tagged w/ Navdanya
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In eastern Orissa state’s tribal hinterlands about 200 ‘seed-mothers’ are on mission mode - identifying, collecting and conserving traditional seed varieties and motivating farming families to use them.
The seed-mothers (bihana-maa in the local dialect) from the Koya and Kondh tribal communities have reached 1,500 families in the Malkangiri and Kandhamal districts and are still counting. These women are formidable storehouses of knowledge on indigenous seeds and biodiversity conservation.
Collecting, multiplying and distributing through exchange local varieties of paddy, millet, legume, vegetables and leafy green seeds, the seed-mothers already have a solid base of 80 converted villages.
As they spread their message through the hinterland, targeting another 140 villages, the women also promote zero dependence on chemical fertilisers and pesticides.
Considering that Malkangiri is Orissa’s least developed district, with literacy at a low 50 percent and isolated by rivers, forests, undulating topography and poor connectivity, the achievement of the seed-mothers is admirable.
The struggles of Malkangiri farmers with climate change is visible in the Gudumpadar village where seed-mothers are passionately reviving agricultural heritage and convincing the community to stay with local seeds and bio-fertilisers and pesticides.
"This is the best way to cope with erratic rainfall, ensure the children are fed and avoid the clutches of moneylenders," says 65-year-old seed-mother Kanamma Madkami of Kanjeli village, who has multiplied 29 varieties of local millet and paddy seeds.
Mangu Adari, 35, who owns less than two hectares of rain-fed land, some of it on a hill slope, is one of the new converts to local seeds. Last monsoon he could cultivate paddy, millet, beans and pulses on only half his land due to late and heavy rains. This year he hopes to have a surplus to take to the market to sell for badly needed cash.
"Local plants are products of centuries of adaptation to local climate and soil characteristics, hence, indigenous paddy holds out to drought for 30 days compared to 15 days by high-yield hybrid varieties," explains Kusum Misra, coordinator in Orissa for Navdanya, a network of seed-keepers spread over 16 Indian states and supported by 54 community seed banks.
Similarly paddy grown traditionally in the lowland can survive two weeks of water logging while highland paddy varieties yield quick harvests in just 60 days, compared to the 125 days for hybrid paddy, Misra said.
Based in rice-rich Balasore district, Misra has collected and propagated more than 65- varieties of traditional paddy, including strains of aromatic rice, those with resistance to salinity (for coastal farming), floods and droughts and some with medicinal properties.
The traditional varieties respond to natural fertilisers and pesticides; and if seeds are preserved properly the farmer actually has access to no-cost farming. "When they own the seeds farmers can time the sowing or even resort to a second round of sowing if needed," says Kanamma.
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Seed-mothers need little more than a backyard patch to propagate seeds and supplement family nutrition. Kausalya Madakami of Malkangiri’s Manga village developed 57 varieties of food plants and exchanged them too.
Annual community seed fairs, organised right after the monsoon harvest, help promote and exchange traditional seeds and knowledge. Here the seed-mothers cook and showcase various traditional items made from indigenous paddy and millet.
Tribal women are re-learning the traditional ways of seed preservation from the seed-mothers. Vegetable seeds are smeared with wood ash, bitter begonia or neem leaf powder and stored in hollow bamboo poles while paddy and millet are safe in jute bags hung from rafters. Pre-sowing treatment may involve cow-dung and cow urine or the use of ivy gum as anti-fungal and pest repellant.
Poor seed quality marketed by the government is a real worry. The government’s National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) in a status report on seed development released in March carried data showing falling rice production in six eastern states, including Orissa - the rice bowl of the country.
In Orissa, the seed germination rate for regular paddy is just 55 percent and may drop as low as 25 percent. According to the NABARD report, land under cultivation in the state is shrinking and poor quality seeds and increasing floods and droughts are making farming increasingly un-remunerative.
Well-known environmental activist and founder of Navdanya, Vandana Shiva, told IPS that "climate resilient seeds in women's hands are vital to climate security and corporations that have taken out some 1,600 patents on climate resilient seeds are biopirates".
