Defending Farmers' Seed Freedom PDF

Article Defending Farmers’ Antyajaa: Indian Journal of Women and Social Change Seed Freedom 1(2) 205–220...

Article Defending Farmers’ Antyajaa: Indian Journal of Women and Social Change Seed Freedom 1(2) 205–220 © 2016 SAGE Publications India Pvt. Ltd SAGE Publications sagepub.in/home.nav DOI: 10.1177/2455632716674853 http://jws.sagepub.com Vandana Shiva1 Abstract This article is an eco-feminist approach to understanding sustainability and social change, and engages with issues such as why the homogenization of crop produc- tion is dangerous, why it is the multinational corporation seed industry that needs regulations and not the small farmers and how colonization is taking place through seed patents. It also documents the Navdanya movement for the protection of biological and cultural diversity, raises concerns about the ecological and health impacts of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), addresses the issue of farmers’ suicide in India after the introduction of Bt cotton in the country, addresses the ongoing fight against the US seed giant Monsanto for the illegal and unauthorized manner in which GMO has been introduced in India, and highlights farmers’ rights vis-à-vis the seed. Keywords Eco-feminism, Bija Satyagraha, Monsanto, Seed Act, farmers’ suicide Farmers’ biodiverse indigenous varieties are the basis of our ecological and food security. In India, coastal farmers have evolved salt-resistant varieties. Bihar and Bengal farmers have evolved flood-resistant varieties, farmers of Rajasthan and the semi-arid Deccan have evolved drought-resistant varieties and Himalayan farmers have evolved frost-resistant varieties. Pulses, millets, oilseeds, rice, wheat and vegetables provide the diverse basis of our health and nutrition security. This is the sector being targeted by the Seed Act. These seeds are indigenous farmers’ varieties of diverse crops, indigenous varieties of thousands of rice, hundreds of wheat, oilseeds such as linseed, sesame, groundnut, coconut, pulses including gehat, navrangi, rajma, urad, moong, masur, tuar, vegetables and fruits. The Seed Act is designed to enclose the free economy of farmers and the free economy of seed varieties. Once farmers’ seed supply is destroyed through compulsory registration by making it illegal to plant unlicensed varieties, farmers 1 Indian scholar, environmental activist. Corresponding author: Vandana Shiva, A60 Hauz Khas, New Delhi, 110016, India. E-mail: [email protected] 206 Antyajaa: Indian Journal of Women and Social Change 1(2) are pushed into dependency on corporate monopoly of patented seeds. The Seed Act is therefore the handmaiden of the Patent Amendments Acts which have introduced patents on seed. New intellectual property rights (IPR) laws are creating monopolies over seeds and plant genetic resources. Seed saving and seed exchange, basic freedom of farmers, are being redefined. There are many examples of how Seed Acts in various countries, and the introduction of IPRs, prevent farmers from engaging their own seed. The 2004 Seed Act has nothing positive to offer to farmers of India but promises monopoly to private seed industries and has already pushed thousands of our farmers to suicide through dependency and debt caused by unreliable, high dependency and non-renewable seeds. It is the multinational corporation (MNC) seed industry that needs regulations and not the small farmers of our country without whose seed freedom the country will have no food sovereignty and food security. Navdanya: A Network of Seed Keepers and Organic Producers Since 1991, Navdanya,1 a women-centred movement for the protection of biological and cultural diversity, has organized farmers in India through the Bija (Seed) Satyagraha Movement to keep seed with farmers and not to cooperate with IPR laws and Seed Act, which make seed a corporate monopoly and seed saving and seed sharing a crime. Eco-feminism is the philosophy behind this movement, with the idea to defend diversity, peace and democracy from the growing threats of monoculture, war, totalitarianism and fundamentalism, and the women leaders who have founded the movement have provided alternatives to a global economy dominated by capitalist patriarchy and have pioneered the resistance to genetic engineering (GE) at the scientific and movement level.2 In 1993, half a million farmers participated in a historic Bija Satyagraha rally at Bangalore’s Cuban Park. This was the first international protest against the World Trade Organization (WTO). Bija Satyagraha is a grass-roots campaign on patent issues, an assertion of people’s rights to biodiversity and a determination not to cooperate with IPR systems that make seed saving and seed exchange a crime. Navdanya spearheaded the movement to protect the farmers’ right to seed saving and seed exchange. Navdanya organized several seminars, yatras and signature campaigns to create awareness amongst the farmers and also to sensitize the policymakers and politicians of the country. In February 1992, Navdanya organized a National Conference on General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and Agriculture with the Karnataka Rajya Ryota Sangha (KRRS). In October 1992, at a massive farmers’ rally in Hospet, organized by Navdanya in association with KRRS, the Seed Satyagraha was launched following the Gandhi rally in Hospet as a fight for truth based on non-cooperation with unjust regimes. It was launched to defend biodiversity and people’s rights to biodiversity, a new freedom movement against the new colonization of our life, livelihood and living resources. Shiva 207 In March 1993, we held a national rally in Delhi at the historic Red Fort under the leadership of the national farmers’ organization, the Bharatiya Kisan Union. In 1993, Independence Day was celebrated with farmers asserting their collec- tive IPR (Samuhik Gyan Sanad). On 2 October 1993, the first anniversary of the Seed Satyagraha was celebrated in Bangalore with a gathering