Stolen Harvest: Global Agricultural Plunder by Multinational Corporations

Author: () Vandana Shiva, translated by Tang Jun
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2006-09-01
Features: This book is related to environmental protection and citizen movements. Through an in-depth analysis of various fields such as agriculture, fishing, and environmental protection, the author paints a grim picture for us: multinational corporations control international organizations and the global economic order, exploiting poor farmers in developing countries through genetic engineering technology and laws, overusing the natural resources of developing countries, disrupting the traditional balance between humans and nature, and profiting at the expense of environmental degradation and increasing poverty in developing countries. As a renowned social activist, the author also introduces the efforts made by the people of India and non-governmental organizations. They resist the exploitation and oppression of multinational groups through various citizen movements to fight for their rights and rebuild a new international order of equality and harmony.
Vandana Shiva, the author of this book, is an Indian scholar with significant international influence and one of the key figures in the newly developed "Third World Ecofeminism," a major branch of ecofeminist theory in feminist and ecological philosophy. Agriculture has always been a major focus of Shiva's concerns. In this book, shely discusses the catastrophic damage to Indian agriculture caused by irrational systems and institutions under the guise of "development," leveraging scientific and technological advancements in the context of globalization. The numerous case studies in the book are thought-provoking. For example, the ban on mustard oil and the full import of foreign soybean oil evoke a sense of familiarity. The analysis and critique of the current state of Indian livestock and fishing industries under globalization, particularly the description, analysis, and critique of Monsanto—a company that claims to "feed the world"—for developing, promoting, and monopolizing genetically modified seeds (which occupy a significant portion of the book)—reveal many severe realities that most of us are not necessarily familiar with but are of great importance, as well as the many critical issues worth deep reflection behind them.