[Script Info]
Title: 
[Events]
Format: Layer, Start, End, Style, Name, MarginL, MarginR, MarginV, Effect, Text
Dialogue: 0,0:00:43.21,0:00:48.44,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,[applause]
Dialogue: 0,0:00:58.86,0:01:01.37,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It's a joy to be here with all of you.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:03.17,0:01:07.32,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,To all the organizations that have put this event together
Dialogue: 0,0:01:07.32,0:01:10.04,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and made it possible for me to be here,
Dialogue: 0,0:01:12.05,0:01:13.48,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I'd like to say thank you.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:13.48,0:01:18.46,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And to the wonderful world of the seed,
Dialogue: 0,0:01:18.46,0:01:19.95,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I'd like to say thank you,
Dialogue: 0,0:01:19.95,0:01:22.13,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,because, you know, I started out life thinking
Dialogue: 0,0:01:22.74,0:01:28.12,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the quanta was going to be my companion for life,
Dialogue: 0,0:01:28.12,0:01:34.30,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and I had to abandon that passionate love affair
Dialogue: 0,0:01:34.30,0:01:36.62,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,with physics and quantam physics in particular
Dialogue: 0,0:01:37.13,0:01:42.42,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,for a love affair with the seed.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:42.42,0:01:45.26,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Partly because the threat to the seed
Dialogue: 0,0:01:45.26,0:01:52.92,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,made me realize how vital it was to continuity of life.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:52.92,0:02:00.91,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The word for seed in Hindi and Sanskrit is बीज.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:00.91,0:02:06.15,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,ज means life, and बीज means that in which life
Dialogue: 0,0:02:06.15,0:02:13.51,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,resides to arise on its own again and again and again.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:13.51,0:02:16.98,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And when we start a season,
Dialogue: 0,0:02:16.98,0:02:20.78,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,lots of seed festivals with every cultivation season,
Dialogue: 0,0:02:20.78,0:02:25.61,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and we do because of our tropical climate have many more cultivation seasons.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:25.61,0:02:30.54,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Some places we have four seasons of cultivation,
Dialogue: 0,0:02:30.54,0:02:34.02,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,especially in the area of for example Bengal;
Dialogue: 0,0:02:34.02,0:02:39.68,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,in some places we have three, but most places we have two.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:39.68,0:02:46.09,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And before you sow the seed, there's a prayer:
Dialogue: 0,0:02:46.09,0:02:51.25,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,"let the seed be exhaustless".
Dialogue: 0,0:02:51.25,0:02:53.24,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Let life never run out.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:53.24,0:02:54.92,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And the stories from around the world,
Dialogue: 0,0:02:54.92,0:02:56.64,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,stories from my region,
Dialogue: 0,0:02:56.64,0:03:00.02,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I come from the Himalayan belt, um,
Dialogue: 0,0:03:00.02,0:03:01.88,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,where during a war and a famine
Dialogue: 0,0:03:04.02,0:03:07.55,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,people died of starvation.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:07.55,0:03:14.11,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,But the seed which used to be kept in empty squash containers, which we call {\u1}_{\u0}
Dialogue: 0,0:03:14.11,0:03:18.97,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,not one seed had been eaten.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:18.97,0:03:21.86,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Because every culture recognized
Dialogue: 0,0:03:21.86,0:03:24.74,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,you cannot eat seed corn.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:24.74,0:03:26.44,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,You've got to save it for the future.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:26.44,0:03:31.79,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Your life doesn't matter, but life in general does matter.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:31.79,0:03:44.19,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And it's that wisdom of the seed to renew, to multiply, to be shared, to be spread,
Dialogue: 0,0:03:44.19,0:03:48.37,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,that has suddenly been seen as a problem
Dialogue: 0,0:03:48.37,0:03:55.84,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,for those who would make money out of killing the seed.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:55.84,0:04:03.60,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Killing the essential nature of the seed as a reproductive renewable resource.
Dialogue: 0,0:04:03.60,0:04:06.53,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And every attempt has been made in the last two decades
Dialogue: 0,0:04:06.53,0:04:10.84,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,to turn seed into a non-renewable resource.
Dialogue: 0,0:04:10.84,0:04:18.09,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Out of it, something that in its own nature creates abundance, you know?
Dialogue: 0,0:04:18.09,0:04:22.28,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Every tiny seed, I get fascinated with seeds of amaranth for example,
Dialogue: 0,0:04:22.28,0:04:25.98,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,You know how tiny that little seed of amaranth is?