"Allowing corporations to hijack and monopolise seed supply is a recipe for food insecurity and climate insecurity," Shiva averred.In eastern Orissa state’s tribal hinterlands about 200... more
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This is the passionate speech given by Dr. Shiva at the Sydney Opera House upon receiving the Sydney Peace Prize for 2010. It is a truthful speech that speaks to the underlying theme of war and its correlation to agriculture, water, land, indigenous rights, human rights and the corporate war against nature for the sake of profit at the expense of life. She is truly an inspiration.This is the passionate speech given by Dr. Shiva at the Sydney Opera House upon... more
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Something doesn’t quite add up about genetically modified (GM) foods.
Big biotech claims that genetic engineering is a necessary step towards feeding the world’s growing population. And yet debate still rages as to whether GM crops actually increase yields at all. Furthermore, the UN recently stated that 30,000 people a day were starving to death, but not because of underproduction of crops. It’s simply through lack of access.
Independent scientific studies raised serious alarm bells over the safety of GM foods over a decade ago. But while this made front-page headlines in European newspapers, the North American mainstream media were conspiratorially silent.
Biotech companies stand to make billions from their seed patents. Governments and supreme courts have sanctioned the patenting of life itself. The planet’s food supply is becoming increasingly dominated by fewer and fewer players.
If the biotech industry’s stated intention of feeding the world is misguided or even misdirecting, is there another political agenda behind GM food? Have we been mis-sold? Were we even given a choice in the first place?
Jeffrey M. Smith, international bestselling author of Seeds of Deception and Genetic Roulette: The Documented Health Risks of Genetically Engineered Foods, reveals the shocking truth behind GM foods and the huge effort by governments and Biotech corporations to keep it out of the mainstream media and outside of your awareness.
WORDS: Jeffrey M. Smith
It looks the same—the bread, pies, sodas, even corn on the cob. So much of what we eat every day looks just like it did 20 years ago. But something profoundly different has happened without our knowledge or consent. And according to leading doctors, what we don’t know may already be hurting us big time.
In May, the American Academy of Environmental Medicine (AAEM) publicly condemned genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in our food supply, saying they posed “a serious health risk.” They called on the US government to implement an immediate moratorium on all genetically modified (GM) foods, and urged physicians to prescribe non-GMO diets for all patients.
GM-What?
Genetic engineering is quite distinct from selective breeding because it involves taking genes from a completely different species and inserting them into the DNA of a plant or animal. The long term effects of this for our health and our planet’s biodiversity are unknown.
AAEM, an “Academy of Firsts,” was the first US medical organization to describe or acknowledge Gulf War Syndrome, chemical sensitivity, food allergy/addiction, and a host of other medical issues. But the potential for harm from GMOs dwarfs anything they have identified thus far. It can impact everyone who eats.
More than 70% of the foods on supermarket shelves contain derivatives of the eight GM foods on the market—soy, corn, oil from canola and cottonseed, sugar from sugar beets, Hawaiian papaya, and a small amount of zucchini and crook neck squash. The biotech industry hopes to genetically engineer virtually all remaining vegetables, fruits, grains, and beans (not to mention animals).
The two primary reasons why plants are engineered are to allow them to either drink poison, or produce poison. The poison drinkers are called herbicide tolerant. They’re inserted with bacterial genes that allow them to survive otherwise deadly doses of toxic herbicide. Biotech companies sell the seed and herbicide as a package deal, and US farmers use hundreds of millions of pounds more herbicide because of these types of GM crops. The poison producers are called Bt crops. Inserted genes from the soil bacterium Bacillus Thuringiensis produce an insect-killing pesticide called Bt-toxin in every cell of the plant. Both classes of GM crops are linked to dangerous side effects.
Doctors and Patients: Just Say No to GMOs
“Now that soy is genetically engineered,” warns Ohio allergist Dr. John Boyles, “it is so dangerous that I tell people never to eat it.” How dangerous are GM foods? World renowned biologist Pushpa M. Bhargava, PhD, believes they are the major reason for the recent rise in serious illnesses in the US.
