As the world's billionaire class reaps record profits and global inequalities further divide nations and communities, this anthology compiled by renown activist Dr. Vandana Shiva pulls back the curtain on how ruthless capitalistic exploitation branded as philanthropic altruism forges a direct path to global destruction.
Philanthrocapitalism and the Erosion of Demo
cracy: A Global Citizens' Report on the Corporate Control of Technology, Health, and Agriculture
details how global philanthrocapitalist organizations like the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and affiliated entities effectively monopolize and privatize common land for food production in a manner that jeopardizes public health around the globe.
Through various initiatives, sub-organizations, development schemes, and funding mechanisms, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's empire in particular weaves an intricate network of power and influence designed to ensnare local communities and traditions in an unwavering pursuit of profit and market expansion.
Philanthrocapitalism and the Erosion of Democracy
calls to account problematic initiatives that serve to corrode the integrity of democratic institutions, often under a banner of future-oriented innovation. This book lays bare the destructive power of overly capitalistic systems that enable mass human suffering and environmental catastrophe via the entanglement of private investment and public policy.
This democratic emergency is analyzed in detail by leading experts and civil society movements' leaders, such as: Dr. Vandana Shiva, Farida Akhter, Jose Esquinas Alczar, Nicoletta Dentico, Fernando Cabaleiro, Seth Itzkan, Dru Jay, Satish Kumar, Jonathan Latham, Aide Jimenez-Martnez, Chito Medina, Zahra Moloo, Silvia Ribeiro, Adelita San Vicente, Ali Tapsoba, Jim Thomas, Timothy A. Wise. International organizations and national movements who also participated include ETC Group, Community Alliance for Global Justice/AGRA Watch, Soil4Climate, Bioscience Resource, GM Watch, Naturaleza de Derechos Argentina, Masipag Philippines, Terre Vie Burkina Faso, UBINIG Bangladesh.
Table of Contents:
Table of Contents
Foreword ix
Introduction:
Philanthrocapitalism and Colonization in the Digital Age xv
Vandana Shiva
SECTION I: A GLOBAL EMPIRE
Disrupting a World of Traditional Knowledge,
Sovereignty, and Biodiversity 3
Vandana Shiva
An Overview of Bill & Melinda Gates
Agricultural Innovations 17
Navdanya
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the
International Rice Research Institute Alliance 27
Chito P. Medina
SECTION II: PATENTS, GENE EDITING,
AND DIGITAL SEQUENCE INFORMATION
Seed Ownership Through New Gene Editing Technologies 43
Vandana Shiva
vi Table of Contents
Gene Editing: Unexpected Outcomes and Risks 47
Dr. Michael Antoniou
Megadiverse Countries as Providers of Genetic
Resources & Digital Sequence Information 51
Aid Jim nez-Mart nez and Adelita San Vicente Tello
SECTION III: BIOPIRACY
Biopiracy of Climate Resilient Seeds 61
Navdanya
Biopiracy Case Studies: GMO Bananas 67
Vandana Shiva & Navdanya International
SECTION IV: GLOBAL AGRICULTURE
The Recolonization of Agriculture 79
Navdanya
A Treaty to Protect Our Agricultural Biodiversity 93
Jos Esquinas-Alcazar
Ag Tech: Bill & Melinda Gates Agricultural
Innovations in Argentina 101
Fernando Cabaleiro
SECTION V: THE THIRD “GREEN REVOLUTION”
The Golden Rice Hoax 109
Vandana Shiva
Why We Oppose Golden Rice 115
Stop Golden Rice Network (SGRN)
Table of Contents vii
The Dystopia of the Green Revolution in Africa 121
Nicoletta Dentico
The Gates Foundation’s Green Revolution Fails
Africa’s Farmers 129
Timothy Wise
Seeds of Surveillance Capitalism 137
Navdanya
SECTION VI: BIOTECHNOLOGY &
GEOENGINEERING
The Problems with Lab Made Food 143
Vandana Shiva
Software To Swallow: The Intellectual Property
Model of Food 149
Seth Itzkan
Bill Gates’ Climate “Solutions”:
Funding for Geoengineering 151
Dru Jay And Silvia Ribeiro (ETC Group)
SECTION VII: GENE DRIVES & THE SIXTH
MASS EXTINCTION
Driven to Exterminate: How Bill Gates Brought
Gene Drive Extinction Technology into The World 163
Zahra Moloo And Jim Thomas (ETC Group)
Gates Foundation Hired a Public Relations Firm
to Manipulate the UN Over Gene Drives 175
Jonathan Latham
Targeting Palmer Amaranth: A Traditionally Nutritious and
Culturally Significant Crop 179
Vandana Shiva
Global Resistance to Genetic Extinction Technology 183
Navdanya
SECTION VIII: MEDIA, HEALTH, AND EDUCATION
Digital Dictators 191
Satish Kumar
The Philanthropic Monopoly of Bill & Melinda Gates 199
Nicoletta Dentico
How the Cornell Alliance Spreads Disinformation
and Discredits Agroecology 215
Community Alliance for Global Justice and Agra Watch
Bt Brinjal: Alliance for Crooked Science & Corporate Lies 219
Farida Akhter
SECTION X: AN EARTH-BASED PHILOSOPHY
A Message from Gaia 233
Navdanya
Contributors 237
Endnotes 239
Index 273
About the Author :
Dr. Vandana Shiva is an author, physicist, ecologist and advocate of biodiversity conservation and protection of farmers' and women's rights. Her pioneering work around food sovereignty, traditional agriculture, and women’s rights created fundamental cultural shifts in how the world views these issues. Along with Jerry Mander, Edward Goldsmith, Ralph Nader, and Jeremy Rifkin, Dr. Shiva is a leader and board member of the International Forum on Globalization and a prominent figure of the global solidarity movement known as the alter-globalization movement.
Dr. Shiva founded Navdanya, an organization that promotes agroecology, seed freedom, and a vision of Earth Democracy, seeking justice for the Earth and all living beings. She has authored more than 20 books including Reclaiming the Commons: Biodiversity, Indigenous Knowledge, and the Rights of Mother Earth (Synergetic Press, 2020), Philanthrocapitalism & The Erosion of Democracy: A Global Citizens’ Report on the Corporate Control of Technology, Health, and Agriculture (Synergetic Press, 2022) and Agroecology and Regenerative Agriculture: Sustainable Solutions for Hunger, Poverty, and Climate Change (Synergetic Press, 2022).
Dr. Shiva is a member of the scientific committee of the Fundacion IDEAS, Spain's Socialist Party's think tank and the International Organization for a Participatory Society. She received the Right Livelihood Award in 1993, an honor known as an "Alternative Nobel Prize". She has received numerous other awards and honors for her work including the “Save the World” award in 2009 and the Sydney Peace Prize in 2010. Dr. Shiva’s life and work is the subject of the award-winning 2021 documentary, “Seeds of Vandana Shiva.”
Co-Executive Director and Researcher, focusing on emerging technologies on human rights, biodiversity, equity, and food systems, ETC Group. Molecular Biologist and former Genetic Engineer. Currently Editor of Independent Science News website. Satish Kumar is an Indian British activist and speaker. He has been a Jain monk, nuclear disarmament advocate and pacifist. Hs is the founder of Schumacher College, England, UK. Timothy A. Wise is a senior researcher at the Small Planet Institute, collaborating with director Frances Moore Lappé to start its new Land and Food Rights Program. He is also a senior research fellow at Tufts University's Global Development and Environment Institute. He is a Senior Advisor at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP)