Dialogue: 0,0:04:25.98,0:04:29.14,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And at least in our Himalaya you get, ah!
Dialogue: 0,0:04:29.14,0:04:34.78,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,You can't even begin to count the number of seed one seed of amaranth can give rise to.
Dialogue: 0,0:04:34.78,0:04:40.15,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,All the millets, or even the rices and the wheats and the barleys,
Dialogue: 0,0:04:40.15,0:04:42.15,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,one gives rise to many.
Dialogue: 0,0:04:42.15,0:04:44.24,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,That's a problem.
Dialogue: 0,0:04:44.24,0:04:45.81,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,One should give rise to nothing,
Dialogue: 0,0:04:45.81,0:04:48.55,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,then you make the profits.
Dialogue: 0,0:04:48.55,0:04:53.34,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And during the 80's I was very involved in some of these discussions.
Dialogue: 0,0:04:53.82,0:04:57.07,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,They used to be in the FAO at that time,
Dialogue: 0,0:04:57.07,0:05:03.23,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations
Dialogue: 0,0:05:03.23,0:05:07.22,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,a term used called "seed wars".
Dialogue: 0,0:05:07.22,0:05:13.12,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The chemical industry that had moved into the seed sector,
Dialogue: 0,0:05:13.12,0:05:20.46,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,um, had started to say it's not fair that farmers save seed. It's not equitable that they save seed,
Dialogue: 0,0:05:20.46,0:05:26.68,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,equity is monopoly, only the corporations should have the right to seed.
Dialogue: 0,0:05:26.68,0:05:29.19,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And they spent a lot of time, couldn't get their way
Dialogue: 0,0:05:29.19,0:05:35.60,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,because in the United Nations you have one vote for one country,
Dialogue: 0,0:05:35.60,0:05:38.76,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and the majority of the countries happen to be third world countries,
Dialogue: 0,0:05:38.76,0:05:43.54,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,they happen to be countries which have given seed and biodivensity to the world,
Dialogue: 0,0:05:43.54,0:05:50.60,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and they did not like the idea of seed being reduced to private property.
Dialogue: 0,0:05:50.60,0:05:57.24,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So the corporations then moved to a new institution that was being created
Dialogue: 0,0:05:57.24,0:06:04.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,through what was then a half institution called the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs.
Dialogue: 0,0:06:04.99,0:06:14.79,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And it's fascinating that for 30 years the industry had drafted laws for all kinds of monopoly,
Dialogue: 0,0:06:14.79,0:06:21.16,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,monopoly in entertainment, if a Mickey Mouse turns up anywhere, even in a child's notebook,
Dialogue: 0,0:06:21.16,0:06:22.32,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,they should pay royalty.
Dialogue: 0,0:06:22.32,0:06:24.08,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Or a t-shirt.
Dialogue: 0,0:06:24.08,0:06:32.81,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And then, by then, a company that had only been related to warfare, to agent orange,
Dialogue: 0,0:06:32.81,0:06:35.64,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,very rapidly moved into the biotechnology sector,
Dialogue: 0,0:06:35.64,0:06:42.56,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,very rapidly started to buy up both venture capital firms as well as seed companies.
Dialogue: 0,0:06:42.56,0:06:49.81,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And Monsanto emerged as the biggest seed monopoly in the world
Dialogue: 0,0:06:49.81,0:06:56.64,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,in the drafting of what is today called the Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights Agreement
Dialogue: 0,0:06:56.64,0:06:57.80,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,what a mouthful.
Dialogue: 0,0:06:57.80,0:07:00.21,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Precisely because this is not trade related
Dialogue: 0,0:07:00.21,0:07:01.88,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and seed is not intellectual property,
Dialogue: 0,0:07:01.88,0:07:04.30,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,it doesn't pop out of anyone's head.
Dialogue: 0,0:07:04.30,0:07:10.61,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Intellectual property is defined as property in products of the mind.
Dialogue: 0,0:07:10.61,0:07:15.96,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Here is a very material biological system
Dialogue: 0,0:07:15.96,0:07:19.30,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,thst is suddenly redefined as intellectual property.