of 500,000 farmers. We also had farmers from other developing countries as well as scientists who work on farmers’ rights and sustainable agriculture as an expression of solidarity. On 5 March 1999, Navdanya reasserted the Bija Satyagraha Movement against the immoral and illegitimate laws with over 2,500 groups to defend farmers’ rights and seed freedom in the face of bio-piracy and seed monopolies. The internationalization of the Seed Satyagraha within one year gave the word ‘globalization’ a new meaning. From representing global markets as in the parlance of free trade proponents, it has come to mean the globalization of people’s rights and seed freedom through resistance to centralized control over all aspects of life. In September 2000, over 400 farmers from all over the world came together at the unique Beej Panchayat (People’s Seed Tribunal) to give evidence of the crisis of seed and agriculture in the wake of globalization, which is pushing small farmers to suicide. Responding to the deepening crisis, RFSTE and Navdanya took the initiative to organize a Bija Yatra in India in the year 2000 with the focus on seed rights, seed conservation and sustainable agriculture. Navdanya’s Seed Tribunal and Bija Yatras (Seed March) have created awareness through seed fairs, seed exchange programmes and initiation of new community seed banks. Under the Bija Satyagraha campaign, Navdanya and RFSTE, along with other several organizations, as part of this campaign, achieved a major victory when seed giant Syngenta was stopped from grabbing Dr Richharia’s precious collection of over 22,972 rice germplasms, which are with the Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwavidyalaya (IGKV), Raipur, Chhattisgarh. In 2002, IGKV signed a memorandum of understanding with Syngenta for collaborative research that would have resulted in the transfer of the rice germplasm collections from the university to the corporation’s laboratories. Syngenta would have marketed new rice varieties developed by it using this stock of germplasms and paid royalties to IGKV (Satavic Farms, 2015). We have been organizing Bija Panchayat in different parts of the country against the existing IPR laws, that is, Patent Act, Seed Act, the Plant Variety Protection Act and Biodiversity Act, to articulate the people’s precious collections voice so that the whole discussion and policy on seed is not determined by the corporate sector and interests driven by profit motives. Navdanya, RFSTE and West Bengal Institute of Juridical Sciences drafted an alternative IPR law that provides sovereign rights to the nation over its genetic resources and gives recognitions to the local community over its biodiversity. Resisting Globalized IPR System through Common Property Rights in Knowledge To counter the globalized IPR system to be implemented at the national level, Navdanya conceptualized the idea of Common Property Rights in Knowledge as 208 Antyajaa: Indian Journal of Women and Social Change 1(2) early as in 1993. The idea was not only to counter the private IPR system but also to prevent bio-piracy. IPRs systems evolved in industrialized countries, reflected in the TRIPs agreement, only recognize western knowledge systems as scientific and formal and non-western knowledge systems are regarded as unscientific and informal. The creation of monopoly rights to biodiversity utilization through its claim to the creation of ‘novelty’ can have serious implications for erosion of national and community rights to biodiversity and devaluation of India’s indigenous knowledge. TRIPs (agreement) gives countries the option of formulating its own sui generis regime for plants as an alternative to patent protection. Collective rights can be a strong candidate for such sui generis systems for agricultural biodiversity and medicinal plant biodiversity. Therefore, it is crucial that community held and utilized biodiversity knowledge systems are accorded legal recognition as the ‘common property’ owned by the communities concerned. Building such an alternative is essential to prevent biodiversity and knowledge monopolization by an unbalanced mechanistic and non-innovative implementation of TRIPs… (Shiva, ‘Vandana Shiva on Intellectual Property Rights’ n.d.; Hutanuwatr & Ramu, 2005, p. 80). Through the Navdanya project of RFSTE, we drafted model laws which were then used and further developed by the Third World Network and the Organization of African Unity for creating sui generis options based on community rights. From January to March 2005, Navdanya with its partners undertook Bija Satyagraha campaigns to declare non-cooperation with the new patent laws, which allows patent on life and the proposed Seed Act, which would criminalize farmers. Combatting Farmers’ Suicide After the introduction of Bt cotton in India in 2002, farmers across the country were seen taking the desperate step of ending their lives because of new pressures building upon them as a result of globalization and corporate hijack of seed supply. In 2011, the Agriculture Ministry revealed that almost 90 per cent of the cotton cultivation area in India was under Bt cotton; that, based on estimates for the year 2010–2011, out of the total area of 111.42 lakh hectares under cotton cultivation, 98.54 lakh hectares are under Bt Cotton, of which Gujarat, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh are the top producers of cotton with 105, 88 and 53 lakh bales cotton respectively, and 81%, 92% and 98% of their total cotton cultivation area under Bt cotton. (Koshy, 2011) This new kind of cotton seed came with a higher price and with the promise of pest resistance, particularly against the belligerent white bollworm. But Bt cotton dramatically changed the equation between the farmer and the seed. Before Bt, less than 40% seeds used were hybrids. Now it’s over 90%. Making hybrid seeds is a laborious, technical process and costly, whereas varieties are a result of Shiva 209 generations of selective breeding. They can be reused, have lower