"Seeds are life. Owning seeds is ownership of life."
In Kassel I had the pleasure of seeing the environmental activist, eco feminist and physicist Vandana Shiva giving her lecture on Seed Freedom. Companies like Monsanto is genetically modifying seeds to to resist chemichals used as pesticides. Then they claim patents on these modified seeds as being intellectual property. With this monopoly they force the farmers in India and other poor countries to buy their seeds for high prices. When the harvest is bad the farmers are left with debts and with no possibility to pay. 75% of the world seeds are in this way owned by the companies.
"Farmers must breed diversity, not uniformity", VS
This is what appeals to me in my work. By genetically modyfying seeds your are practically streamlining life and reducing it's individuality. All modified seeds are highly unstable and dependant of specific conditions and specific chemichals you have to use in combination with the seeds to make them produce well. "We have seeds that are 1000 years old. That is stability. ", VS
Of course you can look at this from a wider perspective. Same things are happening in most other spheres of life, where economy, consumption, production and uniformity are counteracting decentralisation, small scale production, individuality and diversity. What comes next? Will the Golems of the world be allowed to exist in the future?
I'm also posting a french documentary (dubbed to english) on this subject. Mostly because I haven't had time to see it myself, and having it on my blog makes me know where to find it.
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