Dialogue: 0,0:07:19.30,0:23:18.88,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And, uh, a whole agreement was shaped around it
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and TR was put there because India, my country, refused to accept patent law as a trade issue.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,They said no, this is about nations deciding how far monopolies will go.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Nations deciding the balance between the public and the private.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And we had worked out a patent law over 20 years of democratic debate in society
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,to get rid of the British laws that had been exactly like what we are coming back to.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Total monopoly in a few companies' hands.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So the lawyers of course, vary clever,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,put TR before IP and said now it's Trade Related by definition,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,so now you will accept it.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,After the WTO came into force,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,a representative of Monsanto actually said this.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,he said that what we've achieved in this agreement is something unprecedented:
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,we defined a problem, and in this case the problem was farmers saving seeds.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,That was a problem.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And we defined solution: make it illegal for farmers to save seeds.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And we created the instrument, which is the TRIPS Agreement,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,which forces every country now to have laws of monopoly.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And we created the institution that would ensure that these are implemented;
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the institution, WTO is an interesting institution
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,because it's the international court,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,it's an international non-parliament, non-democratic;
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and it is the international executive, yeah?
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,As Monsanto's representative said,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,in shaping this treaty we were the patient, the diagnostician, and the physician all in one.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,For me, that's a description of dictatorship.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,If you define the problem, you find the solution, you become the judge and the executive,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,where is democracy?
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And around seed, which is the most democratic experience on the planet
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,that spreads abundance.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The seed is as much part of the relationship of the bee and the butterfly,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,as it is with the soil organisms that it ultimately sustains,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,as it is with the food, the breakfast you're eating.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,All these relationships are in the seed.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,In 1992 was I think the first time US companies started to enter India.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,'91 was when the whole new idea of globalization started to be spread
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,initially through the World Bank,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and '95 onwards for the World Trade Organization.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And I remember in '92 Cargill, which still owned its own seed supply,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,now it's owned by Monsanto,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I don't know how many of you realize
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,that outside the US Cargill Seeds is now Monsanto.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,At that time Cargill was still Cargill,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and they'd brought in hybrid sunflower seeds which failed miserably.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I had been working with the farmers in India and the farmers' organizations,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and I had been telling them about these corporations.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,At that time of course Cargill was and still is the biggest grain trader.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And while doing workshops on the Uruguay round and the WTO and the GATT,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I used to tell them about the companies.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The farmers of {\u1}{\u1}{\u0}{\u1}{\u0}{\u0}, as a result of the failure of the sunflower
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,marched up to the Cargill...
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,uh...
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,it shouldn't be called a seed production unit,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,because seeds are produced in the field and in farms,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and the seed utilities ad facilities are really only packaging units.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,All they do is put a seal on it.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And again, you might not even remember,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,they used to, you used to have a trade representative whose name was Carla Hills.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And Carla Hills had visited India in 1988
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,saying crowbar by crowbar we are going to open your economy to our companies.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,This was around the time, you know, we'd had Bhopal in '84,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Dupont was sending an old nylon plant and we were saying sorry we don't want it,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And Carla Hill saying no you have it, your market is our market.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And she talked about this crowbar by crowbar and I talked to my farmer friends about it.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So they went, literally with crowbars
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and pulled down this whole large prison-like utility,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and razed it to the ground and said
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,crowbar by crowbar we're gonna send these companies back to you.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,[applause from the audience]
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,That's only part of the story.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The real story is at the end of it,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the Cargill head for Asia Pacific flies into India,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,holds a press conference,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and says how stupid Indian farmers are
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,because they don't realize Cargill with its intelligence is creating seeds
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,which prevent the bees from usurping the pollen.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,This wonderful act of creating fertility through pollenation
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,is now redefined as theft in a mindset where life should be owned as a monopoly.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,No plant should grown without permission from the companies,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,no seed should renew without permission of the company,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and of course no farmer should ever regrow a crop without paying a royalty.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,In the negociations on the convention on biological diversity
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,a twin statement was made about about Roundup resistance.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,We were basically saying we don't need negative traits
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,like making crops more resistant intolerant to herbicides,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,we need to phase out herbicides rather than spray more of them.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And if pesticides were bad, we definitely don't need pesticide plants,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,plants which produce theire own pesticide
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,by introducing genes for toxins into it like the [---beety---] crops.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And in the case of Roundup,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,again I remember,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,in the negotiations on the convention on biological diversity that the Monsanto representative -
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I think it was the vice president, the chair, or --
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and he says "we are now breeding crops that prevent weeds from stealing the sunshine".