The range of what GMOs might do to us is breathtaking. “Several animal studies,” according to the AAEM, reveal a long list of disorders, including: “infertility, immune dysregulation, accelerated aging, dysregulation of genes associated with cholesterol synthesis, [faulty] insulin regulation, cell signaling, and protein formation, and changes in the liver, kidney, spleen and gastrointestinal system.”
“There is more than a casual association between GM foods and adverse health effects,” says the AAEM position paper. Based on established scientific criteria, “there is causation.”Something doesn’t quite add up about genetically modified (GM) foods.
Big... more
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In times when food is genetically manipulated and chemically contaminated, the metaphor "food for thought" can also stand for manipulated information and be toxic food for thought. Unfortunately, Dr M.S. Swaminathan's GM: Food for Thought (August 26), is as manipulated as the genetically-modified (GM) foods which were the subject of his article.
Dr Swaminathan's first scientific manipulation was the argument that conventional plant "breeding methods are very time consuming and often not very accurate. However, with the recombinant DNA technology, plants with the desired traits can be produced very rapidly and with greater accuracy". This is scientifically false. Genetic engineering is a crude and blind technology of shooting genes into an organism through a "gene gun". It’s like infecting the organism with a "cancer". It is not known if the transgene is introduced, and that is why antibiotic resistance markers have to be used. Nor is it known where in the genome the transgene gets introduced. This is not "accuracy", it is literally shooting in the dark.
Further, the genetically engineered construct is introduced into existing crops that are bred by conventional breeding methods. Thus Bt Cotton (Bt stands for Bacillus Thuringenesis) is the introduction of Bt genes into existing hybrids in the case of Mahyco (a company that produces and markets a broad range of seeds developed with biotechnology), and into a selection in the case of the Central Cotton Research Institute. GM technology does not substitute conventional breeding, it is dependent on it. Thus the arguments of "speed" as well as "accuracy" are false.
The second scientific inaccuracy in Dr Swaminathan’s article is the claim that through GM technology "we can isolate a gene responsible for conferring drought tolerance, introduce that gene into a plant, and make it drought tolerant".
Drought tolerance is a polygenetic trait. It is, therefore, scientifically flawed to talk of "isolating a gene for drought tolerance". Genetic engineering tools are so far only able to transfer single gene traits. That is why in 20 years only two single gene traits have been commercialised through genetic engineering. One is herbicide resistance and the second is the Bt toxin trait.
Navdanya Trust’s recent report (Biopiracy of Climate Resilient Crops: Gene giants are stealing farmers innovation of drought resistant, flood resistant and salt resistant varieties) shows that farmers have bred corps that are resistant to climate extremes. And it is these traits, a result of a millennia of farmers breeding, that are now being patented and pirated by the genetic engineering industry. Using farmers’ varieties as "genetic material", the biotechnology industry is playing genetic roulette to gamble on which gene complexes are responsible for which trait. This is not done through genetic engineering; it is done through software programs like "Athlete" that uses "vast amounts of available genomic data (mostly public) to rapidly reach a reliable limited list of candidate key genes with high relevance to a target trait of choice. Allegorically, the Athlete platform could be viewed as a "machine" that is able to choose 50-100 lottery tickets from amongst hundreds of thousands
of tickets, with the high likelihood that the winning ticket will be included among them".
Breeding is being replaced by gambling, innovation is giving way to biopiracy, and science is being substituted by propaganda.
more at the link.In times when food is genetically manipulated and chemically contaminated, the... more
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India is emerging as the world centre of hunger and malnutrition, a report by Indian campaign group, the Navdanya Trust, says.
The trust says that there are more than 200 million people - or one-in-four Indians - going without enough to eat.
The prominent environmentalist Vandana Shiva, who runs the trust, said there were now more hungry people in India than in sub-Saharan Africa.
The government has not responded to the report which was released on Thursday.
But it has repeatedly pointed out that huge progress has been made in recent years to improve the country's food security as its population grows by an estimated 18 million people a year.
The government also argues that individual states must take more responsibility to ensure that there is enough food to go around, especially in rural areas afflicted by bad harvests.
Underweight
Ms Shiva said that 57 million children in India are underweight due to malnutrition.
