Vandana Shiva on industrial agriculture's use of war chemicals and food sovereignty versus the new colonialism

This is an excerpt of Vandana Shiva's talk about the role of war chemicals (pesticides, fertilizers) in industrial agriculture's new colonization in her talk on food and seed sovereignty at the International Meeting on Resisting Hegemony held 2-5 August 2010 in Penang, Malaysia.

I'm going to talk about the work I've been doing for the last 30 years on issues of biodiversity, food, and agriculture, largely because of the recognition this is the cutting edge of the new colonization and the new imperialism...

For me, 1984 was significant because of two major events, both very tragic. One was June 4, when the Sikh shrine, the Golden Temple, was invaded by the Indian Army, largely because of the unrest and the extremism that had built up in Punjab, and the extremists were hiding in the Golden Temple. And, later that year, we had the Bhopal tragedy where the pesticide plant leaked and killed 3,000 people in one night. 25,000 since then...

Bhopal is historically a watershed in terms of the structures. Part of it involves "shedding," First shedding hazards and then shedding liabilities related to hazards. Bhopal is a watershed where sacrificing the rights of people in the time of industrial genocide starts...

Someone mentioned Lawrence Summers who is currently Obama's chief economic advisor. But I first came across Lawrence Summers in 1992 when he was the chief economist of the World Bank because he wrote a memo saying it makes good economic sense to move pollution and hazards to developing countries. First because it's cheaper to find labor and therefore costs come down. And when people fall ill, it's cheaper. And when people die, it's cheaper, because their lives are worth less. So that's 3/5 of a human being on a scale issue. This continues in the contemporary calculus of what is a life worth.

Because of this series of violent episodes, I decided to start looking at what is really happening to agriculture....

Because of this series of these very violent episodes, I decided to start looking at what is really happening to agriculture. And in those days, I was associated with the peace and global transformation program that the CSDS that used to have...I decided to study what happened to Punjab...I was young, an innocent physicist with no idea of what was going on in agriculture...

A series of things I learned during that study. First, that agriculture had become the place to extend the war economy. Every input in agriculture is a war chemical. Every agrichemical is a war chemical. Herbicides were used in Vietnam. Pesticides were used to kill people which is why Bhopal killed people. Fertilizers came out of explosives factories...

The other day I was at some gathering and there was someone who is very close to the U.S. security establishment and they said Iraq was easy because the weapons were very evident. The weapons had been bought on global markets. Afghanistan is tough because the weapons are fertilizer bombs made from the fertilizer the U.S. distributed. So this is, in fact, the fertilizer coming back to its original purpose. And of course, it's not just that these are just war chemicals extending into agriculture.

But bringing them into agriculture is very much part of the new imperialism. The common narrative of the Green Revolution is India chose it. The reality of it is that the defense labs of the U.S. started to work in the '40's on how do you retool these chemicals for agriculture...So you had to change the plants to adapt to the chemicals...

Rather than calling them varieties bred for chemicals, they were now called "high-yielding" varieties. In fact, they were even called "miracle seeds." And the first 12 people they trained were called...the "wheat apostles" introducing these new seeds...

In the colonization through agriculture, land was emptied of its biodiversity...

This whole structure only worked because when these varieties were ready, the U.S. government was waiting for an opportunity to push them. And it was a drought that took place in 1965 that provided that opportunity because the need for additional imports became the time for imposing conditionalities: "We won't send you wheat unless you change our agriculture." Our prime minister at that time said "no." He died soon after, in Tashkent, under very mysterious conditions. And the conditions continued. The two foundations, the Rockefeller Foundation and Ford and the World Bank joined hands to create this package of conditionalities...

You couldn't borrow unless you proved you had taken money and subsidies for chemicals. You couldn't get any benefits from any government program unless you showed you were planting the new seeds. The Green Revolution didn't spread because of the choice farmers were making, but because of conditionalities...

A lot of my work in the Punjab study showed that actually food production went down. Rice and wheat production went up, but only because you displaced all the other crops. In an Indian diet, you need your pulses, your oil seeds, lots of vegetables. All of that disappeared. Now you had a monoculture...

We had a huge decline in pulses, the basic protein for a vegetarian diet. Quite clearly, the West never understood because they never had pulses in their diet...