yields, and are pretty much given away for free by state agriculture departments. Hybrids have higher yields, can’t be reused and are costlier. (Koshy, 2011) In 2015, the Ministry of Agriculture revealed that more than 3,000 farmer suicides have taken place in the last three years (The Hindu, 2015). The lure of huge profits linked with clever advertising strategies evolved by the seeds and chemical industries and easy credit for purchase of costly inputs such as pesticides are forcing farmers into a chemical treadmill and a debt trap. In response to the passage of the Seed Act in 2014 and the growing rate of farmers’ suicide, Navdanya undertook Seed Pilgrimages (Bija Yatras) to stop farmers’ suicides and create an agriculture of hope using heritage seeds and farmers agro-ecological knowledge. The Bija Yatra was launched on 9 May 2006 to mark 150 years of our struggle for freedom by building a movement to stop the genocide of our farmers and reclaim our food sovereignty. The yatra started from Sevagram in the Wardha district of Maharashtra and concluded on 26 May 2007 in Bangalore, Karnataka. The yatra covered Amravati, Yavatmal, Nagpur, and Vidarbha region of Maharashtra; Adilabad, Warangal, Karimnagar, and Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh; and Bidar, Gulbarga, Raichur, Hospet, Chitradurga, and Bangalore in Karnataka. These are the regions where farmers have become locked into dependence on corporate seed supply for growing cash crops integrated to world markets, which is leading to a collapse in farm prices due to 400 billion dollars of subsidies in rich countries. The yatra was jointly organized by Vidarbha Organic Farmers Association, Maharashtra Organic Farmers Association, Andhra Pradesh Ryotu Sangham, Modern Architects for Rural India (MARI), All India Kisan Sabha, KRRS, Bharat Krishak Samaj, Navdanya and other activists and organizations. Navdanya spearheaded the movement in the three suicide belts of the country, namely, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, by burning the Bt cotton seeds in Amravati to reiterate its pledge to protect the farmers’ rights of seed saving and seed sharing. The yatra, which was flagged off on 9 May 2006 from Sevagram in Maharashtra, focused on seed rights, seed conservation and sustainable agriculture. Awareness was also created through the medium of music and street play to convey the message of organic agriculture, resistance to corporate monopoly of seeds and the harms of mono-cropping and benefits of multi-cropping systems. Navdanya also organized a public hearing on the issue of farmers’ suicide in Bhatinda, Punjab. The Diwan Hall of Gurudwara Haji Rattan was brimming with widows and family members of suicide victims. Apart from providing guidance and help to the farmers for the revival of agriculture, Navdanya, under the ‘Asha ke Beej’ (Seeds of Hope) programme, distributed the indigenous variety of seeds to the farmers and encouraged them to shift to organic and sustainable agriculture. More than 6,000 farmers were distributed indigenous seeds. The farmers were so thrilled to receive the traditional seed varieties! Navdanya promised full support to them for converting to organic agriculture. It would be interesting to note that the seed bags contained nine seed varieties such as tuar dal, paddy, spinach and mustard. Various posters conveying 210 Antyajaa: Indian Journal of Women and Social Change 1(2) messages on the failure of Bt cotton, farmers’ suicides and sustainable agriculture were distributed among the farmer communities. As a part of the yatra, over 250 village communities were covered and more than 5,000 farmers affirmed their rights to biodiversity by taking a pledge to conserve, rejuvenate and protect their biodiversity. The awareness campaign reached areas of farmers’ suicide and distributed indigenous seeds by covering around 75 villages in Maharashtra, 85 villages in Andhra Pradesh and 90 villages in Karnataka. The College of Agriculture in Bijapur, Karnataka, provided full support to our endeavour in promoting awareness on the native seeds and organized an interactive session between the Navdanya team and the professors and students of the college. The students promised to support the cause by sensitizing people. More than 10,000 people were reached through the yatra and more than 10 million populations were covered in Karnataka alone through electronic media. The Bija Yatra created awareness among farmers on GMOs, corporate farming and seed monopolies. The yatris burnt Bt cotton throughout the journey of hope to encourage farmers to boycott Bt cotton, give up seeds of suicides and seeds of slavery and adopt seeds of life and seeds of freedom and hope. A truck full of seeds travelled with the Bija Yatra, and there was a hunger for seeds among farmers whose seed supply has been destroyed by the seed monopolies of Monsanto and its Indian subsidiary/licensees. Navdanya also organized a Bija rally in the regions of Uttar Pradesh in October 2006 with a reach of more than 10,000 farmers. In each village, farmers signed the copy of the memorandum for cancellation of Seed Act 2004 and discussed drawbacks of the Act, patent laws and privatization of water. During the yatra, 200 kg of wheat variety was distributed to the farmers. Seeds of Hope and Seeds of Freedom The saline-resistant seeds conserved by Navdanya in Orissa have helped the victims of the supercyclone that hit Orissa in October 1999 to re-establish sustainable agriculture. Navdanya also brought hope to the victims of tsunami in 2004. The tsunami waves affected the agricultural lands of the farmers due to intrusion of seawater and deposition of sea land. More than 5,203.73 hectares of agricultural land in Nagapattinam, Tamil Nadu, was affected by the tsunami. The Navdanya team conducted a study in the affected villages to facilitate agriculture recovery. Apart from guidance, we distributed three saline-resistant varieties of paddy, which included Bhundi, Kalambank and Lunabakada, to the farmers