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Now, what is called weeds is really the biodiversity of diverse fields,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and the best sustainable agriculture, the best organic farming,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,has to be rotational and mixtures.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The minute you have a monoculture I disqualify it as organic.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Organic means letting nature do the essential work of renewal,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,of soil fertility [applause], moisture conservation,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and if you let nature do the work, nature needs companions,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,it needs partners,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,it needs helpers,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and only diversity offers the help,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and the substitutes for the poisons that have entered farming.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Only nature.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The nitrogen fixing that nature can do,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,if we do the right mixing.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The wonderful botanicals that are available for pest control.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I fought for 11 years a case on the piracy of
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,a wonderful tree that we have used for pest control
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,for as long as I remember.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I remember when I first saw the patent on neem,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and it was said this was an invention of the pesticide use.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And I said my mother and grandmother were using neem to store grain, to store clothes,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,farmers of India have constantly used neem,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and when the terrible disaster of Bhopal took place in '84,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I remember I went to Bhopal and the, you know, the {\u1}{\u1}{\u0}{\u1}{\u0}{\u0} at the station were laughing at me
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,because I was carrying these sapplings of neem.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,They said "why are you carrying this?"
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And I told them about the disaster and said we are starting a campaign
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,"No More Bhopals, Plant A Neem",
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and then 10 years later find neem has been patented.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,For that 11 years.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,But this is just one of thousands in every part of the world
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,has its own way of controlling weeds,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,of controlling pests,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,of doing everything that toxic chemicals have been introduced into farming for.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I think the big problem with how seed has moved
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,from being the ultimate source of renewal of life,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,to becoming the ultimate non-renewable resource patented and owned,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,uh, by a handful of companies,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,now it's reduced to 5, very rapidly reduced to 5,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,in this decade.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So fast that you can't even count,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,you can't even keep up with the counting.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Partly because for us this has all happened in a very short period,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,you know, for you it happened over a hundred years,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and so the generations that have passed
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,who saw the first disappearance of the open seed,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the free seed,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,we started to see the problem with the green revolution
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,introduced in 1965/68, 6 in India,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and the green revolution was basically the introduction of chemical industrial farming
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,in peasant economy,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,where the average landholdings are less than a hectare,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,80% land holding are less than a hectare,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,70% of India, over 1.2 billion population, lives on the land, yah?
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So you can imagine how tiny our farms are.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And on this land was introduced the chemicals.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Why did the green revolution have to wait til 1965/66?
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,They were trying from the end of the war.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,All those war chemicals including the nitrogen from explosives factories,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,all the pesticides,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,they needed to find a market.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,But the indigenous seeds
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,practiced non-cooperation with chemicals,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,they just {\u1}_{\u0}, no, don't want you.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Sot he problem was the seed had to be redesigned to adapt to chemicals.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The promotion, propaganda by the green revolution was "feeding the hungry".
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,No, it was just spreading chemicals and poisons around the world.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And the redesigning was done by the dwarfing technique, you know?
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Taking genes from the dwarf varieties,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,in the case of rice from an Indonesian variety,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,in the case of wheat from a Japanese variety collected during the war, norin.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And these dwarf varieties then, could take a lot of chemicals,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,but they required a lot of water.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Interestingly, the dwarfing was making the plant produce less biological matter.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And the useful biological matter for the soil, for the animals, had just disappeared overnight.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The straw was now seen as waste,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,but the straw is what feeds the cattle,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the straw is what goes back into your compost,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the straw is what makes organic.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So this one change to adapt the seed to chemical
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,meant the disappearance of fodder for livestock,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,therefore the disappearance of animals,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,therefore the entry of tractors into a poor country.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And I go around the country and find some of the highest debt is for the tractors
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,that were bought 20 years, 30 years ago,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,today, the farmers are having to pay the bills and they can't afford to.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And the cattle have disappeared.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Because truly sustainable agriculture is agriculture not just with diversity of crops,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,but with an integration with livestock,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and an integration with perennials and trees,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,then you have the perfect organic farm,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,then nature has a way to recycle the biological systems to perfection.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And as [Albert] Howard said, writing about Indian farms in 1905 when he came to India,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and in his wonderful book The Agricultural Testament Howard said
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,"The farms here are as permanent as the forest and the prairie
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,because they work on those principles of nature".
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And that's another reason why I feel there has to be a much more intimate ineraction
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,between the ecology movement and the organic movement,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,because some ecologists still think that the day farming began, nature was assaulted.[?]