Come Rain or Shine, the Annual Kyoto Vegetarian Festival in Okazaki Park

Despite the rain, the annual Kyoto Vegetarian Festival was crowded with participants from all over Japan. Whether it was to buy organic vegetables, stock up on dried beans, buy fairly traded goods, or learn about the vegetarian lifestyle, this entirely vegan festival not only entertained children and adults alike (see photo below), but also encouraged awareness of the connections between environmental issues, animal rights issues and our diets.

A magician baffles a youngster with his final trick.

One young Kyoto resident said that she wished the festival would be held every weekend, while another jet-lagged traveler from Hawaii stated that she would not dare miss the festival even though it was only her second day in Japan.

To get a glimpse of last year's Vegetarian Festival, click here.

See this previous post for an interview of one of the festival organizers about the inauguration the first ever Vegan Earth Day.

- Jen Teeter

UN Report: Go VEGAN to stop Global Warming

From the June 2 Guardian: "UN urges global move to meat and dairy-free diet: Lesser consumption of animal products is necessary to save the world from the worst impacts of climate change, UN report says:"

A global shift towards a vegan diet is vital to save the world from hunger, fuel poverty and the worst impacts of climate change, a UN report said today.

As the global population surges towards a predicted 9.1 billion people by 2050, western tastes for diets rich in meat and dairy products are unsustainable, says the report from United Nations Environment Programme's (UNEP) international panel of sustainable resource management.

It says: "Impacts from agriculture are expected to increase substantially due to population growth increasing consumption of animal products. Unlike fossil fuels, it is difficult to look for alternatives: people have to eat. A substantial reduction of impacts would only be possible with a substantial worldwide diet change, away from animal products."

Professor Edgar Hertwich, the lead author of the report, said: "Animal products cause more damage than [producing] construction minerals such as sand or cement, plastics or metals. Biomass and crops for animals are as damaging as [burning] fossil fuels."

The recommendation follows advice last year that a vegetarian diet was better for the planet from Lord Nicholas Stern, former adviser to the Labour government on the economics of climate change. Dr Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), has also urged people to observe one meat-free day a week to curb carbon emissions.

The panel of experts ranked products, resources, economic activities and transport according to their environmental impacts. Agriculture was on a par with fossil fuel consumption because both rise rapidly with increased economic growth, they said...

Agriculture, particularly meat and dairy products, accounts for 70% of global freshwater consumption, 38% of the total land use and 19% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions, says the report, which has been launched to coincide with UN World Environment day on Saturday.

Read the entire article (with links) here.

Kathy Freston wrote an even better article on this topic, "Vegetarianism is the New Prius," published three years ago at HuffPost.

And Kim Hughes' meditative post, "Fucha cuisine: Buddhist tradition offers lessons in nonviolent simplicity through food," takes this subject even deeper: exploring how conscious and reverential cultivation, preparation and enjoyment of food can be a practice of peace—thereby inherently contributing to a cooler, calmer world on subtle as well as physical levels.

The First Annual Vegan Earth Day @Kyoto (Sunday, May 2nd 10-5): Interview with Chiko

• May all living things being able to live in a world of peace and harmony.
• 
  
• That we prevent our environmental problems from getting worse so that our children may be able to keep living on this earth.
• 
  
• May we live lives in health and with beauty.

These three ideas are the inspiration behind the logo for the first ever Kyoto Vegan Earth Day to be held in Kyoto during Golden Week this year on May 2, 2010. Organized by the same people that bring us the largest vegetarian festival in Japan year after year, the Kyoto Vegetarian Festival,(see post on 2009 Vegetarian Festival) the Vegan Earth Day will focus on the relationship our diets and Mother Earth:

As you know,the world already produces more than enough food, plant sourced for everyone. We would like suggest the way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the world's livestock, among the most serious contributors to global warming. We should care about climate change because if we don't, we can’t leave our children and their children sustainable earth.

Our vegetarian festival committee have hold vegetarian(vegan) festival since 2003 every October. a rare event bringing together vegan & vegetarian-, environment-, and peace-mind people from all over the country. An event for all ages, the festival gives you place to enjoy vegetarian food and listen to music while learning about vegetarianism, the environment, and more.

According to the Vegetarian Festival website 18% of greenhouse gases originating in the livestock industry. When one beef rice bowl requires over 2 tons of water to produce, versus 120 liters for a bowl of udon, the benefits to the earth of reducing meat consumption are quite obvious.