of the worst- affected areas. These varieties of native saline-resistant kharif paddy seeds were collected from Navdanya farmers in Orissa amounting to a total of 100 quintals. The result has been remarkable. Once again, in 2005, Navdanya provided farmers of the Kashmir valley with seeds for crops they lost during the 2005 earthquakes. Initially, the biodiversity started in five villages of Pulwama district: Sambura, Pampar, Batherhama, Shiva 211 Zawoora, and Hadu; but in the long run, we hope to take this biodiversity conservation programme to the whole of Kashmir and Ladakh. In August 2006, Navdanya launched Project Climate Change and established seed banks in Jaisalmer (drought-resistant crops) and Orissa (saline-resistant crops) to help with various dimensions of preparedness in the face of extreme climate changes. Navdanya is now multiplying and distributing varieties of resistant seeds of rice, millet, bajra (pearl millet) and wheat. GMO-free seed banks have been started to rescue farmers from the seeds of suicide. Under the Seeds of Hope programme, Navdanya continues its efforts to supply seeds to those who are in need of it and have lost their local varieties due to the Green Revolution policy of the government. Freedom from GMOs and Creating GMO-free Zones Navdanya has led the national and international movement for biosafety and against the dangers of GMOs in agriculture. Working with citizens’ movements, grass-roots organizations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and govern- ments, we have made significant contributions to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the Biosafety Protocol. Contrary to the three myths, that is, the myth of feeding the hungry, protecting the planet and food safety, that are being used to make GE the dominant technology used in the production and processing of food, our research and campaigns have highlighted the deepening crisis of hunger and starvation, debt and farmers’ suicides caused by high cost but unreliable genetically modified (GM) and hybrid seeds. In the field of food and agriculture, we have raised serious concerns about the ecological and health impacts of GMOs. Since 1991, we have been campaigning against the commercialization of GM crops and food in India and have highlighted the dangerous effects of these crops and food on our biodiversity, environment and health. We are seriously involved in enlightening the public at large on its harmful effects. Since 1997, Navdanya is actively monitoring the GM-related activities and development in India and has conducted field surveys on the performance of Bt cotton every year during the field trials as well as after its commercialization, and has proved companies’ and governments’ claims as deceitful and fallacious. Through RFSTE, we also filed a public interest litigation (PIL) in the Supreme Court in 1999 against the US seed giant Monsanto and Indian authorities for the illegal and unauthorized ways through which GMO has been introduced in India and the manner in which field trials of these crops were conducted, violating the environmental laws, and without involving and informing the local authorities and the local public. In addition, RFTSE and other concerned groups demanded that the Government of India fulfil its obligation towards the Indian farmers, Indian consumers, our environment, our diversity and our very agriculture by imposing a 10-year moratorium immediately on the irreversible release of GMOs in this country. 212 Antyajaa: Indian Journal of Women and Social Change 1(2) Monsanto Quit India Campaign Since 1991, we have been campaigning against the commercialization of GM crops and food in India. Monsanto3 has pushed its Bt cotton into Indian agricul- ture through corruption and fraud. Thousands of Indian farmers have already committed suicide because of rising costs of seeds and chemicals. The hijack of the seed supply by corporations such as Monsanto threatens the very survival of our peasants and our biodiversity. Navdanya and RFSTE started a campaign called ‘Monsanto Quit India’ on 9 August 1998 to oust Monsanto from India. 9 August is a very important day in the Indian Freedom Struggle. This day, in 1942, Mahatma Gandhi started the ‘Quit India Movement’ to force the British out of the country. Also 10,000 postcards were sent to Monsanto Bombay office signed by hundreds of Jaiv Panchayats,4 grass-roots organizations, NGOs, tribals, farmers and students. Each postcard had a message on it which said ‘Monsanto Quit India, We reject your Terminator Technology, Round-up Ready Soya and “Bollgard” Bt. Cotton’. Since 1998, Monsanto–Mahyco has been engaged in Bt cotton field trials in India. Monsanto started large-scale open field trials without permission from the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC), even though it is the sole agency to grant such permission. Navdanya and RFSTE were the first to immediately challenge these trials. Because of the illegality of the trials, which violate India’s laws on biosafety and because of the risks of genetic pollution, RFSTE was forced to take Monsanto and Mahyco to the Supreme Court. In an interim order passed by the Supreme Court in 2006 (Genet, 2007), the Government of India was directed to stay all trials of GMOs for which approval has not been taken from GEAC. Bt cotton was cleared on the ground that it had been fully tested in Indian conditions, that it would not require pesticides, that yields and therefore farmers’ incomes would be higher. None of these promises were fulfilled as the study undertaken by Navdanya and RFSTE in the fall of 2002 showed (the complete study is available with Navdanya in its report on ‘Seeds of Suicide’). Navdanya was invited to provide inputs to the M.S. Swaminathan Task Force on the application of biotechnology in agriculture, which was constituted in 2004. Our main inputs to the Task Force were: India’s Biosafety Framework needs strengthening, with higher capacity in GEAC. India is rich in biodiversity, but a