Local seeds and produce (Image by Drona Chetri from Navdanya)
This article will be released as a three-part series on the effects of GMOs and the meat industry on our environment. Read Part 1
Dr. Vandana Shiva argues that the World Bank pushed the privatization of seeds in India in 1991, introducing a very distorted model of agriculture. It created refugees out of Indian farmers who moved to the cities, became today’s migrant labor, and are now refugees from the cities because of the Corona crisis. With the pandemic and sudden lockdown, the livelihood of half of India just evaporated. This India that works for its bread also suddenly added to the ranks of the hungry. Before the pandemic, nearly one million children under five were dying of hunger annually, and there were 190 million hungry people already. COVID added many more millions. The farmers who went the World Bank way to grow cash crops were unable to sell when all the long-distance supply chains collapsed du