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,No, you can work with nature in non-violent ways to produce for human needs
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,while keeping space, leaving adequate ecological space for other species.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And even more importantly, a lesson we have learned,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the more space you leave for other beings,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the more food you get for human beings.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,[applause]
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Totally counter-intuitive {\u1}{\u1}{\u0}{\u1}{\u0}{\u0}.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Of course the more has to be counted in diversity.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And I have talked about the mono culture of the mind,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,which excludes diversity,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,focuses on a single commodity,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and on the yield of one part of a plant for that commodity production,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,shrinks the farms biological capacity,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and talks about increasing production.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And that's because the monoculture of the mind
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,has left the biodiversity out.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I really think we need to shift from measuring yields to measuring output,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and we need to... yields refer to an individual commodity production,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and yields refer to what leaves the farm;
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,output refers to what the farm produces
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,including what will be used as an internal input on the farm itself.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Something that's just not calculated.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,All the compost we grow,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the seeds we grow out,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,they're never counted as part of what the farm is producing.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Well this green revolution
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,... was destroyed within 10 years of chemical agriculture.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,There seems to be a habit
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,of, you know, if things go wrong and things are non-sustainable, just do more of it faster.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And that's what biotech has become,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,it's called, in India it's called a Second Green Revolution.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And interestingly you know, when your former president Bush
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,signed an agreement with our Prime Minister in 19... in 2005 on the nuclear deal,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,there was another piece of paper right there on the desk,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,which is an agriculture agreement
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,to make genetic engineering {\u1}{\u1}{\u0}{\u1}{\u0}{\u0}_
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,on the board of this agreement sit Monsanto, sit Walmart, and I think ConAgra.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So our relationship now is very very intimate
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,because it is the same companies
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,that are preventing American farmers from having access to seed,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and are preventing Indian farmers from not just having access to seed,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,but having access to life.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The first GM crop introduced into India was in '98,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and it's the Beattie cotton.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I just call it the pesticide cotton.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The Beattie cotton was brought in by Monsanto
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and Monsanto put these arrogant ads in the newspapers
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,about how Indian farmers would have bulgar [wheat].
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So I started to ring up the ministries, and said have they sought approval?
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And of course nobody had been checked,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,because Monsanto had worked at dismantling laws in this country,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,so there's no regulation on genetic engineering in the U.S. at all.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It's a de-regulated sector.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And Monsanto thought you can walk into any country and assume there is no regulation,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,but we do have regulation.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And so I took them to court, I sued them, took them to the Supreme Court.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And the introduction was delayed up to 2005.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Since 2005 they've started tosell Beattie cotton,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and in certain areas there's {\i1}only{\i0} Beattie cotton available now.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,These are the areas where the farmers have the,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,where we have the highest rate of farmer suicides.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,In the last decade
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,during which seed monopolies were established,\
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,during which the global players started to buy up Indian companies,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,or have licensing arrangements with them,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,we have lost more than 200,000 farmers in suicides.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,We've of course lost 8 million farmers who had to leave the land.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It's a combinatioin of seed monopolies and falling prices,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,linked to the subsidies, the 4 billion dollars in the case of cotton,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and unfair trade rules.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It's a genocidal packet that must destroy farmers.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And doesn't kill farmers metaphorically.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It kills farmers biologically.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,We started 2 years ago to work in this area.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And the interesting thing is, by shifting to organic
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the farmers are earning 10 times more than the Beattie cotton farmers,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,even though every advertisement of Monsanto
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,talks about how farmers earn more with GM crops.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And that's also very interesting, you know,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,my mind kind of... gets very troubled every time I see a huge inconsistency.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So why should you have seed monopolies for cheap food?
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Costly seed, cheap food.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Something must be going funny in the middle.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,You get farmers to pay higher royalties,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and they're supposed to have higher inomes, how?
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The aim of the seed industry is a trillion dollars of profits from royalties every year.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And the aim is no farmer should have access to their own seed.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The aim is every farmer should be forced into the market every year.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And you can only do that by using multiple instruments of control over the seed.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The first instrument as I mentioned is the intellectual property laws
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,covering both patents as well as breeders rights that have become more and more like patents.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Earlier they used to have farmers concessions,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,used to have breeders concessions,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,they've all gone in the new {\u1}{\u1}{\u0}{\u1}{\u0}{\u0}{\u1}_{\u0}
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the {\u1}{\u1}{\u0}{\u0} of 90/91, looks just like a patent law.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And interestingly, a patent is supposed to be granted for an invention.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,A seed is not an invention.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,A seed exists before you can do anything with it.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,All you can do with the seed is manipulate it.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Manipulation has never been treated as creation.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It's often treated as cruelty.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I would call GM cruelty to seed.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Uh, and yet, there has been this claim to invention and therefore a right to ownership.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Of course it's very interesting
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,because it reflects a fundamental split, a fundamental schizophrenia
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,When it comes to owning seeds and owning plants through patents,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the same corporations go around saying
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,"we've created something new, it's novel".