land of small and poor farmers. GE tech- nology has much higher risks in India’s ecological and economic context. Hence, GMOs introduced in the USA should not be blindly introduced without fresh risk assessment. Democratic participation and transparency need to increase since crops and food are related to fundamental rights and basic needs. Citizens must have the final say on what food they want to eat. Shiva 213 Organic farming is the farming of the future. Organic has a potential to produce more with less, and hence reduces the costs and debts, which are pushing farmers to suicide. Organic producers need to be protected from genetic contamination and genetic pollution through a system or strict liability. Navdanya’s continued research on the failure of Bt cotton and the link between high-cost non-renewable high breed and GM seeds and farmers’ suicides has built the movement that has made the farmers’ suicide visible and recognized as a human rights outrage by both society and the government. With the Bija Yatras, Navdanya started the ‘Seeds of Hope, Seeds of Freedom’ campaign in the suicide belts, which has been successful in creating GMO-free villages. Through our ‘Adopt an Acre’ campaign, we invite people to get involved in the campaign to stop farmers’ suicide. Due to Navdanya’s constant awareness campaigns, trainings and workshops, the suicide belt of Koljhari village in Vidarbha has declared not to plant Bt cotton anymore. Navdanya, the Vidarbha Jan Andolan and the Vidarbha Organic Farmers Association have started a campaign to create GMO-free, organic villages in Vidarbha. While the Prime Minister Vidarbha package has failed to prevent farmers’ suicides, the Citizens Campaign is committed to provide farmers with an alternative to GM crops and unfair trade. GMO-free seed banks have been started to rescue farmers from suicide. Navdanya has been working to strengthen the biosafety both through policy advocacy and through legal action. The Government of Andhra Pradesh, through a case in the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices (MRTP), challenged the monopoly of the seed industry. The MRTP gave an interim ruling in 2006 directing Monsanto to reduce the price of Bt cotton (Venkateshwarlu, 2006). Navdanya is intervening this significant case in the Supreme Court, which relates directly to IPR to seeds, monopoly and seed supply. Global Citizens Campaign against GMOs During the WTO Hong Kong Ministerial in 2005, Navdanya organized a series of workshops on WTO and The Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), which included citizens’ vote for GMO-free food. The panel session focused on the TRIPS, biodiversity, food security and public health, and the forum drew a diverse, attentive and mixed gender crowd. Several vital issues surrounding women were discussed. Campaigners at the WTO Ministerial Conference delivered a petition to the WTO signed by more than 135,000 citizens from 100 countries and more than 740 organizations representing 60 million people against the trade dispute at the WTO over GM food by USA, Argentina and Canada. In the objections, citizens ask the WTO not to undermine the right of individual countries, in this case Europe, to take appropriate steps to protect their farmland, environment and consumers from the risks posed by GM food and crops. 214 Antyajaa: Indian Journal of Women and Social Change 1(2) Colonization through Patents As I have always said, would we allow someone to claim they were the architect and the owner of a building only because they moved furniture into it and therefore had a right to collect rent for it from the original owner of the building? When we do not allow such fraudulent claims to become the basis of property law, how can they be allowed to become the basis of ownership of seed and ownership of life? That, in essence, is the argument against corporations such as Monsanto that deal with GMOs. By adding one new gene to the cell of a plant, such corporations claim they have invented and created the seed, the plant and all future seeds which have now become their property. By claiming to be the inventor of these seeds, they also claim themselves as the creator and owner of generations of seeds that reproduce themselves. Using this argument, Monsanto claims ownership over these seeds for life and the right to collect royalties from farmers. Monsanto’s claims are illegal, unethical and unjust. Thousands of Indian farmers have already committed suicide because of extraction of illegal royalties. This crime must stop, which is why I joined Navdanya Seed Savers, who submitted 30,000 signatures to the Agriculture Ministry to uphold the Seed Price Control Order, 2015 and the ‘Licensing and Formats for GM Technology Agreements Guidelines, 2016’. On 18 May 2016, the Ministry of Agriculture had issued an order regulating the price of Bt cotton seeds, thus seeking to stop the exploitation of Indian farmers by Monsanto. On 22 May, the ministry invited the farmers and civil society to respond to the issue of price control within a period of 90 days. Seed is the source of life. Life forms, forms of life—plants and seeds—are self-evolving, self-organized sovereign beings. They have intrinsic worth, value and standing. They multiply and reproduce. Signatures are still pouring in from around the country to uphold Bija Swaraj, or the seed sovereignty of Indian farmers, and to prevent the loot of India’s biodiversity by corporations such as Monsanto. Farmers’ Rights By defining seed as their creation and invention, corporations such as Monsanto shaped the global intellectual property and patent laws so that they could prevent farmers from saving and sharing seeds. This is how the TRIPS Agreement of the WTO came to be drafted. Monsanto had assumed that they would continue to play the role of ‘patient, diagnostician and prescribing physician’. But it forgot two vital ingredients of patent laws—national sovereignty and public interest, especially rights of the farmers. Argentina and India