To find out more about how Vegan Earth Day was brought to life, Kyoto resident Jennifer Teeter interviewed Iwasa Akiko (a.k.a. Chiko), who has been organizing the Vegetarian Festival since 2003 (email correspondence translated from Japanese to English).

Can you tell us a little bit about the Vegetarian and Vegan scene in Kyoto?

9 years ago, when the first Vegetarian Festival was first held, people had only heard of the word vegetarian and many thought "vegetarian" simply meant vegetables. Also, many people thought it was strange for people to chose to lead a lifestyle where they didn't eat animals for religious purposes.

However, as the years have passed, judging by the people who come to the VegFest, questionnaires, the number of vegetarian restaurants and the media attention vegetarianism has garnered, we can see that the image of vegetarians has changed.

Perhaps Kyoto and Tokyo can be considered the easiest places for vegetarians to live in all of Japan. Kyoto is well-known for the vegetarian cooking of Buddhist monks called shojin ryori, and in addition, Kyoto attracts many foreigners, so the number of restaurants in Kyoto that are conscious of the diet of vegetarians has grown.

How did the Vegan Earth Day festival come to life?

The vegetarian festival started 9 years ago, but it was already an ALL VEGAN festival. Tokyo Earth Day, the largest open-air event in Japan, is quite famous, but many of us felt a little uncomfortable at the event. Despite the presence of many wonderful booths at Earth Day selling recycled plates and silverware, eco-bags, et cetera, we wondered why was there so much food with meat in it. There were only a few vegetarian shops on the premises and it felt as if there wasn't any vegetarian food at all but just long lines for restaurants selling animal products. It was a very strange atmosphere. While it is impossible for everyone to all of a sudden become vegan, couldn't we, on Earth Day at least, go without food made from animals?

So, now that people in Japan understand what it means to be vegetarian, we hope that the next step will be that people understand what VEGAN means. We have received requests that we have a Vegetarian Festival twice a year from the many people that come and stalls at the Vegetarian festival. It is from these requests that Vegan Earth Day was born.

Over the year, do you feel that the Vegetarian Festival has had an influence on the vegetarian scene in Kyoto?

I don't think we have influenced the vegetarian scene. It is more the hard work of vegetarian restaurants, the influence of celebs from overseas, and the health boom. These and other factors have played a part and and people in Japan are increasing their understanding about vegetarianism.

What changes have you seen over the years?

Now, there is more of a positive response when people say "I am a vegetarian." You hear more often people responding with "Wow, that's cool" and "Teach me some recipes." Also, we receive lots of messages telling us how people have become vegetarian after coming to the festival and learning about environmental problems and the devastating situation of animals for the first time. A great part of this open-air event is that while eating delicious food and learning, people can have a great time and reflect on their own eating habits and ways of thinking.

Do you have any advice for people that are thinking of becoming vegetarian or vegan?

It is not that difficult. First you have to give it a try. After two weeks, your body will feel great and you won't be able to stop.

The media presents a variety of ways to be vegetarian, from macrobiotic diets to the raw food diet. But, everyone is different so you need to find the way that works for you and enjoy your vegan life. Also, be confident in how wonderful it is to find vegan friends and together expand the circle of vegan friends for the future of the earth.

Finally, what is your favorite vegan food?

I guess I am a Japanese person after all, so my favorites are miso soup with tofu and brown rice, and I like eating lots of in-season fruit.

Chiko also explained the logo for Vegan Earth Day:

The logo has three green sprouts branching out from the center. They represent:

1. All living things being able to live in a world of peace and harmony

2. Preventing our environmental problems from getting worse so that our children may be able to keep living on this earth

3. Health and beauty (this is purposefully the smallest sprout:)

We created the logo to incorporate these ideas.

Thank you Chiko for your inspiring answers! From this interview, it is clear to see that this event promises to be thought-provoking, educational, and fun. Hope to see you there!

- Jen Teeter

How to Cool the Earth: Vegetables and Walking (Cool Earth Parade@Kyoto Sat, Dec 12th)

"A lot of people with similar motivations to better the world all congregated in one place. I wish it would happen more often!"

What is Sam Dreskin (pictured left) referring to?