The Navdanya Trust says that per capita food consumption in India has decreased from 186 kg per person annually in 1991 to 152 kg in 2001, despite government food subsidies costing billions of dollars.
The report is largely based on data collected from government surveys as well as the trust 's own material from areas where malnutrition is an issue.
Ms Shiva argued that food provided in ration shops across the country does not provide for a balanced diet and is too rich in starch, leading diseases to such as diabetes.
She was also critical of genetically modified crops and chemical fertilisers, arguing that they only served to increase the costs of food production, forcing farmers into debt and in some cases causing them to commit suicide.
"Studies worldwide show that the hungriest of people are its producers - the farmers," she said.
Ms Shiva told the BBC that the region of Bundelkhand in central India has been hit by drought and starvation for about five years.
"So we've done a primary study there and 90 percent of the families aren't eating a full meal. There are very high rates of starvation,'' she said.
The BBC's Jyotsna Singh says that the trust's report comes at a time when the central government is working on new legislation which aims to ensure all citizens have enough to eat.
Our correspondent says that there are doubts as to whether the poorest of the poor will actually benefit under the scheme.
Some experts say that if the government is able to pass the bill it will be a significant first step towards improving India's ranking on the global hunger index.
The trust's report follows a UN study released in June which said that hunger in South Asia had reached its highest level in 40 years because of food and fuel price rises and the global economic downturn.
The report by the UN children's fund, Unicef, says that 100 million more people in the region are going hungry compared with two years ago.India is emerging as the world centre of hunger and malnutrition, a report by Indian... more
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Biopiracy of traits of climate resilient crops by leading seed multinationals can endanger the income and livelihood of farmers, more particularly in the developing world said a report compiled by a civil society organization, Navdanya.
In tune with the proposals made by the Group of 77, China and other developing countries at the recently concluded 30th meeting of the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI 30) at the climate change talks in Bonn, Navdanya has appealed that climate-friendly technologies should be excluded from patenting.
The world’s big seed companies face claims of bio-piracy and a tough fight with activists as they race to secure patents for climate-proof GM crops.
The report – Biopiracy of Climate Resilient Crops – has documented drought resistant rice varieties grown by farmers from generations to generations in different parts of India, including Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Kerala, Karnataka and flood resistant rice varieties grown in Assam, West Bengal, Orissa, Kerala and Karnataka. Quoting the Guinness Book of Record, the report mentioned Mehite Kenye La rice as the tallest grown paddy in the world which grows up to 2.55 metre or 8.5 feet.
The report documented salinity resistant rice varieties grown in the Sunderban area of West Bengal alongwith the mangroves, Orissa, Kerala, northern Karnataka. It also mentioned some of the diverse aromatic rice varieties and rice varieties having therapeutic values and unique characteristics.
The Navdanya report expressed concern over the biopiracy being done by leading seed multinationals by getting broad patent rights over climate-resistant traits of conventional crops from different patent offices across the world. German company, BASF has acquired 21 such patent rights. Another German company, Bayers has five such patent rights. Ceres Inc of US which partners with Monsanto holds four such patent rights. The reports also mentioned other seed companies holding such patent rights like Dow, DuPont, Evogene, Mendel Biotechnology, Monsanto, Syngenta, Agrigenetic, Mycogen, Agrinomics, Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Plant Research International BV.
“Climate resistant traits are found in many crops conventionally grown across the world, particularly in tropical and sub-tropical countries. These crops are traditionally bred by farmers. The seed multinationals are robbing the farmers of this traditional knowledge and patenting the traits. Some of them are trying to develop second generation genetically modified (GM) crops based on these traits,” alleged Vandana Shiva of Navdanya.