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The word used in the European laws is "novel foods".
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,GM foods is not called GM foods, it's called "novel foods".
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And when it comes to people being concerned about the environmental risks, the health risks,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the same industry comes around and says "just like nature made it".
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,You're doing nothing new.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,This is like the bacteria in your yogurt, and...
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,that's why they picked the word "biotechnology",
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and shed the word genetic engineering,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,because biotechnology was grandmother making cheese and yogurt,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And SynGen and Monsanto were doing exactly what your grandmother did, nothing new.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Except grandmother never took a patent, and you are taking a patent.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,[laughter]
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Now the legal term that has been created in the U.S. and has been spread around the world,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,a highly unscientific term that's used to make GM look natural,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,is "substantial equivalence".
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Treat the genetically engineered seed
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,as equal to the parent.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So don't look, don't see, don't find, declare safety.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And anytime a scientist comes up with looking at what has happened,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,you make sure you hound that scientist out of their lab and their work.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Especially with the new intimate relationship between universities and the companies,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,it's not that difficult.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Over the last 20 years I've seen some of the top scientists with whom I worked
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,been forced out of their university system
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,just because they did an independent piece of research.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Árpád Pusztai,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Mae-Wan Ho.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Ignacio Chapela, they tried with the Berkeley scientists,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,couldn't work it out because he just {\u1}{\u1}{\u0}{\u1}{\u0}{\u0}brought his chair in front of the Dean's office
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and said I won't move til you give me my tenure.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And they were forced.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Elaine Ingham from the University of Oregon
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,did this amazing work on the impact of GM wheat,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,with the, with the soil bacterium, genes from a soil bacterium added to it,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and that led in fact to the company, the German company, withdrawing that product;
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,but it also led to the International Biosafety Protocol.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,She is now an independent scientist,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,but does not have a lab in the university.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Um, so every time independent science is done,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,it's defined as "junk science",
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and "junk science" is institutionalized as real science, as good science.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And these days you know the "good bank" thing?
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,"Good bank", "bad bank" after they've created all this toxic assets, yah?
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Suddenly they're supposed to be a bad bank that'll take up all this corruption of the financial world.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And again, interesting concept, yah?
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Concentrate toxicity, and it'll become neutralized.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,[laughter]
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The work we've been doing on suicides of farmers
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,has started to have government response
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,In the early days the government used to say
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,"oh, they must have been alcoholics" or "they must have committed adultry",
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and I said "that's a large number of farmers suddenly becoming adulterers and alcoholics
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,[laughter]
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and eventually the Prime Minister had to go down to these areas
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and recognize that farmer suicides linked to economic distress is a real phenomenon.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So what does Monsanto do?
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Start using institutions to say there's no link between suicides and the Beattie cotton.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The interesting thing is, the papers they generate,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,as one from IFPRI, which has been used a lot against me,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington has put out a paper,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,goes round about the virtues of Beattie,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,as if everything is built into the seed;
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and then when it comes to the failure, or when it comes to the farmers going into distress,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,then it is no more about the seed itself,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,it's about the farmer who was stupid,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,it's about the soil that was wrong,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and it's about the climate that didn't fit.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And here again you have schizophrenia.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Good performance -- in the GM seed.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Bad performance -- you're to blame.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So always there's a perpetuation of a mythology of the perfect seed.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And interestingly the green revolution, when it was spread to India,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,they didn't just say "we're bringing you seeds that are more responsive to chemicals",
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,which would have been the more honest way to describe it,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,rather than "high-yielding varieties".
