Customer Reviews

Earth Democracy: Justice, Sustainability, and Peace

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"Earth Democracy" by Vandana Shiva offers both a masterful critique of globalization and a hopeful vision for a better world. Ms. Shiva compares and contrasts top-down systems of authoritarianism and exclusion with bottom-up systems of egalitarianism and mutual cooperation to discuss how corporate power is proving to be a grave threat to democracy and the long-term viability of the planet. Ms. Shiva contends that a mutually-supportive network of empowered local communities might be able to create a global society that is based on humanitarian principles of peace, compassion and solidarity.

Ms. Shiva has long been highly regarded as an activist and scholar. She has authored many books and is a frequent media commentator. "Earth Democracy" serves to further Ms. Shiva's stature as a leading intellectual who continues to eloquently voice the concerns of the poor. Her unique ability to blend science, history, politics, economics, gender issues and other fields of study into her text is impressive. The result is a book that rewards its readers with many pages of thought-provoking insight and analysis.

Ms. Shiva points out that two thirds of humanity owes its livelihood to a sustenance economy that finds itself under increasing pressure from capital. She finds similarities in the earlier eras of enclosure and colonialism with today's struggle over intellectual property rights and patents, where the powerful use the law to privatize resources for profit. Arguing that overconsumption by the wealthy is the root cause of environmental destruction and human injustice, Ms. Shiva makes a compelling case for granting local communities more control over resources so that alternative, sustainable economies can be nurtured.

Ms. Shiva brilliantly connects the insecurity wrought by globalization with the "ideologies of exclusion" and "cultural nationalism" that fuels war and terrorism. As state power largely serves to protect corporate interests, the economically uprooted and excluded masses seek identity through nationalist conflict and sometimes prove vulnerable to manipulation by religious extremists. On the other hand, Ms. Shiva cites the Indian farmer's struggles over seed and water rights as examples of how people might come together in a positive way to reclaim a more peaceful and secure future.

Ms. Shiva reminds us that Mahatma Gandhi proved how small acts of resistance can hasten the end of empire. She believes that a multiplicity of movements such as Terra Madre that are struggling for food security, the environment, democracy and human rights will help us break free from the self-destructive path that has been prescribed for us by the corporate elite.

I highly recommend this important and inspiring book to everyone.

Shiva is a kind of Mama Kali, defending her village farmers and their environments with cool resolve or fact-spitting outrage. Coming off a series of victories over corporate bio-pirates, she shares the state of struggle for the local nature-workers of India to manage their future. Here are a few of her lines:

"What has been called the tragedy of the commons is, in fact, the tragedy of privatization." (p. 55)

"The enclosure of biodiversity and knowledge is the latest step in a series of enclosures that began with the rise of colonialism. Land and forests were the first resources to be enclosed and converted from commons to commodities. Later, water resources were enclosed through dams, groundwater mining, and privatization schemes. Now it is the turn of biodiversity and knowledge to be "enclosed" through intellectual property rights (IPRs)." (p. 39)

[In the Navdanya movement] "More than 200,000 farmers are working to enrich the earth, create properity for rural producers, and provide quality food to consumers. ... [Their work] reintroduces biodiverse farming to both replace chemicals as fertilizers and pesticides and to increase the productivity and nutritional value of crops. ... Navdanya farmers are able to reduce their expenses by the 90 percent that was used to buy chemicals and create corporate profits. ... The incomes of Navdanya farmers are three times higher than the incomes of chemical farmers..." (pp. 67-68)

"Ecological security is our most basic security; ecological identities are our most fundamental identity. We ARE the food we eat, the water we drink, the air we breathe. And reclaiming democratic control over our food and water and our ecological survival is the necessary project for our freedom." (p. 5)

--author of The Gardens of Their Dreams: Desertification and Culture in World History

In "Earth Democracy", Indian ecofeminist Vandana Shiva powerfully defends the rights of Third World farmers against agribusiness monopolies, biotechnology and international financial institutions like the WTO, World Bank and IMF. In a brilliant deconstruction of capitalist patriarchy, Shiva explains how market fundamentalism breeds religious fundamentalism and explores the many ways that corporate globalization negatively impacts the lives of low-income women around the world. Importantly, Shiva explains how the colonization of DNA by multinational corporations is an extension of the colonization of Asia, Africa and the Americas by an imperialist male white elite. Outlining how the preservation of seed, water and sustainable food systems are a prerequisite for peace and real security, "Earth Democracy" is a timely and informative read for global justice activists interested in alleviating world hunger, healing the environment and creating peace.

Vandana Shiva believes that peasants should be able to make a living based on access to land, rivers, forests and oceans and that governments must protect the health of these commons for the good of all. This makes her a radical. She also makes complete sense and answers many of my questions about the inequity of the poor.

Much of this book is a discussion of the commons and the enclosure laws in England in the 16th century that allowed the commons to be privatized. Critics of Vandana Shiva claim that she is asking for a return to feudalism, but they are not hearing her out. (And besides feudalism guaranteed that the peasants would eat, while privatization guarantees that those without money will starve while taking away access to the land that originally provided them with a livelihood.) Much of the battle of the enclosure laws is waged with words. By claiming that an area of land is a wasteland and is not being used by anyone, this somehow gives private companies the right to buy the land or contract to use it for development purposes.

