Vandana Shiva begins this short work with a compelling example from western history: Pope Alexander VI granting to monarchs Ferdinand and Isabel all lands "discovered and to be discovered, one hundred leagues to the West and South of the Azores toward India" not already belonging to Christian rulers. At least in the opinion of the beneficiaries, it was the pope's "divine right" to grant—to whomever he wished— nations, and lands, and even peoples. This Papal Bull, the charter that had been granted to Columbus, and patents thereafter granted by European monarchs were the juridical and moral foundations for the later colonization and subsequent extermination of peoples (there was an 85% decline in population in the ensuing centuries).
The parallel Shiva draws throughout Biopiracy is between the actions and attitudes of the pope and European rulers during colonial times, and the actions and attitudes of late-20th century powers like the World Trade Organization and multinational corporations. Not excepted is the United States, whose section 301 of the unilaterally-decided U.S. Trade Act gives the federal government the power to take unilateral action against any country that does not open its markets to U.S. corporations. What results from the actions taken by the "superpowers" of recent years is an increasing lack of diversity in a variety of fields. Shiva backs her arguments both philosophically and spiritually, illustrating her points with examples from around the Third World where loss in revenue, livelihood, dignity, and biodiversity are seen. In most cases, such ventures have enriched the coffers of European and American corporations.
In the initial chapter, Shiva argues that patents, particularly on intellectual property, undermine social creativity in the scientific community by stifling free exchange of information and ideas among scientists. The newly instituted practice of allowing patents on ideas and subtle changes in living organisms is outlined and challenged in chapter 2, where Shiva makes frequent reference to Anand Chakravarty and General Electric's first U.S. patent on a genetically engineered bacterium. The seminal patent laid the groundwork for many others, as we know, some as blatant as Sungene's ability to patent sunflowers with high oleic acid content, which Shiva discusses in a later chapter. Sungene subsequently informed other growers looking to produce oil that any sunflower variety high in oleic acid would be considered an infringement of its patent any variety high in oleic acid will be considered an infringement of its patent (p. 55).
In chapter 3, "The Seed and the Earth," Shiva takes aim at the Green Revolution and Biotechnology. She calls organisms "the new colonies." "The land, the forests, the rivers, the oceans, and the atmosphere have all been colonized, eroded, and polluted. Capital now has to look for new territories to invade and exploit for its increasing accumulation" (p. 45). Biotechnology, she says, makes possible the "colonization," and the control, of what has for eons been free, autonomous, and self-regenerative.
The Green revolution (where chemical fertilizers from factories and marketed outputs of agricultural commodities are substituted for the natural, regenerative nutrient cycle) essentially entails miracle seeds and chemical fertilizers. The earth is seen as an "empty vessel" that, with the right seeds and chemical additives, can produce marvellous agricultural products.
In her discussion of hybridization, Shiva discusses the capability of seed developers to stop seed from reproducing itself. And, when hybrid "varieties do not produce true-to-type seed… farmers must return to the breeder each year for the new seed stock. (In Stolen Harvest, Shiva discusses the added complication the new world has brought: it is now becoming illegal for farmers to save the seed of certain plants from one year to plant the next year, and for farmers to share seeds with their colleagues: all results of recent WTO treaties.
The new seeds neither reproduce by themselves—because genetic technology has allowed them to be turned from a renewable into a nonrenewable resource—nor produce by themselves (because in many cases they are engineered to need certain chemical products). These chemical products are frequently to be purchased from the chemical company that has recently merged with the seed company. And this is what leads Shiva to her statement that "It is this shift from ecological processes of production through regeneration to technological processes of nonregenerative production that underlies the dispossession of farmers and the drastic reduction of biological diversity in agriculture. It is at the root of the creation of poverty and of non-sustainability in agriculture."
In a number of her books, Shiva points out that genetic engineering and biotechnolgy only relocate genes that already exist, they do not bring new life forms into being. But "the ability to relocate and separate [genes] is translated into the power and right to own. The power to own is then translated into control of the entire organism." (53-54)
In Chapter 4, Biodiversity and People's Knowledge, Shiva discusses the patenting of products and processes, and how this has become "a major issue of conflict" in the domain of intellectual property rights when it entails plants: several products and processes are derived on the basis of indigenous knowledge
When all is said and done, what is at issue is a combination of "colonial" greed and the mechanical paradigm that has steered us to where we are today:
"We need to transition to an alternative economic paradigm that does not reduce all value to market prices and all human activity to commerce.
"Ecologically, this approach involves the recognition of the value of diversity in itself. All life-forms have an inherent right to life; that should be the overriding reason for preventing species' extinction."(77)
In Chapter 5, Tripping Over Life, she begins with her philosophical and spiritual basis: diversity is the key to sustainability. "It is… the 'law of return' based on the recognition of the right of all species to happiness and freedom from suffering. Yet the law of return based on freedom and diversity is being replaced by the logic of return on investments." Throughout the book she points out how genetic engineering helps expand both "monocultures and monopolies." (p. 87). She offers examples of how hybrid seeds have left fields ravaged with withered plants or, despite assurances by the patented seed's distributor, actually cost farmers more per acre than the seed they had previously been using.
In her final chapter, Making Peace With Diversity, Shiva outlines three types of globalization. The first is colonialism, wherein nature was transformed "in the European mind from a self-organizing, living system to a mere raw material for human exploitation, needing management and control." (104) The west has historically seen the different, the wild, as "savage," in need of control and domination. Colonization was the first wave of globalization.
The second globalization is development. Development, she says (p. 107), "is a beautiful word, suggesting evolution from within." In her most stinging passage in this section, she speaks of the Green Revolution as a "prime example." "It destroyed diverse ecosystems of the planet, globalizing the culture and economy of an industrial agriculture. It wiped out thousands of crops and crop varieties, substituting them with monocultures of rice, wheat, and maize across the Third World. It replaced internal inputs with capital-and chemical-intensive inputs, creating debt for farmers and death for ecosystems; and "free trade," whose negotiations and treaties "have become the primary locations for the use of coercion and force." She illustrates with the comment about the last stage of GATT negotiations in December 1993, when two individuals—the US and the EU representatives—"sat behind closed doors and then presented the world with a 'free trade' treaty. Despite insisting that the negotiations were global, the countries of the North refused in the end to accept any discussions, even bilaterally, with the countries of the Third World." Shiva asserts: "this is nearly multilateralism nor global democracy."
Biopiracy is full of examples, and an interesting read for both the average high school student interested in an introduction to one side of an important 21st century issue, and the secondary school teacher (of ethics, environmental studies, or related fields) looking for information or class discussion materials. It sets up a number of scenarios that are great for the high school ethics class debate.
review ©2003 by David Streight and RSiSS