Thank The Women Farmers!

- Dr. Shiva

In India, Africa and many other countries, women have preserved and improved seed varieties in millions of homes and according to the FAO, “they use more plant diversity than agricultural scientists know about”.

Dr. Vandana Shiva writes about the amazing and unacknowledged contributions that women have made to food security, and how Monsanto and other ‘macho’ organisations are destroying biodiversity and disempowering women through GM crops.

(This article was written by Dr. Shiva in 2010. We have included it in this issue because it still is extremely relevant today when GM crops are being approved for release in India.)

As yet another example of the desperate ‘science’ of Monsanto, it is now being argued that genetically engineered Bt cotton – introduced in India in 1997 – has liberated Indian women. In a paper* authored by Arjunan Subramanian, Kerry Kirwan, David Pink and Matin Qaim, the argument is that the crop produces massive gains for women’s employment in India.

But this argument is false on many grounds.

Firstly, women have traditionally been seed keepers and seed breeders, which means that the knowledge and skills related to seed conservation and seed breeding have been women’s expertise. The seed economy was a women’s economy. As long as seed was in women’s hands, there was no debt and there were no suicides. Women have acted as custodians of the common genetic heritage through the shortage and preservation of grain.