According to Shiva GM crops have failed to provide food and nutritional security. The claim of pest control has turned out to be a hoax. The failure of Bt cotton was an example she said and added that Bt cotton cultivation has placed farmers in heavy losses and brought them to acute point of distress.
end of excerptBiopiracy of traits of climate resilient crops by leading seed multinationals can... more
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Incredible lecture recently given by Dr. Vandana Shiva on the future of food and seed. The preservation of the bija as Dr. Shiva refers to here is the secret of life itself. Monsanto kills life and therefore they will fail. They may see profits in $$$$$ for a time but they will fail where it really matters if we as Dr. Shiva stated at the end of this video, stand together and hold hands worldwide. And in this lecture she covers the entire movement from beginning to end giving us truth, inspiration, and hope. How I love this intelligent, brave, visionary woman!Incredible lecture recently given by Dr. Vandana Shiva on the future of food and seed.... more
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A recent survey conducted by Navdanya reveals shocking statistics of dramatic decreases in microorganisms and beneficial soil enzymes in the soil of Bt Cotton fields. The study comes amid controversial government attempts to commercially introduce Bt Brinjal into India, despite consistent opposition and growing evidence of the negative impact genetically modified organisms have on society, human health and the environment. Numerous studies have linked farmer suicides in India to Bt Cotton due to increased costs of agricultural inputs and falling market prices, resulting in insurmountable debts and desperation. Various other studies have found high rates of infertility in rats that are fed GMO products, animal deaths after grazing on GMO fields and butterfly deaths after feeding on Bt corn pollen. This study now provides damning evidence of the environmental degradation caused by Bt crops, as the crop literally kills organisms in the soil that make available the nutrients plants need to grow, a frightening trend that can lead to large scale desertification . Irregardless of these warning signs and significant opposition, European governments as well are trying to push through a GMO corn variety, Mon810. We demand that an international moratorium be placed in commercialization of GMO crops until there has been more studies conducted to confirm its safety to human health as well as the environment.
Navdanya's study was conducted in Bt cotton growing areas of Vidharbha, comparing the microbial biomass in the soil of Bt cotton fields with that of fields that grew other crops or other types of cotton. The survey found statistically significant drops in 2 microbes and 3 beneficial enzymes. These results are significant as it provides scientific evidence that Bt Cotton is making the soil infertile by decreasing microbial activity, and thus essentially killing the very soil that the crop is grown in. Additionally this proves that industrial agriculture creates a relentless cycle of despair as industrial agricultural products deteriorate soil fertility that then necessitates intensified fertilizer and agricultural application, which ultimately results in increased farmer's costs and soaring debts. It is interesting to note that the study was conducted in a region which has shown an alarmingly high rate of farmer suicides, a shocking 20,000 in the past 5 years. Finally, the fact that Bt cotton crops decreases microbial activity in the soil portends a future of sterile soil that may result in massive desertification and loss of arable land in the future in a time where food security is evermore essential.
The microbes with most significant drops are as follows Actinomycetes(17% decrease), Bacteria(14.2%), Dehydrogenase(10.3%) Acid Phosphatase(26.6%) and Nitrogenase(22.6%).
Actinomycetes play an important role in decomposition of organic materials, and thus provide a vital part in organic matter turnover and carbon cycles that replenish the supply of nutrients in the soil and is an important part of humus formation.
Bacteria are vital in recycling nutrients, contributing to many important steps in nutrient cycles, such as the fixation of nitrogen from the atmosphere and putrefaction.
Dehydrogenase enzymes play a significant role in the biological oxidation of soil and increase beneficial microbial activity.
Acid phosphatase enzymes are used by soil microorganisms to access organically bound phosphate nutrients, which make phosphates available to plants.
Nitrogenase is the enzyme used by some organisms to fix atmospheric nitrogenous gas. It is the only known family of enzymes which accomplishes this process.
We demand the the government heeds to these results, as well as the numerous other studies that reveal the dangers of GMO products, and rethink its policy of allowing Bt cotton, as well as the plan to introduce Bt Brinjal into India.A recent survey conducted by Navdanya reveals shocking statistics of dramatic... more
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Biosafety refers to ensuring that GMO’s do not harm the environment or health.
The soil, its fertility, and the organisms which maintain the fertility of soil are a vital aspect of the environment, especially in the context of food and agricultural production.
A recent scientific study carried out by Navdanya, compared the soil of fields where Bt-cotton had been planted for 3 years with adjoining fields with non GMO cotton or other crops. The region covered included Nagpur, Amravati and Wardha of Vidharbha which accounts for highest GMO cotton planting in India, and the highest rate of farmers suicides (4000 per year).