She ferrets out the flaws in the arguments of the opposition ie Richard Epstein in his book "Takings--Private Property and the Power of Eminent Domain". Their position is that government cannot protect natural resources like beaches, streams and other property because it would be a "taking" and therefore the owners must be compensated. This argument, she says, ignores the original taking of these public lands during colonialism, but it also confuses public trust with eminent domain which is virtually the opposite. And finally the public is redefined as a collection of individuals thus the loss of property is calculated based on its higher value to one individual vs each member of the public. Here she has not only explained how things have changed, but what kinds of arguments have influenced far reaching policies and how we have been manipulated into buying into the ideology of privatization over public interests. This is an important concept because it is a cultural battle of words that over time has eliminated the very notion of a public trust. If it were not still going on, this book would just be a historical treatise, but with water rights and clean air and the earth's atmosphere at stake, her arguments serve as the ground floor of resistance.

She also debunks the argument that having a commons doesn't work because everyone will abuse it. Not so, she says, as long as everyone can subsist off the land and be self-reliant, the community will work together to insure that no one party takes advantage. Assumptions are being made by free market advocates that have messed with our minds, but her examples show a different picture.

She points out the correlation between lack of economic security and the monoculture of globalization leading to an increase in fundamentalism both here and abroad. When people no longer have a livelihood to identify with, they are attracted to religion and will vote for issues relating to cultural identity rather than economic welfare. This explains why Gay Marriage has the ridiculous political status as a hot button issue when there is so much else at stake.

She claims that when enclosure laws allow people a living only by selling their labor (and their bodies I would add) then that encourages a population increase as families feel they need to have more children to bring in more income or to insure that at least one survives to care for them in old age since more die.

Her discussion includes the enclosure of intellectual and biological property with Monsanto trying to patent seed species. While governments pass laws that forbid farmers from participating in trade as they have always done, ie: saving their own seeds to sell to other farmers. She explains how governments help out large companies by passing laws inappropriate to small producers, for whom complying to these laws, would put them out of business, ie food packaging laws under the guise of safety. Thus her alliance with Slow Food Nation (she is Vice President) to support local foods and small producers.

She talks about how the sustenance economy is not valued on the market because it does not involve paid labor ie;, women's work, home economics, child rearing. Yet such work is how the recognized market can exist. She warns that the market is bent on the exploitation of resources that support the sustenance economy such as clean water, air and land and comments that the only sustainable economy is the sustenance economy because of its built-in feed back loops and community. The market however tends to solve problems by providing solutions of increasing complexity involving more exploitation of resources and more privatization as seen with privatization of water.

Getting inside Vandana Shiva's worldview stretches my head, but I really think she gets to the root of global issues and successfully relates how economic justice is the road to democracy and in turn to peace. She is apparently a huge threat to advocates of individualistic wealth building systems, thus the caustic negative reviews of her work as extremely leftist. The rich don't like being told that their success comes at great cost to the poor rather than out of their own smarts. But If we could embrace what she is saying, solving our most destructive planetary problems may look a lot simpler.

Amanda Kovattana is author of Diamonds In My Pocket: Tales of a Childhood in Asia

A well-written discussion of some of the most important issues facing humanity in the 21st Century. The book does, however, jump from topic-to-topic with relatively little deep discussion. Still, "Earth Democracy" is a refreshing change from what passes for "scholarship" in much of the Left-press. On the other hand, being a shorter work does make it more accessible to the neophyte environmentalist who may be unfamiliar with the issues concerned. An excellent primer on the new corporate-ecology facing us all today.

We are in a time where giant corporations wield great power over our nations, our politics, our culture and even the food we eat. Within a span of two decades their influence over third world countries has grown enormously. Money power can influence politics and in turn can influence economic policies. Rules made by WTO can affect the lives of poor farmers in third world countries without even their participation in the policy making. Democratic participation of citizens is only limited to voting and the government, a slave of capitalism and free trade can sometimes impose dangerous and harmful policies to the domestic markets.
Globalization is said to reduce prices of food and make food available to the poor. Is it true and is it also true that genetic engineering and its unknown consequences to mankind is a sign of progress? When did globalization start and how did it progress? These questions and many more about globalization are taken over and dealt with in the book.

Vandana has developed her ideas of Earth citizenship transgressing national and international boundaries. With globalization and the reach of the corporations across national boundaries influence every aspect of our lives, citizens need to think globally too, and reclaim their rights to commons from powerful few. Vandana develops these ideas into three sections--living economies, living democracies and living cultures.

Living economies is about the sustenance economy that majority of the population is dependent on. Firstly,there is the nature economy which is often neglected but is the source of life. Second,there is the sustenance economy that has been practiced by many generations of farming where life taken out from earth is given back to it in the form of animal mature or in other words eco-conservatism, so that nature is not depleted of her ability to regenerate.Third and the most dangerous to earth and nature is the market economy which governments extol as the only economy existing, which has been depleting earth and nature of the ability to regenerate and irrational logic of machinating life on earth as raw materials for excess production and greed.

