Navdanya International - Philanthrocapitalism and the Erosion of Democracy: A Global Citizens Report on the Corporate Control of Technology, Health, and Agriculture

Vandana Shiva is one of the great minds and truth tellers of our time. This book is a chilling and meticulously documented expos of the reckless and devastatingly dangerous use of philanthropy by the technophile capitalists who are clueless about the needs of living people and the living Earth. A must-read warning for anyone concerned about justice, Earth, and the human future.

David Korten Author of When Corporations Rule the World and The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community

Dispelling the myths that traditional agroecology is less productive than biotech factory farming and biotechnology is necessary for climate resilience, Vandana Shiva and authors confront the false narratives of corporate philanthropists and their biotech industry accomplices. Their lies are nothing less than environmental injustice for Indigenous people, small scale farmers, and women.

Dina Gilio-Whitaker Author of As Long as Grass Grows: The Indigenous Fight for Environmental Justice, from Colonization to Standing Rock

Dr. Shiva has once again laid bare the emerging threats to our democracy and living planet. Shiva and authoritative contributors elucidate the dangers of genetic theft, protraction of the Green Revolution legacy, and terrifyingly bold genetic extinction technologies. The reader is left mortified and fully convinced that Land Back to Indigenous communities and a return to agroecology is the path to a livable future on planet earth.

Leah Penniman Co-Founder of Soul Fire Farm and author of Farming While Black

Philanthrocapitalism is a remarkable effort, led by the great Vandana Shiva, to expose the growing dangers of capitalistic powers as they capture, control, and destroy many aspects of our lives. In a brilliant and vital work, authors seek to oppose the rising and dangerous powers of corporate dominion and fascism.

Jerry Mander Author of Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television

Philanthrocapitalism and the Erosion of Democracy takes an intersectional approach to examining the work of corporate philanthropy. It is a riveting read on why we should not trust billionaires to save vulnerable communities. Charitable giving shouldnt come with a catch.

Leah Thomas Author of The Intersectional Environmentalist: How to Dismantle Systems of Oppression to Protect People and Planet

A detailed expos of how false climate solutions imperil our agricultural enterprise, undermine the sovereignty of the worlds farmers, and affect the quality of our food supply. Shiva lays bare an account of elite corporate philanthropys power to influence the direction of agricultural research with no public accountability.

Peggy M. Shepard Executive Director and Co-Founder, WE ACT For Environmental Justice

In an exceptionally important intervention, Vandana Shiva and colleagues expose the deceptions of the domination paradigm as it enters the late phase of its destruction of life, community, and the mental well-being of our children. This book provides an important signpost to reweave our human family and regenerate what has been depleted. We must collectively resist a system that concentrates wealth and power, leaving a few billionaires to speak as if they have our best interests at heart. Buy this book, it will support your ability to discern the falsehoods!

Gail Bradbrook Co-Founder of Extinction Rebellion

A must-read for anyone fighting to reclaim food sovereignty, protect Indigenous knowledge, restore biodiversity, decolonize nature, and repair damage to the planet. The book not only identifies real threats to humanity and false solutions but also shows that we owe a debt of gratitude to the Indigenous communities preserving the most effective principles to heal, regenerate, and protect our ecosystems. This book teaches us to emancipate ourselves with dignity and freedom so we may live in harmony with nature.

Fadhel Kaboub Associate Professor of Economics at Denison University, President of the Global Institute for Sustainable Prosperity

PHILANTHROCAPITALISM

AND THE EROSION OF

DEMOCRACY

A Global Citizens Report on

the Corporate Control of

Technology, Health, and Agriculture

EDITED BY Vandana Shiva

FOREWORD BY David W. Orr

Copyright 2021 by Vandana Shiva

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher, except for the quotation of brief passages in reviews.

Synergetic Press |1 Bluebird Court, Santa Fe, NM 87508 &

24 Old Gloucester St. London, WC1N 3AL England

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

ISBN 9780907791911 (paperback)

ISBN 9780907791928 (ebook)

Cover Design by Amanda Mller

Book design by Howie Severson

Managing Editor: Amanda Mller

Project Editor: Sage Wylder

Printed in the USA

Vandana Shiva

Vandana Shiva

Navdanya

Chito P. Medina

Vandana Shiva

Dr. Michael Antoniou

Aid Jimnez-Martnez and Adelita San Vicente Tello

Navdanya

Vandana Shiva & Navdanya International

Navdanya

Jos Esquinas-Alcazar

Fernando Cabaleiro

Vandana Shiva

Stop Golden Rice Network (SGRN)

Nicoletta Dentico

Timothy Wise

Navdanya

Vandana Shiva

Seth Itzkan

Dru Jay And Silvia Ribeiro (ETC Group)

Zahra Moloo And Jim Thomas (ETC Group)

Jonathan Latham

Vandana Shiva

Navdanya

Satish Kumar

Nicoletta Dentico

Community Alliance for Global Justice and Agra Watch

Farida Akhter

Navdanya

The idea is to pull off a digital version of the Enclosure of the Commons and put huge powers into the hands of an increasingly hardening police state.

Arundhati Roy

If brute force doesnt work, youre not using enough of it! has been proposed as the central operating principle of the modern world. It is a plausible candidate because it captures the compulsive logic of the marauder, empire builders, clear-cutters, strip-miners, corporate tycoons, militarists, and true believers of all kinds who shaped the past two centuries. Brute force does not negotiate with history, hubris, culture, biology, old knowledge, ethics, foresight, and the unknown. It eschews humility, persuasion by reasoned debate, ethical limits, and abhors empathy, compassion, and the discipline of place. In the fossil fuel era, the logic of brute force escaped from confinement and went on a planetary rampage and now pervades virtually all human activity. It masquerades as progress, but the disguise conceals a darker reality. A prime example, at the far edge of insanity, is the logically airtight, mathematically rigorous strategy of Mutual Assured Destruction, which informs our testosterone-saturated foreign policies and by which Armageddon hangs by an oh-so-slender thread. For what great cause, exactly, would one push the button to destroy the planet? What national interest, or reputational advantage, or great cause might be served? Who would be around to ponder such things and sift through the debris left by the most brutish of brute force weaponry?