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,This [Norman Ernest] Borlaug, who was the scientist who did that dwarfing,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,interestingly he came out of the Dupont defence labs,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,knew about the chemicals,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,reworked the plants to be able to take mroe chemicals,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,just as genetic engineering is re-working the plants once more at a deeper genetic level,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,to be even more adaptive to chemicals,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Borlaug said, of the 12 scientists he had trained, he called them his apostles.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,They were his wheat apostles distributing miracle seeds.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So you do have a whole structure of seed monopolies
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,enshrined within a new mythology,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,a new religion,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,where we are asked to be blind[sic] and not think any more.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Interestingly, in the case of Indian sales, Monsanto actually recruits our gods as salesmen.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Every poster, every video has a god.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,In northern state of Punjab, where the Sikhs are the most important religion,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and Guru Nanak was the founder of that religion,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Guru Nanak is used as a salesman.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,In south India out of the {\u1}{\u1}{\u0}{\u0} you get Hanuman who brought this herb to save the life of Hanuman's brother,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,you have Hanuman bringing you this life-saving seed,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,which is really the killing seed.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,That's another way in which seed monopolies are established.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Seed monopolies are also established by introducing seed replacement.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And whenever I debate with our government, I always tell them, I say
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,"you know, seeds are not like dirty socks. When your socks start to stink, you'd better change them.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And wash them.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,But seeds are perrennia, they don't get replaced,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,you evolve them, you breed them, you adapt them, but you don't throw them out."
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,They're not like a new model of a car either.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Seeds are life itself,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and therefore, seed replacement is wrong.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Now, you can only have a monopoly on seed through patenet
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,if you have had a closure on the alternative supply,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,because why on earth would farmers pay royalties every year
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,if they could have free seed they can save year in and year out?
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,To create that closure,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the industry has evolved compulsory licensing and registration laws,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,compulsory registration, compulsory licensing laws,\
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,which basically mean farmers can't have their own seed,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,they must only grow seeds that are licensed,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,they must have approval from the state.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,But an indigenous seed evolved and bred by farmers,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,an open for pollenated variety seed has never done harm to anyone.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,GM seeds can cause genetic contamination,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,but an open pollenated variety has no harm,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and since it has no harm,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,there is absolutely no need for state regulation.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The state regulates the harmful.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It should not invade into the harmless zones of life.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The interesting thing is, they tried to introduce this law in 2004 in India,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,it's called the New Seed Law.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It's not that we don't have a seed law, we have a seed law,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,but it doesn't prevent farmers from having their own seed,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,it merely regulated the industry.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Now they want to have farmers regulated,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and the seed industry, now the biotech industry, de-regulated.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So we did what Gandhi had done in 1930.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,You might remember the British had tried to monopolize salt,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,just so they could buy bigger guns so they could control us better,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and the Salt Laws were meant to make salt-making illegal by Indians.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Only the British could make the salt.\
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And Gandhi walked to the beach and picked up the salt,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and said (not verbatim) "nature gives this for free. We need it for our survival.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,We will continue to make salt. We are forced to disobey your laws."
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And, uh, the Salt Laws never worked in India.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,People went to jail, people were killed, but the Salt Laws never worked in India.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So we took inspiration from that,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and have been doing what we call the seed सत्य के लिए लड़ाई.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The सत्य के लिए लड़ाई means "the fight for truth".
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Beginning '91 when these monopolies were created,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,we've had rally after rally,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,half a million farmers, 2 million farmers,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,basically declaring that seed is a common resource,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,we have received it from our ancestors,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,we have to protect it for future generations,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,of all species, because seed doesn't just belong to humans,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,it belongs to allt he species who are nourished by any species of plant.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,We will therefore not obey a law
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,that makes it illegal for us to perform our highest ecological duty on earth,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,which is to save seeds for the future.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,[applause]
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So in 2004 we stopped this law from coming into force.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I gave I don't know how many millions of signatures I gave to our Prime Minister,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and said you can do what the British did with teh Salt Law.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,We are not going to obey, because we have to obey a higher law.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Monsanto law is a low law, degraded law,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and any law restricting farmers rights is in today's world a Monsanto law.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Even when governments write it,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,an invisible hand of Monsanto is behind that writing.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So how do we create seed freedom
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,in this time of seed imperialism, seed colonialism, seed closure?
