Vandana Shiva On Food

I am not a fan of GMOs. Corporations do not own the rights to food seeds. You want Orwellian - this is Orwellian.

The Progressive: An Interview with Vandana Shiva

Q: You’ve done a lot of work against Monsanto and its genetically modified organisms.


Vandana Shiva: Monsanto’s use of GMOs is an attempt to establish a dictatorship over our food system and our seed system—and not just in India. In the United States, most farmers don’t have a choice. They have to buy GMOs. We need to think very deeply about reclaiming our seed sovereignty and reestablishing food democracy. It’s probably the most important political challenge facing any society anywhere in the world today.


Q: How do you do that?


Vandana Shiva: I try to create community seed banks of seeds that are not genetically modified, that are not patented. Everyone should have the right to have a garden with their own seeds. Every farmer should have a right to have seeds that are not genetically modified and not patented. In terms of food democracy, one example is this amazing gardening movement that has emerged all over. Another is the movement on campuses to get rid of junk food. These are all steps toward establishing food democracy. It has to be one meal at a time, one family at a time, one school at a time, one seed at a time.