Tomorrow's Biodiversity (Prospects for Tomorrow) (Paperback)

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Product Description

It is received wisdom for today's politicians and scientists that the only way to produce enough food for a growing global population is to clear and claim more land for agriculture, to specialize in certain high-yield crops, and to utilize every chemical and technological aid, including genetic engineering, to promote growth. This is also highly profitable for the multinational companies who produce the fertilizers, seeds, pesticides, herbicides, and GMOs for agribusiness. For Vandana Shiva, this is a recipe for disaster. A world in which nature's own abundance--the infinite variety of species, or "biodiversity"--is allowed full range is the only world that can offer either hope or safety. Over-dependence on a limited number of crops is unwise. Genetic engineering may bring with it hazards impossible to predict and impossible to reverse. Among the most obvious of the sad consequences of biotechnology in the West is the threat to so many songbird species, but there are other less apparent dangers in depleting the diversity of the gene pool, most important the loss of genetic material to help sustain the complex environmental balance of our planet.

About the Author

Vandana Shiva is Director of the Research Foundation on Science, Technology, and Natural Resource Policy, Dehra Dun, India. Physicist, philosopher, and feminist, she is a leading activist against environmental destruction, and has published many books on related subjects.

Product Details

• Paperback: 112 pages
• Publisher: Thames & Hudson (February 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0500282390
• ISBN-13: 978-0500282397
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,002,605 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Siva opens eyes, December 9, 2001

By	H Marcuse (Wollongong NSW Australia) - See all my reviews

Vandana Shiva started out as a physicist, is now a crusader for biodiversity. She has a terrific clear and direct style.
This short book tipped me over the edge, to an anti -GMO [geneticaly modied organisms] position. In the long-term GMO's may do wonders, but in the short term they are instruments in the hands of Global Capital, used to steal from the people. VS has a very important take on "yield" - the appropriated bottom lands "yield" less food and fibre, but they do yield profits for the corporations - this a is truly radical concept. Her stories of hundreds of farmer suicides in the wake of modern monoculture introduction are chilling, as are the dangers we are piling up by relying on vast areas of identically vulnerable crops.
Read this book and be changed.
Beyond the book:
A recent story suggests cause for hope. In Honduras, farmers on the slopes use grass berms on the contours and legumes to improve the soil. Their production is more valuable than that of the valley flats. The hill farming takes labour, so Capital cant take it over. This looks like the way ahead for the majority of the world, deserted by Capital. A key to the method is use of the correct varieties - winged beans the most prominent, but different altitudes benefit from different legumes. Information on varieties is crucial. Reports from Africa also suggest that legumes plus controlled animal grazing and fodder collection are making successful small farms . A truck to market can put the farm into the cash economy.