A review of Earth democracy

We are in a time where giant corporations wield great power over our nations, our politics, our culture and even the food we eat. Within a span of two decades their influence over third world countries has grown enormously. Money power can influence politics and in turn can influence economic policies. Rules made by WTO can affect the lives of poor farmers in third world countries without even their participation in the policy making. Democratic participation of citizens is only limited to voting and the government, a slave of capitalism and free trade can sometimes impose dangerous and harmful policies to the domestic markets.
Globalization is said to reduce prices of food and make food available to the poor. Is it true and is it also true that genetic engineering and its unknown consequences to mankind is a sign of progress? When did globalization start and how did it progress? These questions and many more about globalization are taken over and dealt with in the book.

The seed idea in her past work is extensively developed in this book where Earth citizenship transgressing national and international boundaries has been emphasized. With globalization and the reach of the corporations across national boundaries influence every aspect of our lives, citizens need to think globally too, and reclaim their rights to commons from powerful few. Vandana develops these ideas into three sections—living economies, living democracies and living cultures.

Living economies is about the sustenance economy that majority of the population is dependent on. Firstly,there is the nature economy which is often neglected but is the source of life. Second,there is the sustenance economy that has been practiced by many generations of farming where life taken out from earth is given back to it in the form of animal mature or in other words eco-conservatism, so that nature is not depleted of her ability to regenerate.Third and the most dangerous to earth and nature is the market economy which governments extol as the only economy existing, which has been depleting earth and nature of the ability to regenerate and irrational logic of machinating life on earth as raw materials for excess production and greed.

Living cultures is about the indigenous cultures that have a history and knowledge to preserve nature and at the same time enjoying the plenty of it.Agriculture supports large populations in third world countries. Though market econony is given prime importance, sustenance economy dependent on agriculture is on a declin in third world countries. Poverty and joblessness is on an increase. Quality of life and freedom to live is on a decline for the poor. Monoculture way of industrialized farming may for sometime give great yields greatly damage earth of her life and ultimately rendering the land useless for any purpose. Vandana quotes Gandhi several times to invoke conservatism and oppose hegemonic and barbaric WTO policies that destroy living cultures that care for nature. Greed and market economy have become synonymous.Genetic engineering with its unknown consequences has to be implemented with great care.The author also mentions the importance of women as symbols of preservation and corporations as patriarchal hegemony. She gives the example of chimpko movement in east India to support eco-feminism. Diversity and compassion for all life and moral and spiritual responsibility for conservatism is greatly invoked.

Living Democracies is the participation of all citizens in making collective decisions about rights and usage on commons. Land and water though owned by the king were for public usage. They have been enclosed by landlords starting from 16th century in England with the backing of the king. Now it is the private ownership of land and water by huge corporations that is the treat. The poor who have a right to the commons have lost all their rights and they have been reduced to labor. Increasingly, the corporations have been encroaching on the commons and appropriating them; also damaging the ecosystems irreparably. Living democracies is about the fight of the citizens for their land and water; their right to survive and cohabit with nature.

The last section of the book deals with earth democracy in action. Several examples from the fight of the native people in India for water and land rights to major fight against WTO in first world countries are mentioned. There is a growing awareness of the treat to nature and sustenance economy. As earth citizens it is incumbent to revive the depleting and vanishing people and cultures.

Though globalization has been rebuked and rightly so in this book, I suspect there are some advantages of globalization and trade if rightly done. Subsidies given to agriculture and dumping of cheap quality food in third world countries is killing the local industries. So, this is unfair trade and governments should protect their national interest and their citizens first. But for other industries trade and globalization to my understanding may be beneficial. Like technology, globalization is like a double edged knife. It depends on how we use it consciously and responsibly. The damage by wrong policies of globalization are tremendous, hence they need to be revoked and WTO needs to take responsible policy making for the good of all citizens of the world and not for enlarging the profits of the corporations. America has to stop bulling the world and need to be the pioneer and harbinger to conservatism and earth safety and sustainability.

Review of Stolen Harvest by Vandana Shiva

Vandana Shiva is a physicist by training and an environmental activist who has done massive work in preservation of traditional cultures and farming techniques. In an age of multinational corporations taking over of traditional cultures, their lands, their means of livelihood, this book is an eye opener to the range of exploitation done by these corporations on the name of free markets and liberalization.

One gets a sense of being robbed by these corporations the people’s commons and deprivation of nature’s ability to regenerate and flourish. There are several ways these corporations plunder the environment and the lives of the poor. Vandana first takes up the case of seed security in third world countries. Corporation like Montaso try to get patents for breeding techniques that have been in existence for centuries in these cultures. These corporate try to usurp the traditional practices and aim at dependency of the farming communities on their seeds that are genetically modified. Traditionally different varieties of seeds are exchanged between farmers but the corporations with the help of the WTO offend such practices as crime to the free trade policies. This causes dependency of farmers on genetically engineered seeds and also use of herbicides and pesticides made by the same corporations heavily. The latest seeds sold by Montaso cannot be reusable and can only be used once. They are genetically modified and not reusable.


The corporate greed to make money has no boundaries and the exploitations of nature’s resources and livelihood of the poor has no limits. The corporate supports monoculture of farming like soybeans which are dumped from United States to third world countries. The poor who depend on local industry and local farming are displaced of livelihood. She explains in detail with several examples how the cost of local commodities is reduced with this import of foreign goods. The farmers are plundered.

Vandana makes an important point about the dependency of farming land for manure from livestock and in turn their on the straw of the harvest. This chain is broken when we import foreign food which is unsuitable to people and cattle alike. She takes a strong anti-globalization stance by taking several examples like the excessive farming of shrimp on coastal areas that has eroded the land and made drinking water salty. Also excessive fishing in the last couple of decades has reduced the fish and turtle population and destroyed the biodiversity of the sea. Not only is the land and the sea no spared by the corporate greed, the cattle are looked upon as huge udders for milking money. They are given all kinds of chemical, antibiotics to grow fat for meat and eat the meat of cattle as a source of protein. She states that not giving them the right to subjectivity and slaughtering them is causing animal rights violation, suffering and disease to humans alike. BSE is a well know example of how the scientific community hid the facts of the dangers of its transfer from cattle to humans. Corporatism controls everything with their money power and the WTO policies. Genetic engineered seeds and plants are claimed to be more efficient than traditional farm varieties but they are in reality not that promising as they are advertised.

She gives compelling evidence of destruction to nature, people, environment, animals and the sea by the globalization and WTO policies. Her initiative Navdanya is an organization where seeds of biodiverse varieties of plants are collected and preserved so that the farming community is not deprived of diverse seed bank and enslaved to corporate control of seed production and monoculture. This monoculture has several disadvantages which the book goes in detail.

It is a right of the people to be able to sell and trade freely and also to be able to preserve their culture and livelihood. Free trade in agriculture can cause starvation and poverty the opposite of what it claims not to do. The reality is different from what is propounded in economic policies. Economics, culture and farming are interlinked hence the importance to local and decentralized economies.

All in all, the book makes strong points about the disadvantages of globalization and the exploitation of corporatism on third world countries. Luckily there is a lot of people’s awareness and movements in this direction due to concerned scientists and farming organizations around the world. The same theme of exploitation can be seen is all countries. Corporate monoculture pitted against diversity of nature is the fight of this age. This book can be beginner guide to corporate and WTO hegemony and the fight of the people against it.