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,We do it by creating community seedbanks,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,that's how I started Navdanya 21 years ago,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,just saving every seed available,and distributing it widely,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,keeping it as an open access system.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Every farmer of Navdanya, and we have about 400,000 members,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,every farmer, the only yhing they have to do is take a pledge
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,that seed will never be used as an exclusive right.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Not by them, not by anyone else.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,They will continue to share seed, and they will continue to save seed.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,In the area of the suicides, we have managed to save seeds and bring farmers organic options back.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,We've also just finished some research
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,to show that Beattie cotton has destroyed in 3 years of planting,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,26% of vital micro organisms in the soil.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So organic is the only way to rebuild it. 40:35
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,We have created climate resilient seed banks.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Banks where seeds for high drought tolerance, hight flood tolerance, salt tolerance are available
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And we've distributed every time there's a disaster,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,a drought in central India,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,even after the tsunami, the salt tolerant rices, we took two truckloads of these things.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Interestingly, Monsanto, which has beena leader in biopiracy and SynGen and the biotech industry,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,is now trying to patent the climate-resilient traits,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,which they can't create because genetic engineering is a very linear, single-gene expression technology.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Climate resilience is a multi-genetic trait,but all they're doing is genetic mapping.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And these days, computers do it, you don't even need a human being.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,In fact, if there's a property right, they should give it to that machine
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,[laughter]
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,because they're not doing the thinking, they're not doing the creation,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,it's an assemby line of doing the genome mapping.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The map is being used to claim ownership,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and we are going to start a big campaign
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,to not just keep seeds in the open domain,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,but especially seeds required for climate adaption
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,as a common resource for our common defence in these vilnerable times.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,We will of course have to make very rapid and radical shifts very fast,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,from breeding for responding to chemicals,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,to breeding for resilience, adaption.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,From breeding for a single yield trait,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,to breeding for nutrition and taste and quality.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,We've done a lot of research with native varieties,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,they always have higher nitritional quality.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So we should be measuring nutrition per crop,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and nutrition per acre,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,not just the mass produced.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,What's the point of empty mass?
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Empty mass doesnt nourish our bodies.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Empty mass doesn't nourish the soil.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,We need to go back, seriously,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,to the issue of quality, the issue of nutrition, the issue of life itself.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Saving seed, for me, is defending life,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and saving seeds in these vulnerable times
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,is making sure we can imagine with hope
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,that life will continue in all its vibrance, in all its diversity, in all its beauty.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Thank you.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,[applause]
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,[narrator] You've been listening to physicist, ecologist, and author Vandana Shiva,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,speaking at the organic ecology conference in Portland Oregon of February 28, 2009.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,In a moment we'll return to the question and answer session from the presentation.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Vandana Shiva, a physicist, feminist, philosopher of science, and science policy advocate,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,is the director of the research Foundation for Science, Technology, and Natural Resource Policy.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,She is the 1993 recipient of the Right Livelihood Award,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and serves as ecology advisor to several organizations,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,including the Third World Network, and the Asia Pacific Peoples Environment Network.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Her books include
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Her latest book is
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,To find out more about Vandana Shiva and her work, please visit the Navdanya website at
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And now we return to the question and answer session from the program.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,[question] Good morning, I just had a question that relates to the speaker that we had yesterday,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Paul Roberts,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and, um, he mentioned, someone asked a question about local food,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and the possibilities of around the world being able to raise our own food,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,enough food for ourselves where we live right now with climate change,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and our expectaitons of what we should be able to eat, um, seasonality and that kind of thing.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And in response to this, one of the things that he said was that
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,in many of the Asian countries
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,that at the rate of population growth, um,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,they will not be able to sustain themselves using sustainable agriculture practices,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,um, and be able to feed themselves.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And one thing that we can do here in the United States and North America
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,is to be able to, using sustainable practices, grow enough food
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,so that we will be able to ship food to Asian countries, um, preventing starvation.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And I was just wondering if you could address this idea
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,of local food and with population raising all the time,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,being able to feed, everyone being able to feed themselves where they are, for themselves.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,[Vandana Shiva]
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The first thing about local food is that the tropics lend themselves better to producing mroe food..
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And for anyone who thinks a temperate climate and cultivation in deserts
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,based on mining aquifers,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,has to be the basis of providing food to the world,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and Asian countries, most of which are tropical countries,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,a little bit of China is outside the tropics,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,but I mean you go from India into Indonesia, and Malaysia, should see the abundance.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,We have a report, you can get this from our website, Navdanya.org,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and it's on biodiversity based productivity.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,We've done survey after survey of hundreds of farms, including our organic farms.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The food production is double, sometimes five fold more.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The reason it's not seen is because
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the agricultural paradigm has been reduced to a monoculture of commodities,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,then you focus on the commodities
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and say they can't produce more commodities,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,but we can produce mroe food.