The 7th Annual Kyoto Vegetarian Festival of 2009 held in Okazaki Park last October (formerly the "Veggie & Peace Festival"), an annual event to bring together:

vegetarian-, environment-, and peace-minded people from all over the country. An event for all ages, the festival gives you a place to enjoy vegetarian food and listen to music while learning about vegetarianism, the environment, and more. The Vegetarian Festival provides a place for people of all ages and nationalities to learn about a healthy lifestyle, while bringing attention to problems like the degrading environment and World Hunger.

With the governments of the world waking-up to the realities of global warming and climate change, this year's festival focused on the following themes:

★Living a healthy life, both mentally and physically
★Respecting life, not just of humans, but of the animals with which we cohabit the world
★Realizing how pollution and food over-consumption can degrade the environment
★Introducing organic retailers throughout Kyoto
★Providing a place to learn from NPOs

Over 80 different organizations, earth-friendly goods suppliers, and NPOs converged together sharing the multitude of ways in which we can fulfill the festival's ideals. Local vegetarian cuisine, including Deep Kyoto favorites like Sunny Place, Falafel Garden, Mikoan, Caffe dell' Orso and Cafe Millet were cooking up a storm while masseuses from Malinka soothed our souls with their dexterous hands.

Organic Beer from Yamaoka (left) and healist Malika(far right) from Malinka

NPOs such as Make the Rule/Kiko Network informed the public of the need for Japan to move beyond the Kyoto Protocol and make even more drastic cuts in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in order to prevent further global warming.

Members of the Kyoto Make the Rule/Kiko Network Team selling furoshiki to raise money.

Seven activists from the Make the Rule/Kiko Network team are in Copenhagen at the Climate Conference advocating that Japan make a law to reduce greenhouse emissions. One of the members, Mutsumi Hirooka (廣岡睦) explained while folding a furoshiki:

"Although Japan is obligated by the Kyoto Protocol to reduce greenhouse emissions by 6% against 1990 levels by 2007, emissions had actually increased by 8.7% . While government officials misleadingly brag about meeting the Kyoto Protocol goal in 2009 by reducing emissions by 6% in one year, the accumulative effect of the increase in GHG in the atmosphere is not taken into consideration, meaning the emissions are now 15% higher than the original target. At present, Prime Minister Hatoyama is pledging to reduce emissions in Japan by 80% by 2050, on the condition that other countries make the same pledge to reduce emissions, increasing his campaign pledge for emission cuts by 65%. The highest Former Prime Minister Aso would commit to was 8%."

While the festival has come and gone, the Vegetarian Festival 2009 website provides a wealth of information for those interested in pursuing a lifestyle sustainable to the environment in both English and Japanese. The meat industry wreaks havoc on the environment, with 18% of greenhouse gases originating in the livestock industry. When one beef rice bowl requires over 2 tons of water to produce, versus 120 liters for a bowl of udon, the benefits to the earth of reducing meat consumption are quite obvious.

As Sam noted, in front of the Falafel Garden vendor, after enjoying an cruelty-free pita: "It is important that we see this as part of a daily lifestyle instead of a one day thing. The vegetarian festival inspires us to make the change by showing how easy, delicious, and full of love a vegetarian lifestyle can be."

What's more, the vegan festival is not only for vegans alone. Takayuki Okazaki (岡崎享恭）, a lecturer at Kyoto Sangyo University, explained that although he did eat meat, he was happy to have the opportunity to learn about different kinds of foods made out of non-animal products so that he could introduce them into his diet.

In addition to reducing our consumption of animal products, walking is much kinder to the earth than riding around in gas guzzling automobiles. This weekend, walk a little more in solidarity with the "Cool Earth! Kyoto Action 2009” Parade. The Parade will send a message from citizens in the Kansai Area to the Climate Conference in Copenhagen taking place December 7th – 18th.

DATE: Saturday, December 12, 2009
PLACE: Kyoto City, Japan

Download English flyer here:
http://gaj.s263.xrea.com/internal/091212_flyer_eng.pdf
Download Japanese flyer here:
http://climatekyoto2009.blogspot.com/

PARADE STARTS AND ENDS AT KYOTO CITY HALL
2:00pm Gather in open air space at front entrance of Kyoto City Hall /
Rally begins
2:30pm Parade Departs
4:30pm Parade returns to Kyoto City Hall / Parade ends


Dress colorfully, bring instruments, carry a placard you made, or just
bring yourself.

