Shiva, Vandana

▪ 1998

      In recent years biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies had begun to probe the farthest reaches of the Earth in search of plants and animals that may yield benefits for humans. This research had already paid off in the development of products ranging from new medicines and cosmetics to agricultural goods. According to Indian scientist Vandana Shiva, however, the biological wealth of poorer countries too often was appropriated by global corporations that neither sought their hosts' consent nor shared the profits. These practices were tantamount to biological theft, she charged in her 1997 book Biopiracy: The Plunder of Nature and Knowledge. In addition, Shiva believed that the power of multinational companies to patent life-forms—and therefore maintain exclusive control over their use—deprived indigenous people of the right to benefit from the natural resources in their own backyards.

      This was not the first time that Shiva, who had a master's degree in particle physics and a Ph.D. in the philosophy of science, had spoken out in defense of protecting biodiversity and the rights of people in less-developed countries. The author of 11 books, she had emerged as an internationally renowned advocate of sustainable development and an authority on women's issues. In 1993 she was the recipient of the Right Livelihood Award, often regarded as the alternative Nobel Prize and bestowed to "honour and support those offering practical and exemplary answers to the most urgent challenges facing us today."

      As founder and director of the Research Foundation for Science, Technology, and Natural Resource Policy in New Delhi, Shiva had worked on grassroots campaigns to prevent clear-cut logging and the construction of large dams. She was perhaps best known, however, as a longtime critic of Asia's Green Revolution, an international effort that began in the 1960s to increase food production in less-developed countries through higher-yielding seed stocks and the increased use of pesticides and fertilizers. The Green Revolution, she maintained, had led to pollution, a loss of indigenous seed diversity and traditional agricultural know-how, and a troubling dependence of poor farmers on costly chemical inputs. In response, Research Foundation scientists established seed banks throughout India to preserve the country's agricultural heritage while training farmers in sustainable agricultural practices.

      Born in 1952 in India, Shiva became interested in environmental issues as a college student after she returned to a favourite childhood place in the Himalayan mountains only to find that the forest had been cleared and a stream drained so that an apple orchard could be planted. "I think there's nothing as exhilarating as protecting that which you find precious," she said in a 1997 interview in The Progressive magazine. "To me, fighting for people's rights, protecting nature, protecting diversity is a constant reminder of that which is so valuable in life."

ADELHEID FISCHER

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