Biopiracy: The Plunder of Nature and Knowledge Paperback – July 1, 1999

Gift

A required reading for anybody!!!!

Vandana Shiva has become one of the most outspoken defenders of biodiversity and the commons, persistently working to advance the public understanding of a complicated history of corporate and legislative decisions that have changed the landscape of our lives and the lives of people the world over. She has contributed to a vital dialogue about the effects of globalization and the silent tragedies that are occuring every day because of strange business practices and the relentless politics of the new manifest destiny. "Biopiracy: The Plunder of Nature and Knowledge" is a succinct and accessible introduction to the issue of patents and corporate control of the natural world. Shiva is an articulate educator who writes about the difficult and often unspoken history of corporate exploitation of the knowledge of non-Western cultures. By arguing vehemently for the preservation of the farmer's right to save seeds, as well as local rights to ecological and historically tested uses of the natural world, Shiva outlines an ethical path for movement forward and for responding proactively to unfair business practices. I read this book in the context of a larger look at the world's food supply from an ecological and political perspective, but it speaks to a wide audience and can reach far in spreading truth about what is happening in our world - much of which is not getting reported in the mainstream media.

An excellent overview of the emerging issues associated with our new-found ability to read and manipulate the genetic code. The issues described -- patenting of genes that make it illegal for traditional medicines to use their fount of knowledge, creation of hybrid species without understanding of the full ramifications and potential disaster, irreparable damage to natural biodiversity webs, outright theft of natural resources -- may have seem far-fetched and alarmist in 1997, but has become common 12 years later. A short, well-written book and a must-read to understand the basics of the issues.

In Biopiracy, the Plunder of Nature and Knowledge, Vandana Shiva starts from the very reasonable premise that life forms, used for nutritional and medicinal purposes by native cultures for centuries, should not be patented by foreign multinational corporations as "new discoveries". In other words, this book is not for anyone who feels that it is okay to patent life forms which are modifications of already existing species. If you are interested in the problems with this approach and its political, economic, and moral implications, this book is necessary reading. Shiva exposes this exploitation of the intellectual and material wealth of the third world in the name of profits. Shiva's Monocultures of the Mind is also strongly recommended.

In "Biopiracy: The Plunder of Nature and Knowledge" Vandana Shiva posits that the biotechnology industry of today is but a continuation of the piracy of Columbus, John Cabot and Walter Raleigh. Euphemistically called "discoveries" their exploitation legitimized piracy as the "natural right of the colonizer, necessary for the deliverance of the colonized."Shiva maintains that this system of exploitation, continuing under the auspices of the World Trade Organization, now treats "biopiracy" as a "natural right of Western corporations, necessary for the development of Third World communities." Shiva writes that Western capital is now seeking out new colonies, new properties - the interior spaces of women plants and animals - to invade and exploit. Shiva posits that to understand and fight against "biopiracy" is to resist "the ultimate colonization of life itself - a struggle to conserve both cultural and biological diversity."hBiopiracy: The Plunder of Nature and Knowledgeh is a fascinating and invaluable book that sheds much-needed light onto the controversies surrounding the ethics of biotechnology.

Amidst all the tirade and rhetoric, cold hard truths emerge: the way IPRs are framed, especially those pertaining to the biotechnology field, is biased towards the interests of multinational corporate entities, and that the current mechanistic gene-centric paradigm in the "life" sciences ignores holistic perspectives of lifeforms and nature which are useful in their own way. While the urgency and potency of the message is not in doubt, the presentation of the content, with all the sidetracks and rambling discourses, leaves much to be desired. Read this book with an open mind, don't take everything in it too seriously, and look up alternative sources of information as well.

i didnt really like this book as much as stolen harvest. it was hard to read and kind of boring, but i learned alot and i appreciate the effort i put into reading it. but it didnt suck me in like stolen harvest, so im only gonna give it 3 stars.. its average.

What this woman is doing for the protection of seeds and our natural inheritance is something to be applauded. The information about what’s happening and the methods global corporations are using to plough the land is eye opening and highly disturbing.Why she felt the need to inject her tepid misandry into every paragraph she could is beyond me though. Clearly ideologically possessed, equating all the world’s problem to men’s apparent enslavement of women. In one part, she claims that men stole the “creative urge” from women, whatever that means, and transformed child birth and pregnancy into a “morbid disease” in another. This is just but a few examples. I had to put the book down in the end. All this had nothing to do with the subject, and it was all based on wild conjecture. Which is a shame, as I was learning a lot. But I can’t trust someone who’s so wilfully flippant and disingenuous about facts, history and the reality of how life was for most people hundreds of years ago. Most men died young, through disease and war, and for every 5 kids you had, only one of them reached adulthood. That’s why women were oppressed. Cept it wasn’t men that did it, but nature itself. It’s through science that we have liberated women from this drudgery. She conveniently forgets all this.So yeah, if you’ve been indoctrinated by the humanities department at a university already, you’ll probably eat all this right up. It’s a damn shame she had to ruin a book so enriching with this trite though.

Not a new book but little has changed and we need to change to ensure our future. I love Vandana's passion and her fight continues.

Amazing book everyone in this planet need to read immediately.

Read this book

well played conspiracy of western is very well written..