played a big role in ensuring that clear exclusions and flexibilities were introduced in TRIPS that allowed countries to exclude patents on plants and seeds. India’s patent law excludes plants and animals and essentially biological processes from being counted as an invention—as do laws in Brazil, Argentina Shiva 215 and Mexico. India is the only country to have a law with farmers’ rights in its name, titled Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Act, 2001, which has the following clause on Farmers Rights: ‘A farmer shall be deemed to be entitled to save, use, sow, resow, exchange, share or sell his farm produce including seed of a variety protected under this Act in the same manner as he was entitled before the coming into force of this Act’ (Smyth, Phillips & Castle, 2014, p. 514). Essentially, India and other countries with such laws have argued that adding a gene or genetically modifying a seed does not amount to inventing, or creating, a cotton seed or a soya bean seed and its future generations. Monsanto is challenging these laws across the world, even though they are consistent with TRIPS, as they come in the way of Monsanto’s absolute seed monopoly. In Argentina, a judge rejected Monsanto soya bean patent, saying ‘The writer of a book cannot claim to be the inventor of a language’. Monsanto is not writing the book of life. It is just scrambling the letters in total ignorance of what its ‘genetic modification’ means at the level of the organism, the seed or the ecosystem. Claiming patents on seed and patents on life is therefore equivalent to claiming destruction as creation, of ignorance as innovation. After having lost the case in the Intellectual Property courts, Monsanto has now brought a challenge in the Supreme Court of Argentina stating that a GMO soya plant is not a plant, and hence cannot be excluded from patentability on the basis of Argentina’s patent laws, just like it is trying to challenge the Government of India by arguing that a Bt cotton seed is not a seed when it comes to regulation of seed prices. In India, despite lacking patent on Bt cotton seed, Monsanto started to collect royalties from Indian farmers, pushing up the cotton seed price by 80,000 per cent. First the MRTP Act and then the government had to intervene to bring down the prices. The government passed the Cotton Seeds Price (Control) Order, 2015 to regulate prices and royalty under the Essential Commodities Act to protect farmers’ right to affordable and reliable seed. Monsanto challenged the order in Delhi High Court and Karnataka High Court. It argued that the GMO cotton seed is not a seed and its price cannot be regulated under the Essential Commodities Act. It argued that the licensing arrangements were private contracts, that the state could not regulate licences to ensure justice and fair competition. It argued that the royalty or trait value could not be determined by the government. It argued further that Monsanto does the breeding, multiplication and distribution of seed in India. But the Karnataka High Court dismissed these claims. The licensing guidelines became necessary because Monsanto was functioning outside the law, as a rogue corporation, and is a clear reminder of the laws that are in place in India related to seeds and plants, based on the scientific recognition that seeds make themselves and biological processes are not a ‘manufacture’. Monsanto is trying to have its cake and eat it too. To resist regulation of seed prices and royalties, it is arguing that a Bt cotton seed is not a cotton seed. But it becomes a seed when it comes to collecting royalties. The licensing rules recognize Monsanto’s rights to its Bt construct, but reiterate India’s laws that recognize that the seed reproduces itself through essentially 216 Antyajaa: Indian Journal of Women and Social Change 1(2) biological processes of reproduction. And when Indian breeders breed new varieties using the trait, they are the breeders, not Monsanto—the IPR for plant varieties will therefore be assigned to the rightful breeders. Monsanto claiming ownership of the seed because it had the tools to shoot a gene with a gene gun into the cell of the plant is the equivalent of a doctor who has facilitated in vitro fertilization claiming parenthood and ownership not only of the child thus born but of all offspring born in the future. But owning a person is slavery. Imagine all doctors claiming children born through assisted birth as their slaves. And to transform all humanity into slaves, making all natural childbirth illegal! Society would reject such a fraudulent claim. But it is precisely such a fraud that Monsanto wants to impose on India. Continuing the Champaran Satyagraha In 2017, India will celebrate 70 years of Independence. And also the 75th anniversary of the Quit India Movement. About one to three million (Nelson, 2010) people had died in the Great Bengal Famine of 1943 because of the extortionist revenue collection by the British. It was clear that we had to reclaim our freedom because British rule was pushing people to starvation while maximizing its revenue extraction, lagan (tax), from land. Today, we are suffering a similar tragedy related to seeds, as Monsanto extracts super profits from our farmers in the form of illegal royalties as seed tax, trapping them in debt and pushing them to suicide. And when the government regulates seed prices, and clarifies India’s patent law that excludes seeds and plants from patentability (Art 3j), Monsanto tries to threaten the government by saying it is withdrawing a new GMO Bt cotton seed Bollgard II Roundup Ready Flex which contains two Bt toxin genes and a gene for resistance to Monsanto’s herbicide. Roundup Ready crops are resistant to Roundup, so Monsanto can sell more Roundup as well as collect royalties from seeds it would like to patent. Monsanto’s withdrawal threat is empty. Indian law does not allow a patent on seed, and Roundup Ready crops are not approved for cultivation. In fact, the Technical Expert