.
You know, there is a group called Adbusters, that takes ads 
and writes sort of, you know, ads a little bit to it.
And I think one of you can take this up as a project.  Take the ads 
of Monsanto and make counter ads that are the reality of whatever.
They'll talk about how bt cotton made Indian farmers millionaires.  
They've even sponsored studies, 250 million a year.  
They've done another study how bt cotton is liberating Indian women.
For each of them there's a reality, which needs to be put 
into communication.  And, you know, that's exactly 
what young people love to do and I'm sure someone here 
will find a way to, to create more authentic communication.
>>AUDIENCE MEMBER:  Adbusters.  Thank you.
>>DR. MICHAEL SONNLEITER:   I might want to add that given 
we have six minutes, probably the three people 
who have just been standing for some time will be our last questioners. 
If you'd like, you can go and then we'll take turns. 
If you want to go?
>>LARRY DAVIS:  Oh, go first?  Okay.  Hi, my name's Larry Davis.  
I'm a student here at PCC.  I want to say thank you 
for everything you do and for coming and speaking.
Have you noticed a movement more spread, not only in this countries 
but others, where they're trying to prohibit private 
and community gardens?
There, there's been speak lately of trying to ban, you know, 
a person out of having a garden in their own yard. 
>>DR. VANDANA SHIVA:  Well, they definitely try.  
But it depends on how strong the movement 
for reclaiming gardening as a human freedom is.
So there's. . .it's not going to be easy because the. . 
I, I remember when Lewis & Clark, they were tearing up the, 
the parking lots to create gardens.
So there was a period where concrete was the celebration.
>>LARRY DAVIS:  Right.
>>DR. VANDANA SHIVA:  But I think people's consciousness
is growing so much that. . .
and especially at the local level, it's not going to be easy.
Because gardens grow locally; locally usually, 
local authorities give space.  You know, partner.
It's. . .that's where the spaces get expanded.  So if it happens, 
people should rise and defend their freedom.  
And do a garden satyagraha.
>>LARRY DAVIS:  Thank you.
>>AUDIENCE:  [applause]
>>AUDIENCE MEMBER:  Greetings, Dr. Shiva.  Thanks for being here.
Two of the most powerful social movements in the world 
are the labor movement and the environmental movement.
And some people have talked about a tension 
between these two movements.  
Can you talk a little bit about that tension, and about what role 
you think workers play in the environmental movement?
>>DR. VANDANA SHIVA:  You know, I'm very fortunate 
to have been part of movements in India where, for example, 
the women of chipko were workers; they were growing food. 
They were working on their land.  And they were also the protectors 
of the forest. 
So we haven't had this artificial divide that has been more easy 
for corporations to promote for a divide and rule policy 
in industrialized society.
I think there are two places where we need a new convergence 
between the ecological movement and the worker's movement.
The first is by redefining what is called productivity.
You know, when the technology question was asked, 
how is food efficiency defined in agriculture?  It's defined 
by putting humans as the only input.  Not natural resources.
Because productivity's output per unit input, you should calculate 
all outputs and all inputs.  
Inputs include the water.  They include the finance.  
They include the soil.  They include the biodiversity.
Outputs actually include biodiversity: water, food, nutrition.
By pitting nature against humans in the very definition of productivity, 
industrial society, industrial agriculture, has created this antithetical relationship.
And we are at a time where we're running out of resources and 
we're not running out of people.
So we need to shift productivity with respect 
to natural resources rather than labor.
So these very fundamental conceptual issues 
of what's a good technology, what is growth, what is productivity, etc.
And the second has to be, in my view, 
a place where 
we converge on the public good and commons.
You know, the environmental movement needs to become a defense 
of our living commons.
But the worker's movement also is about defending our common good, 
including the right to work, to the dignity of work.
Because not only is the way this system has been designed by corporations 
destroying nature and becoming life threatening, 
it is creating the end of work.
And it's on the one hand putting all of nature into the market 
and a commodity.  So you buy your water, you buy your food, 
you buy your. . .you buy everything.
You buy education.  You buy your health. And meantime 
it's taking away from people the capacity to work, to earn, to be able to fit. . .
So it's a contradiction, and we need to address 
that contradiction in the system by new partnerships, of how can we create. . .
how can we defend work.
That's the Wisconsin issue. . .
the right to work, the right to organize. . .
and how can we create new opportunities for work 
which also are sustainable.
>>AUDIENCE MEMBER:  Thank you.
>>AUDIENCE:  [applause]
>>WILL:  Hi.  My name's Will.  I'm a student here at PCC 
and I'm doing a project on religious inequalities.
And one of the things I've been looking at a lot 
is the Abrahamic religions have been kind of ignoring a lot 
of the devastation caused by it.
Is there a real huge inequality of the Abrahamic kind 
of like ignoring everything while the rest of the world is kind 
of looking at it as a problem?
>>DR. VANDANA SHIVA:  Well, you're asking the wrong person, 
you know?  I'm not so educated on religions.
What I try and do is every time there's a religious divide I try 
and look for what's common behind them.
So for example, last year we did a, a major gathering on faith 
and food, showing when it comes to the bottom line every religion says, 
grow good food in abundance, and every religion says, 
share with your neighbor that nobody goes hungry.
So that's my height of religious education.
>>AUDIENCE:  [laughter/applause]
>>WILL:  Thank you.
>>DR. MICHAEL SONNLEITER:   Before we wrap things up I think, 
and give Vandana Shiva a final round of applause, 
a couple of announcements should be made.
I would like to yield just two minutes. . .go slightly, slightly over timeÉ
to a young man who would like to inform you regarding organizations 
that you may be involved in or become involved in in the Portland 
and Oregon area.  Yes?  Briefly.
>>AUDIENCE MEMBER:  Hi, I just had a couple things to say.
First of all, thank you so much for your speech 
and for all your work over the years.  To many people, as you know, 
you're a great hero.
And there's a wonderful movie. . .Helena Norberg-Hodge, 
I don't know if some of you know her.  She made a movie called 
"he Economics of Happiness" that Vandana Shiva is in.  
She has a wonderful role there.  Very important movie to see.
So Helena Norberg-Hodge will be coming back sometime in June.  
So I hope you can all see that, or find another way to see it.
There's an organization called "Food and Water Watch", 
a natural organization.  I hope some of you have heard of them.
They're fighting many campaigns very apropos to this talk, so. . .
Nestle is trying to get rights to water in the Columbia Gorge 
and start a bottling plant so that needs a lot of opposition.
And they're, they're spearheading campaigns to write to Obama 
to try to do something about all the approvals that Monsanto recently...
the government approved GEF-alpha and GE sugar beets 
and a bunch of other things.
So there's a lot of great organizations, 
Food and Water Watch particularly, to get involved in.  
Lot of great things to, to do.
So thank you so much.
>>AUDIENCE:  [applause]
>>DR. MICHAEL SONNLEITER:   At this point please join me  
in saying thank you, thank you, thank you for being here.
>>AUDIENCE:  [applause]
[outro music]