Living cultures is about the indigenous cultures that have a history and knowledge to preserve nature and at the same time enjoying the plenty of it.Agriculture supports large populations in third world countries. Though market econony is given prime importance, sustenance economy dependent on agriculture is on a declin in third world countries. Poverty and joblessness is on an increase. Quality of life and freedom to live is on a decline for the poor. Monoculture way of industrialized farming may for sometime give great yields greatly damage earth of her life and ultimately rendering the land useless for any purpose. Vandana quotes Gandhi several times to invoke conservatism and oppose hegemonic and barbaric WTO policies that destroy living cultures that care for nature. Greed and market economy have become synonymous.Genetic engineering with its unknown consequences has to be implemented with great care.The author also mentions the importance of women as symbols of preservation and corporations as patriarchal hegemony. She gives the example of chimpko movement in east India to support eco-feminism. Diversity and compassion for all life and moral and spiritual responsibility for conservatism is greatly invoked.

Living Democracies is the participation of all citizens in making collective decisions about rights and usage on commons. Land and water though owned by the king were for public usage. They have been enclosed by landlords starting from 16th century in England with the backing of the king. Now it is the private ownership of land and water by huge corporations that is the treat. The poor who have a right to the commons have lost all their rights and they have been reduced to labor. Increasingly, the corporations have been encroaching on the commons and appropriating them; also damaging the ecosystems irreparably. Living democracies is about the fight of the citizens for their land and water; their right to survive and cohabit with nature.

The last section of the book deals with earth democracy in action. Several examples from the fight of the native people in India for water and land rights to major fight against WTO in first world countries are mentioned. There is a growing awareness of the treat to nature and sustenance economy. As earth citizens it is incumbent to revive the depleting and vanishing people and cultures.

Though globalization has been rebuked and rightly so in this book, I suspect there are some advantages of globalization and trade if rightly done. Subsidies given to agriculture and dumping of cheap quality food in third world countries is killing the local industries. So, this is unfair trade and governments should protect their national interest and their citizens first. But for other industries trade and globalization to my understanding may be beneficial. Like technology, globalization is like a double edged knife. It depends on how we use it consciously and responsibly. The damage by wrong policies of globalization are tremendous, hence they need to be revoked and WTO needs to take responsible policy making for the good of all citizens of the world and not for enlarging the profits of the corporations. America has to stop bulling the world and need to be the pioneer and harbinger to conservatism and earth safety and sustainability.

A friend of mine told me she was reduced to tears when she heard Vandana Shiva speak. The hopefulness and common sense that she displays in this and her other books is an antidote to the cynicism and political expediency that has created a global economic, environmental and military crisis that threatens our very existence as a species. She makes the argument that a strong, humane agrarian policy is the basis of any healthy society, and that our current model of globalization is not only crushing the life out of the majority of humanity but is not sustainable from any reasonable economic or environmental perspective. Her call for a humane restructuring of society and sustainable development that respects all human beings, animals, and the natural world is a call to sanity!

Vandana Shiva is a superstar twice over. To start with she has a vision so broad and deep it sometimes takes your breath away. But beyond that she also has the wit and personal force to implement that vision. She has organized small farmers in India and far beyond to resist the tyranny of neo-con capitalism. She knows how to mount a resistance movement that can, and has, succeeded. From her base in India, she commands an excellent view of the global economy. Earth democracy is about small farmers all over the world reclaiming their land, their rights and their heritage, so that he world can finally get enough to eat. Big agra will tell you their way is "efficient". In terms of delivering profits to itself and its shareholders it is certainly all of that. Problem is big agra cannot, and will not deliver what we really need- which is good food, not higher profits. The small farmers of India and many other places in the Global South have refined and perfected their art for over 10,000 years. If you want to know how to grow food, ask them. Big agra has been at it for maybe 50 (heavily subsidized) years. And all they know is chemical fertilizers, Frankenfood, and toxic bug sprays.
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This book is full of flawed logic, false data, endnotes (not footnotes) that reference her own work and the work of like-minded contemporaries, but rarely an opponent (unless to use their quote out of context) or even an expert on topics like history (apparently, Jeremy Rifkin is more of an expert than Robert Darnton).

She advocates a return to medieval, European feudalism. Apparently, life was wonderful for the peasants (For a rebuke, read Darnton). Also, medieval Europe was a time of peace, equality. Also, war and religious intolerance didn't exist before capitalism emerged in the 16th century. Why on earth wouldn't we go back?

Incredibly, she talks about issues of biodiversity and ecology and refers to herself as a scientist. She is a scientist, but not, as you might be led to believe by this book, a biologist. She is a theoretical physicist, whose doctoral thesis was on quantum physics

Also,

There are plenty of anti-capitalist, anti-corporate, anti-globalization arguments to be made and it distresses me that so much of the left gives the rest of us a bad name by relying so much on academically dishonest books like this. This is the left wing equivalent to Ann Coulter (in terms of dishonesty, not personal attacks).