Dr. Vandana Shiva on India’s farmers protests: Indian farmers are victims of food imperialism (E976)

On this episode of Going Underground, we speak to Dr. Vandana Shiva, the founder and president of the technology and natural-resource policy foundation Navdanya, who was awarded the Right Livelihood Award, also known as the ‘Alternative Nobel Prize’. She discusses the recent avalanche in Uttarakhand, which has left hundreds missing, and the causes behind it. She also explains how the World Bank’s actions in 1991 were arguably the start of Indian farmers’ battle with global capitalism, and why India’s farmers are organising en masse to oppose Modi’s neoliberal farming laws. Dr. Shiva talks about multinational farming corporations and their war on India’s independent farmers, the history of the spread of GMO technology such as ‘Roundup’, why a transition away from industrial farming back to small-scale farming is needed to fight climate change, and much more!

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We contacted the UK Department for Food and Rural Affairs, which directed us to this statement by Environment Secretary George Eustice: “Gene editing has the ability to harness the genetic resources that mother nature has provided, in order to tackle the challenges of our age. This includes breeding crops that perform better, reducing costs to farmers and impacts on the environment, and helping us all adapt to the challenges of climate change.”

“Its potential was blocked by a European Court of Justice ruling in 2018, which is flawed and stifling to scientific progress. Now that we have left the EU, we are free to make coherent policy decisions based on science and evidence. That begins with this consultation.”