Committee advising the Supreme Court in the GMO case has categorically advised that there should be no herbicide-resistant GMO trials or commercialization in India because India is a land of small farms and rich biodiversity. Herbicide-resistant crops such as Monsanto’s Roundup Ready cotton would lead to spraying of the broad-spectrum herbicide, which would kill all other crops in the field except the plant genetically engineered to resist Roundup. Not only would this destroy biodiversity, it would rob the poor of rich sources of nutrition in the biodiversity, and aggravate India’s food and nutritional insecurity. Instead of focusing on farming systems, biodiversity, seeds, farmers’ rights and national laws, Monsanto, through its massive public relations machine, keeps repeating three lies to cover up its failures and false and unreasonable IPR claims. Shiva 217 First, it claims that the government is trying to issue compulsory licences for Bt cotton seed. This is false because when there are no patents on seeds, there can be no compulsory licensing. The Government Licensing guidelines have merely clarified the law about exclusion of seeds and plants from patentability. Second, Monsanto and its spokespeople claim that their GMO Bt seeds have increased yields and cotton production by controlling pests. This too is false. Bt cotton is now resistant to bollworm which it was supposed to control. New pests such as whitefly have devastated the cotton crop in Punjab. Bt cotton area has dropped by 27 per cent from 10.3 lakh hectares in the 2015–2016 crop year (July–June) to 7.56 lakh hectares in the 2016–2017 crop year because of the failure of Bt cotton to control pests (The Indian Express, 2016). Maharashtra and Telangana also saw a reduction of cotton sowing from 87.83 lakh hectares to 67.88 lakh hectares (Sen, 2016). The national cotton acreage has come down by 8 per cent from 128 lakh hectare to 118 lakh hectare between 2014–2015 and 2015–2016, as revealed by the latest Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) statistics (Srivastava, 2016). A third false claim is that the Roundup Ready trait would help overcome the bollworm resistance that has emerged in Bollard II. As Mayank Bhardwaj writes, Bollgard II Roundup Ready Flex would have been the first technological breakthrough since the launch of Bollgard II, potentially pushing up crop yields at a time when some farmers have said the existing variety was losing its effectiveness. Bollgard II, introduced in 2006, is slowly becoming vulnerable to bollworms, experts say, and, as any technology, has a limited shelf life. (Bhardwaj, 2016) These are scientifically fraudulent and misleading statements. If emergence of pest resistance is the problem, spraying Roundup won’t solve it. Herbicides are supposed to kill weeds, not pests. And Monsanto’s Roundup Ready crops are failing in controlling weeds as well. Instead, they have led to super-weeds resistant to Roundup, just like Bollworm has become a super-pest resistant to Bt. But the most outrageous idea that has been propagated is that seeds have a ‘limited shelf life’. True seed is ‘Bija’, that which rises again and again and again. Our seeds have evolved for 10,000 years. Living seeds do not have a ‘limited shelf’ life. Otherwise, we would have starved to death as a species centuries ago! Seeds are called heritage and heirloom seeds because they do not have a limited shelf life such as Monsanto’s GMO seeds. Living seed does not become obsolete. It renews. It has the potential to evolve forever through dynamic changes, including contributions of farmers’ breeding. And Navdanya’s three decades of work shows that living seeds have more nutrition, higher overall food output and more resilience to pests and diseases and to climate change. Monsanto does not just force farmers to buy seeds every year to collect royalties, but also owns the patent for the ‘terminator technology’ to create sterile seeds. This technology has been stopped from commercialization by the UN Convention on Biodiversity. We cannot allow a corporation which has no understanding of biodiversity or what a seed is, but only knows how to extract royalties from farmers and create a monopoly control over our seed supply through its illegal, unscientific attempts at patent on seed. 218 Antyajaa: Indian Journal of Women and Social Change 1(2) To defend our seed sovereignty and food sovereignty, we must compel Monsanto to Quit India, like we compelled the British 70 years ago. We must continue the Champaran Satyagraha through the Seed Satyagraha. Seed freedom is our birthright. Notes 1. I founded the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology (RFSTE) in 1982, which established seed banks throughout the country to preserve India’s agricultural heritage and trained farmers in sustainable agricultural practices. In 1991, I launched Navdanya (n.d.), as a part of RFSTE, to resist the growing tendency towards monoculture promoted by MNCs. ‘Navdanya means “nine seeds” (symbolizing protection of biological and cultural diversity) and also the “new gift” (for seed as commons, based on the right to save and share seeds). In today’s context of biological and ecological destruction, seed savers are the true givers of seed. This gift or “dana” of Navadhanyas (nine seeds) is the ultimate gift—it is a gift of life, of heritage and continuity. Conserving seed is conserving biodiversity, conserving knowledge of the seed and its utilization, conserving culture, conserving sustainability… Navdanya is a network of seed keepers and organic producers spread across 18 states in India… Navdanya has helped set up 122 community seed banks across the country, trained over 5,00,000 farmers in seed sovereignty, food sovereignty and sustainable agriculture over the past two decades, and helped set up the largest direct marketing, fair trade organic network in the country… Navdanya has also set up a learning center, Bija Vidyapeeth (School of the Seed/Earth University) on its biodiversity conservation and organic farm in Doon Valley, Uttarakhand, North India. Navdanya is actively involved in the rejuvenation of indigenous knowledge and culture. It has created awareness on the hazards of genetic engineering, defended people’s knowledge from bio-piracy and food rights in the face of globalisation and climate change…’ (Navdanya). 