Indian activist and author Vandana Shiva has become one of the most well known and widely followed activists in the world of environmental ecology, organic and regenerative agriculture, and other ecological movements that fly in the face of the post World War II model of using chemicals and even genetically modified organisms to grow food.
While Shiva typically focuses on promoting ecologically friendly methods of farming that she says empower the economies and the people of local villages, she also has been known to call out large corporations like Monsanto, which was purchased by Bayer in 2018.
Ever since its purchase, Bayer has continued down the same path of the highly controversial multi-national corporation, investing billions of dollars into a brand new GMO crop division designed to create even more types of lab-spliced crops designed to withstand large doses of toxic, synthetic pesticides.
Aside from Bayer, however, there’s at least one other major entity working to continue the work of the now-defunct Monsanto Company, and in this case it’s not a corporation: it’s Bill Gates, the former Microsoft founder, proponent of vaccinating virtually every human being in the world against the coronavirus, and billionaire philanthropist.
“Shiva on French TV: Bill Gates is Continuing the Work of Monsanto”
Shiva, the author of the book of ‘Biopiracy: The Plunder of Nature and Knowledge,’ as well as the #1 upcoming new release in the Amazon.com category of Patent Law, ‘Reclaiming the Commons: Biodiversity, Traditional Knowledge, and the Rights of Mother Earth,’ which she wrote along with Organic Consumers Association Founder Ronnie Cummins, spoke with French television station FRANCE24 prior to the coronavirus situation unfolding worldwide.
The station broadcasts to over 350 million households around the world.
During Shiva’s wide-ranging interview with host Marc Perelman, Shiva touched on several topics including her experiences learning from Nepalese villagers while volunteering for an environmental organization in India.
Dr. Shiva, who studied quantum physics in college at the University of Western Ontario in Canada, said it was a humbling experience for her as she began to learn about the immense amount of knowledge possessed by indigenous people, especially women.
“It totally turned my own head upside down, because…physics, you know, “high in the world,” you know something others don’t.
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“I realized everyone has knowledge, and you must respect it.”
Shiva, who founded Navdanya, a national movement to protect the diversity and integrity of living resources, especially native seeds that have been under threat by Monsanto and other large agrochemical corporations, also spoke at length about Gates and his support for Monsanto, genetically engineered foods, crops and chemicals, and other ventures that she says are in support of a failed movement.
“Well Bill Gates is actually continuing the work of Monsanto,” she said.
“What he’s doing, he’s pushing the failed Green Revolution, he’s pushing chemicals, he’s pushing GMOs, pushing patents,” she added.
The question on Perelman’s mind to Shiva is whether or not Gates realizes exactly what he’s doing, to which Shiva responded.
“There’s enough evidence of what it does, there are enough letters to him from farmers of Africa, from governments of Africa that say this is not the way to go…The United Nations accepts argoecology working with ecological systems as the best way to go…”
Shiva also accuses Gates of “biopiracy” in third world countries, the rise of “surveillance capitalism” and data mining, why she’s also taking issue with Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerburg, and more in the 12-minute interview, which seems more relevant than ever in light of recent developments in the world of health and privacy issues related to the coronavirus.
Check out the video below, and skip ahead to the 5:30 mark to see her comments on Gates, whom she describes as the world’s new “Christopher Columbus” (and not in a good way):
This article was originally written in 2020 and updated in June 2023.
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