The Violence of the Green Revolution: Third World Agriculture, Ecology, and Politics

Description

The Green Revolution has been heralded as a political and technological achievement-unprecedented in human history. Yet in the decades that have followed it, this supposedly nonviolent revolution has left lands ravaged by violence and ecological scarcity. A dedicated empiricist, Vandana Shiva takes a magnifying glass to the effects of the Green Revolution in India, examining the devastating effects of monoculture and commercial agriculture and revealing the nuanced relationship between ecologica Cover Half title Title Copyright Contents Acknowledgements Dedication Study area location within the Indian Union Introduction 1. Science and Politics in the Green Revolution The Green Revolution and the Conquest of Nature The Green Revolution and the Control of Society 2. ‘Miracle Seeds’ and the destruction of Genetic Diversity How the Green Revolution makes Unfair Comparisons The Myth of the High Yielding Variety Genetic Uniformity and the Creation of New Pests 3. Chemical Fertilizers and Soil Fertility Voracious Varieties Diseased and Dying Soils The Return to Organic Inputs 4. Intensive Irrigation, Large Dams and Water Conflicts Thirsty Seeds Large Dams and the Centralisation of Political Power Inter-state Water Conflicts and the Elusive Search for Equity 5. The Political and Cultural Costs of the Green Revolution The Economic Costs: A narrow and shortlived prosperity Communalising the Farmers’ Protests Development, Social Disintegration and Violence 6. Pepsico For Peace? The Ecological and Political Risks of the Biotechnology Revolution Pepsico for Peace? Seeds of Ecological Vulnerability Seeds and Dependency Seeds of Insecurity, Seeds of Violence 7. The Seed and the Spinning Wheel: The Political Ecology of Technological Change Colonisation and the Spinning Wheel The Colonisation of the Seed Biotechnology Development and Biodiversity Conservation Patents, Intellectual Property and the Politics of Knowledge