Customer Reviews

Bioprivacy: The Plunder of Nature and Knowledge

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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.

Biopiracy by physicist, ecologist, and environmental activist Vandana Shiva is a harsh but perceptive survey and analysis of the expansion of population pressures on the environment, and more importantly, the technological advances which have been made and which seemingly have begun to dominate and shape life itself, as well as the process by which life is generated. A timely and critically important contribution to environmental policy discussions, Biopiracy is recommended as a sharp warning cry of alarm at where humanity's current tendency to pollute and put the dollar first can lead, as well as the damage that modern trends have down to traditional ways of life, -- especially among native peoples.

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.

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.

Shiva takes on globalization and the overall anthropocentric view of the world's powers with an in depth look at how Intellectual Property Rights have been stripped from the commons into the hands of multinational governments and companies. Although the writing is sensational, the feelings run deep in the developing world. Acknowledgment of these feelings is an important step in the realization that the Western World has infringed on human rights and ecological balance. The conclusion that placing value in the diversity of cultures and in biodiversity can lead to a more peaceful world if IPR's are left out of private pockets should not be taken lightly.

The slant of this book is predominantly anti western and is devoid of that much of a logical argument. There is very little data actually cited within the context of the book. Initially I thought the extra one inch of blank space on the bottom was a formatting problem but it mostly likely is to write your own rebuttals!

Page 11 uses the old north south economic argument but it fails to mention BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China). This book is dated..it was written before the global meltdown, before the housing bubble, before 9/11 and even before the dot com crash

Page 14 The author fails to note that patents are sold to other companies and often expire after a few decades. Recently Goggle bought out quite a number of patents from IBM.

Page 15 "Money becomes the arbiter of a scientific development's value" Well outside of religion money is mankind's only testament to itself. If you cannot put a price on something then there is no means of which that it can be sold or purchased by anyone.

Page 16 The author decided to invoke fear by saying "We are on the verge of losing our ability to tel lone plant or animal from another..." um no. Last I checked we do not have dog/cat hybrids, birds fly and snakes slither. I do not see how anyone with an education that is sober can make such a odd claim.

She implies she is homophobic on page 23 by saying that if a organizing cannot reproduce that it will create violence. She does not specifically even state what violence or how.

She invokes eugenics programs even though they ended decades ago. She often wonders in here writing. Someone please hand her a gps so it can say "recalculating".

Page 32 she claims "Eighteen percent of the piglets in factory farms are choked to death by their mother" according to who or what? The author has a patter of making claims without any real backup. Second hand accounts are also stated without names. To quote Lewis Black "Friend of a friend isn't even a urban legend!"

Page 37 she states that Monsanto can get rent on seeds that it makes and charges farmers to grow. How is that different from an apartment owner charging rent?

Page 39 Complacency on biosafety issues is therefore not justified on the basis of available scientific evidence" What evidence? She did not provide any.

The other major issue with the author is that she is NOT an anthropologist. If you read Jarad Diamonds Guns Germs and Steel you'd be shaking your head at this stuff.

Page 46 "Their lands could be usurped as terra nullius.." If there was no concept of land ownership logically nothing can be described as "theirs"

Page 50 She seems to imply as if she knows nothing of farming. "Second, it does not produce by itself; it needs the help of other purchased inputs". Crops need to be rotated as they take nutrients out of the soil..few crops will produce by themselves and even then the ones that do are not the most productive in terms of a caloric intake.

Page 59 she somehow gets on the topic of sperm and egg donation. To correct her actually egg donation pays much more than sperm donation.

Page 66 She implies that "biodiversity" and the western world do not like the same products..that is not the case. In Asia many goods are made with bamboo. It is stronger than wood and grows faster than wood..so why use wood? 10 years ago no retailer would have been able to install bamboo flooring but now they do.

Page 71 "Tinkering does not create value" Um...Louis Pasteur "tinkered" and we could get milk to last longer. Animal researched enabled us to create insulin saving countless lives. Aspirin itself was originally made by combining two herbs. I have to wonder if she is invoking John Zerzan...

I am skipping another five or so because it is too much to write

Page 107 "It wiped out thousands of crops and crop varieties, substituting them with monocultures of rice, wheat and maize across the third world"
Except for the fact that rice is a staple in 2/3rds of the planet...and these are not "monocultures" as there are different forms of rice, wheat and maize.

The author keeps going from one concept to the other without providing any form of viable solution to the issue at hand. More importantly she fails to account that this is simply evolution. There are those that advocate for animal rights and solicit for funds to "save" them. You cannot expect the same thing with a plant. If she believes in the concept of farming then she must also believe in the concept of the marketplace. If a farmer grows crops no one wants then obviously the farmer will not grow them again.

The author should have realized that her content went here and there. It would be better written within the form of of a long article rather than a short book.

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.

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.

Vandana Shiva writes on a worthwhile topic, namely the fact that the dominant economic and legal systems are totally unequipped to deal with environmental reality and have a wildly destructive tendency to impose themselves on the rest of the world. However, this book is sadly too incoherent and poorly written to properly convey the immediacy of this issue. Her arguments are totally lacking in structure and are prone to rediculous, hyperbolic rants about the colonization of the womb and other paranoid fantasies. She cites plenty of sound evidence throughout, but in an equally haphazard fashion. All in all, I guess it is worthwhile to read this book simply because there aren't really any others on the subject, but don't let the fact that Shiva writes like one of those borderline schizo activists turn you off to the importance of the issue of biopiracy.

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.