Vandana Shiva
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Vandana Shiva is an environmentalist from India. She is known for her opposition to genetically modified food, particularly golden rice (a variant of rice modified to contain beta carotene, the precursor to vitamin A) .[1] She is also a prominent member of the ecofeminist movement.[2]
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[edit] Qualification
She earned her doctorate in Philosophy from the University of Western Ontario in 1978 by a dissertation titled "Hidden variables and locality in quantum theory".[3] However, she claims to be a quantum physicist.[4] Various environmentalism and left-wing websites also introduce her as a physicist.[5][6]
[edit] Views and opinions
She has written books on GM foods. In them, she has said how GM foods could cause sterility in all plants and how it could destroy the world:[7]
| The gradual spread of sterility in seeding plants would result in a global catastrophe that could eventually wipe out higher life forms, including humans, from the planet. |
This is of course, not even wrong. By the very definition, sterile plants don't reproduce, and thus wouldn't be able to spread throughout wild populations. GMO's do not produce anything that couldn't possibly be produced by natural means; it just does it faster. Injecting jellyfish DNA into corn might seem like something that's impossible, but such events do happen in the wild; in what is known as Horizontal gene transfer, viruses (viri?) can take DNA from one organism and inject it into an unrelated organism, allowing for genes to appear in an organism almost out of the blue. Nature is weird like that.
During the aftermath of the devastating 1999 Orissa cyclone, Shiva wrote a letter to Oxfam, in which she pointed out Ofxam's position on GM and WTO policies, expressed disappointment and expressed hope that their food aid will be GM-free.[8] Shiva's group gathered grain donated for relief, apparently had them test and claimed that genetically modified. Then they demanded that those "corn-soya blend" food be withdrawn immediately.[9] She also claimed that biotechnology companies were trying to use the people of Orissa as guinea pigs for products that had been rejected in Europe and Japan.[10]
In a Huffington Post interview published on 28 October 2010, she claimed to have in her possession letters from Chinese scientists proving that SARS was caused a virus from an GM plant crossing into animals.[11]
In January 2013, Mark Lynas addressing the Oxford Farming Conference said that:
| But most important of all, farmers should be free to choose what kind of technologies they want to adopt. |
| #MarkLynas saying farmers shd be free to grow #GMOs which can contaminate #organic farms is like saying #rapists shd have freedom to rape |
This tweet was in the immediate aftermath of the much publicized Delhi rape and murder case that happened in December 2012. Shiva has linked the rise in reported rape cases in India to the economic reforms introduced in 1991.[13]
[edit] External links
- Who is Vandana Shiva and why is she saying such awful things about GMOs?, on the Genetic Literacy Project site, updated 20-Aug-2014
[edit] References
- ↑ The "Golden Rice" Hoax-When Public Relations replaces Science by Dr. Vandana Shiva
- ↑ Jasmin Sydee and Sharon Beder, 'Ecofeminism and Globalism', Democracy and Nature, July 2001, pp. 281-302.
- ↑ "Hidden variables and locality in quantum theory" by Vandana Shiva (microform). Department of Philosophy, Graduate Studies, University of Western Ontario, 1978
- ↑ Seed Monopolies, GMOs and Farmer Suicides in India – A response to Nature by Vandana Shiva, 12 November 2012
- ↑ Dr. Vandana Shiva, EcoWatch
- ↑ Vandana Shiva, South End Press
- ↑ Stolen Harvest: The Hijacking of the Global Food Supply By Vandana Shiva
- ↑ OXFAM's Support to GM Crops for the Third World, Gentech, 8 November 1999
- ↑ Bountiful Harvest: Technology, Food Safety, and the Environment By Thomas DeGregori, pp 193-194
- ↑ Foreign Policy Annual, 2001 : Events And Documents By Mahendra Gaur, p 188
- ↑ A Visit to My Kitchen: Vandana Shiva, The Huffington Post, 28 October 2010
- ↑ Vandana Shiva Compares GMOs to Rape By Keith Kloor, 5 January 2013
- ↑ Vandana Shiva: Our Violent Economy is Hurting Women, Yes Magazine, 18 January 2013