Organized by:
“A Cool Earth! Kyoto Action 2009” Organizing Committee
Co-sponsored by: Kyoto Ecology Center
Supported by: Kyoto Prefecture and Kyoto City
Endorsed by: Japan Environment Exchange (JEE) Kyoto International
School and other organizations.

Details follow:
The parade will leave from Kyoto City Hall at 2:30pm, go west to
Karasuma Rd., turn south to Shijo Karasuma, turn east to Shijo
Kawaramachi, turn north, returning to Kyoto City Hall at around 4:30pm.

Join any part of the parade. Come with fun costumes, placards, musical
instruments, or just bring yourself.


Kyoto City Hall access:
Tozai Line (Kyoto municipal subway line)
Get off at: “Kyoto-shiyakusho-mae”, and you are there.

Contact information:
Kiko Network: 075-254-1011 E-mail: Kyoto@kikonet.org
Chikyu Ondanka Boshi Kyoto Network: 075-251-1001
E-mail: syodanren@mc2.seikyou.ne.jp

-Posted by Jen Teeter

Taiwan leads the way in Asia: "Meat-free Mondays" (the world's biggest producer of harmful carbons is cattle) starts during Global Climate Week

Two Taiwanese authors, Su Hsiao-huan and Hsu Jen-hsiu, have started a regional and transnational campaign to address global warming by urging people to stop eating meat every Monday starting September 21 (the first day of Global Climate Week):

...Data from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization showed the biggest producer of harmful carbons in the world was not the petrochemical industry or not even cars, but cattle breeding, responsible for 18 percent of emissions, Su said.

The activists aim to have restaurants offer menus that contain at least one third vegetarian meals. Airlines could also make Mondays meatless, while supermarkets and convenience stores could reserve special sections for vegetarian products, the newspaper reported...

The rising consumption of meat led to the destruction of more forests to make way for fields for cattle to graze in, and the process of preparing meats and frozen foods contributed to the release of noxious gases in the atmosphere, the campaigners said.

If Taiwan could set an example and find followers throughout the region, the country could make a worthwhile contribution to the fight against global warming and climate change, Su said..."

Yoko Ono and Paul and Stella McCartney have already taken a similar campaign globally:

...To produce a single kilogram of beef, farmers have to feed a cow 15kg of grain and 30kg of forage. It is a highly intensive business that is ultimately not sustainable. Livestock production is responsible for 70 per cent of the deforestation of the Amazon jungle and, by 2050, the world’s livestock population is expected to rise from 60 billion farm animals to 120 billion. It is a scary fact when you consider that a single cow can produce 500 litres of methane per day, which has around 25 times the global warming impact of CO2.

“I think we forget more and more that we are animals,” says Stella, “and we are part of a planetary system where all of the animals are on this planet together and you are made to feel like a hippy-dippy jerk that should go and live in a tipi for even making a point of remembering...”

The cheerful UK-based Meatless Mondays site is great for "flexitarians"––people who don't want to stop eating meat completely for whatever reasons--but who want to support efforts to protect our environment.

Also in an attempt to raise popular awareness that we need to work collectively to stop global warming--the UN's Seal the Deal campaign hopes to galvanize global support for reaching a comprehensive global climate agreement in Copenhagen in December:

Climate change affects us all. Nine out of every ten disasters recorded are now climate related. Rising temperatures and more frequent floods, droughts and storms affect millions of people’s lives. This is set against a backdrop of financial and food insecurity.

On December 7, governments will gather in Copenhagen, Denmark to respond to one of the greatest challenges facing humanity. The main question will be how protect the planet and create a green economy that will lead to long-term prosperity

Reaching a deal by the time the meeting ends on December 18 will depend not only on complex political negotiations, but also on public pressure from around the globe. The United Nations has launched “Seal the Deal” campaign that encourages users to sign an online, global petition which will be presented by civil society to governments of the world.

The petition will serve as a reminder that our leaders must negotiate a fair, balanced and effective agreement in Copenhagen, and that they must seal a deal to power green growth, protect our planet and build a more sustainable, prosperous global economy that will benefit all nations and people.

Hopefully, in the future, more environmentalist NGOs and governments will acknowledge and address the multiple roles (carbon emissions, destruction of rainforests for ranches, transporting meat long distances) in which the multinational meat industry contributes to global warming.

–– Jean Downey