In 3 years, Bt-cotton has reduced the population of Actinomycetes by 17%. Actinomycetes are vital for breaking down cellulose and creating humus.
Bacteria were reduced by 14%. The total microbial biomass was reduced by 8.9%.
Vital soil beneficial enzymes which make nutrients available to plants have also been drastically reduced. Acid Phosphatase which contributes to uptake of phosphates was reduced by 26.6%. Nitrogenase enzymes which help fix nitrogen were reduced by 22.6%.
At this rate, in a decade of planting with GM cotton, or any GM crop with Bt genes in it, could lead to total destruction of soil organisms, leaving dead soil unable to produce food.
The ISAAA in its recent release has stated that there are 7.6 mha of Bt-cotton in India. This means 7.6 mha of dying soils.
The impact of GMO’s on soil organisms is not commonly studied. This is a vital lacunae because Bt toxin crops such as Mon 810 corn or Bt-cotton or Bt Brinjal have serious impact on beneficial soil organisms.
The government of India is trying to grant approval to Bt Brinjal without Bio safety studies on impact on Soil organisms. The European Commissión is trying to put pressure on GMO free countries to introduce Mon 810.
The Navdanya study the first that has looked at the long term impact of Bt cotton on soil organisms is a wake up to regulators worldwide. It also shows that the claims of the Biotechnology industry about the safety of GM crops are false.
To get a copy of the report and for further information, please contact –
Navdanya
A-60, Hauz Khas
New Delhi – 110 016
Phone : 91-11-26535422 / 26532124
Email : vandana AT vandanashiva DOT com
Website : http://www.navdanya.org/Biosafety refers to ensuring that GMO’s do not harm the environment or health.... more
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For more than a century, farms have been getting bigger while seeds, fertilization and pest control have been getting more uniform. Led by farm suppliers, it has raised productivity. But negative byproducts of this trend include increasing chemical dependence and loss of biodiversity. Ecofeminist Vandana Shiva is at the Organic World Congress to protest the human and environmental cost of monoculture. The pendulum may be swinging back her way as consumer preference (among "locavores") for locally grown food and organic food increases, as the public becomes more aware of the impact of chemicals on the environment, and as higher petroleum prices result in pricier fertilizers and pesticides.
Vandana is one of the speakers at the opening ceremony of the Organic World Congress in Modena's large Piazza Grande, which fills the center of the city behind the famed (Michelin three-starred) Romanesque Duomo, shown below earlier in the day as the seats were being set up.
An eloquent defender of the property rights of small farms in India and other countries, Vandana has devoted much of her life to research on the effects of loss of biodiversity resulting from monoculture and has allied herself with the Slow Food Movement. Her books include The Violence of the Green Revolution and Monocultures of the Mind. She decided that science was not serving the interests of small farmers, so she left the academic world and formed her own organization, Navdanya.
Because she associates monoculture with a masculine wish to dominate -- and sees it as threatening both small farmers and biodiversity in the name of temporarily higher productivity -- Vandana has been called an ecofeminist, a term attributed to the late Francoise d'Eaubonne describing someone resistant to abuse of either women or mother nature, and adds in empathy for the small farmer in developing countries.
Small-farm consolidation continues, as was highlighted in South Africa just this week. The Valley Trust has for years been working with rural communities to provide health and other services and support organic farms. It has recently broken ranks with the South African Department of Agriculture for its pressure on small-scale farmers to join cooperatives. Small farmers are promised financial help, farm equipment, water piping and free seeds in return for joining the larger farming unit. The catch is that the small farmer must plant genetically modified seeds, which create farmer dependence on commercial monoculture. The director of Biowatch, an NGO promoting alternatives to GMO farming, says: "In the end, most farmers end up in huge debt, because they can't save seeds and are obliged to buy the matching GM fertilizers and pesticides" .
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Dr. Shiva was nominated for the Nobel Prize in 2005. I think she should be nominated again and win in this year for her work to sow seeds of hope and peace in place of the seeds of deception and environmental destruction that have been planted by Monsanto.
For more than a century, farms have been getting bigger while seeds, fertilization and... more
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