2. See Navdanya (1986), ‘The Movement’ website. 3. ‘In the case of farmers, the right to seed is the basis of the right to life. Farmers are being trapped in debt and being driven to suicide because seed is too costly and the seed available is also unreliable. Since at the end of the day, royalty is paid by farmers, Monsanto’s royalties are violating the affordability criteria and are responsible for farmers’ debt, distress and suicides. First Bt I and now Bt II are failing to control pests and the pink bollworm has become resistant, Bt is failing the test of reliability… Monsanto has collected royalty for its Bt I cotton since 2002 without having a patent for it. Instead it created a new category called “Technology Trait” for which it charged a “Trait Fee”. But it was royalty under a new name… Monsanto could not sign individual contracts with farmers, as it does in the US, in India because a) there would be far too many contracts, and b) Monsanto did not have a patent for the intellectual property the contract would cover, i.e. the Bt gene (MON 531 event of Cry1Ac). So Monsanto locked in 28 Indian seed companies through one-sided license agreements to collect royalties on its behalf—very much like the British arbitrarily appointed zamindars to collect taxes and revenues from peasants in colonial times, ruining a rich and prosperous land and leaving us in poverty. The hefty royalty is collected from small farmers, even if it is routed through an Indian licensee, just as the peasant paid the lagaan to the British, even though it went through collectors and zamindars. Indian seed companies are feeling the squeeze, finding themselves between the price control measures exercised in the interest of the farmers and Monsanto demanding nine times more in illegal royalty and unilaterally terminating some of the license agreements’ (Shiva, ‘Monsanto vs. Indian Farmers’ (n.d.)). Shiva 219 4. ‘The “Jaiv Panchayat” is the Biodiversity Panchayat. It is living democracy—both in being the democracy of all life, and democracy in everyday life. It consists of the entire gram sabha (gram ke sab log) women, children and minority communities and not merely those who are on the electoral rolls of the village. This form of the Panchayat renders the community the decision-maker on all matters pertaining to biodiversity and its conservation. In doing so, the Jaiv Panchayat lays down the parameters within which the elected Panchayat body can take action vis-à-vis biodiversity’ (Navdanya, ‘Jaiv Panchayat’ (n.d.)). References Bhardwaj, Mayank. (2016). Monsanto pulls new GM cotton seed from India in protest. Cotton Association of India. Retrieved 7 September 2016, from http://www.caionline. in/articles/7590 Genet. (2007). Retrieved 29 September 2016, from http://www.gene.ch/genet/2007/May/ msg00061.html Hutanuwatr, Pracha. & Manivannan, Ramu. (Eds). (2005). The Asian future: Dialogues for change (Vol. 2). London and New York: Zed Books. Koshy, Jacob. (2011, July 27). How India became a Bt cotton country. The Hindu. Retrieved 6 September 2016, from http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/NZIDje22uiFUoskfs9FD5M/ How-India-became-a-Bt-Cotton-country.html Navdanya. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.navdanya.org/ ———. (n.d.). Jaiv Panchayat. Retrieved 6 September 2016, from http://www.navdanya. org/campaigns/jaiv-panchayat ———. (1986). The movement. Retrieved 26 September 2016, from http://www.navdanya. org/diverse-women-for-diversity/the-movement Nelson, Dean. (2010). Winston Churchill blamed for 1m deaths in India famine. The Telegraph. Retrieved 7 September 2016, from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ worldnews/asia/india/7991820/Winston-Churchill-blamed-for-1m-deaths-in-India- famine.html Satavic Farms. (2015). Retrieved 6 September 2016, from http://satavic.org/ dr-richharias-story-crushed-but-not-defeated/ Sen, Amiti. (2016). Cotton acreage declines on poor sowing in Maharashtra, Telangana. The Hindu Business Line. Retrieved 7 September 2016, from http://www.thehindu businessline.com/economy/agri-business/cotton-acreage-declines-on-poor-sowing-in- maharashtra-telangana/article8835771.ece Shiva, Vandana. (n.d.). Intellectual property rights. Dr. Shiva’s Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology. Retrieved 26 September 2016, from http://www. psrast.org/vashipr.htm ———. (n.d.). Monsanto vs. Indian farmers. Retrieved 7 September 2016, from http:// vandanashiva.com/?p=402 Smyth, Stuart J., Phillips, Peter W.B., & Castle, David. (Eds). (2014). Handbook on agriculture, biotechnology and development. UK: Edward Elgar Publishing Limited. Srivastava, Kanchan. (2016, July 20). After years of rise, cotton cultivation declines in India. DNA. Retrieved 7 September 2016, from http://www.dnaindia.com/india/ report-after-years-of-rise-cotton-cultivation-declines-in-india-2236237 The Hindu. (2015, June 27). Retrieved 6 September 2016, from http://www.thehindu.com/ data/over-3000-farmers-committed-suicide-in-the-last-3-years/article7130686.ece The Indian Express. (2016, June 27). Retrieved 7 September 2016, from http:// indianexpress.com/article/business/business-others/cotton-area-in-punjab-haryana- shrinks-by-27-in-2016-17-crop-year-2879143/ 220 Antyajaa: Indian Journal of Women and Social Change 1(2) Venkateshwarlu, K. (2006, May 12). Monsanto directed to reduce Bt cotton price. The Hindu. Retrieved 26 September 2016, from http://www.thehindu.com/todays- paper/tp-national/tp-andhrapradesh/monsanto-directed-to-reduce-bt-cotton-price/ article3132046.ece Author’s Bio-sketch Vandana Shiva is an award-winning environmentalist, physicist, farmer, seed saver and global justice activist.