Vandana Shiva Compares GMOs to Rape
Modern day heretics have it easy compared to their medieval antecedents (at least in the West). Denouncing dogma that they once propagated won’t get them tortured and burned at the stake. But they do stand a good chance of provoking hostile blowback, which is what Mark Lynas, the British environmental writer, has experienced this week.
That’s because Lynas has just repudiated, in no uncertain terms, the anti-GMO movement he helped give birth to in the 1990s.
In a heartfelt and hardhitting speech, Lynas apologized “for having spent several years ripping up GM crops,” and for sowing unfounded fears that have been “exported by NGOs like Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth to Africa, India and the rest of Asia, where GM is still banned today.” Referring to the worldwide biotech restrictions, Lynas also said:
But most important of all, farmers should be free to choose what kind of technologies they want to adopt.
Now there’s a number of things in the speech by Lynas that people can take issue with, such as what I already discussed here. But I don’t see how a statement defending the rights of farmers is controversial. Somehow, though, Vandana Shiva, the Indian environmentalist and anti-GMO activist blurted this out on twitter:
#MarkLynas saying farmers shd be free to grow #GMOs which can contaminate #organic farms is like saying #rapists shd have freedom to rape
— Dr. Vandana Shiva (@drvandanashiva) January 5, 2013
When I saw this, it took my breath away, especially in light of the recent horrible gang rape and death in India that seems to have jolted that country into confronting its predatory culture of harassment and violence against women. Others, I noticed, were similarly aghast.
@drvandanashiva Shame on you for comparing GMOs to rape. That is a despicable argument that devalues women, men, and children.
— Karl Haro von Mogel (@kjhvm) January 5, 2013
That was from one scientist. Here’s from another:
.@drvandanashiva Really?! This is a disgusting comment, insulting on so many levels. I’m not a big fan of GMOs, but you should apologize.
— Jonathan Foley (@GlobalEcoGuy) January 5, 2013
Could Shiva’s insensitive tweet have been said in haste, or did it reflect the warped attitude of an activist? You be the judge after reading this op-ed from her last week, which includes this statement:
I have repeatedly stressed that the rape of the Earth and rape of women are intimately linked, both metaphorically in shaping worldviews and materially in shaping women’s everyday lives.
This is a person who is widely venerated as a feminist and champion of social and environmental causes.
UPDATE: Having been offline for nearly a day since Shiva made her offensive tweet, I didn’t catch what some others had already blogged, such as Robert Wilson here. Definitely check it out.
I also disagree with Vandana Shiva. What Monsanto is doing with GMO seed is far worse than rape. Abuse of a woman’s body is trivial compared to the wholesale destruction of the integrity of life forms on earth.
I totally agree with Dr. Shiva on this one. And just like Danana said you all got “tangled in its interpretation, symbolism, etc…” You saw the word rape and immediately freaked out, because in your mind Rape = horrible assault on women…instead of taking it in terms of a different point of view. The definition of rape…
rape 1 (rp)
n.
1. The crime of forcing another person to submit to sex acts, especially sexual intercourse.
2. The act of seizing and carrying off by force; abduction.
3. Abusive or improper treatment; violation: a rape of justice.
tr.v. raped, rap·ing, rapes
1. To force (another person) to submit to sex acts, especially sexual intercourse; commit rape on.
2. To seize and carry off by force.
3. To plunder or pillage.
She is referring to the violation of the Earth and the contamination of Organic/non-gmo seeds, through pollination (how they reproduce…so sexual actions for plants), by the GMO seeds. AKA “Rape”
I read this article and immediately deemed you an idiot of a news writer. Learn to change perspectives and understand what people are saying before you freak out and jump down their throats. I understand completely what she is saying, and even as a women, I am not offended. You can’t put so much value in words and what they mean to YOU because interpretation is different for everyone. All you have done is created a mess for other people to jump on the bandwagon. Good grief! Kudos to this woman and her work!
I defer to scientists when it comes to GMO and trust what they say.
The righteous indignation here is misplaced, I suggest.
To a non-scientist reader, comments like the ones you have posted to this blog can come across as someone being upset that a philosopher of science has spoken for science instead of the scientist. You can settle that score, sure. Remember to also take the valid ethical issue that underlies Shiva’s invective: patenting seeds could lead to jailing farmers for saving non-GMO seed because GMO seeds will most likely be in the control of private legal entities. It has massive societal implications. Besides, the principle of jailing a farmer because s/he saved a non-GMO seed for future use (thereby violating a contract with the GMO-seed-owning entity) is plain wrong, in my view.
You ignore people like Shiva to your peril, Dr. Folta. She’s challenging the notion that GMO seed is required at all because the world hunger problem is more social than one defined by a material-science-based explanation. In other words, the solution to world hunger *can be* non-GMO.
“Plus, anyone that constantly must remind us of their “Dr” prefix is usually full of crap. In my experience these are insecure academics with marginal degrees or credibility trying to polish the turd.”
==> That is quite a personal attack on a person that has spent long periods of her life demonstrating how small-scale farming with non-GMO seeds leads to socially-progressive results. Such a tone is also very disheartening to read when it’s from a scientist because it demonstrates an irrational disrespect for a meaningful, alternative and sustainable way of living without GMO seeds.
Science beez rayciss!
oh boo hoo. grow a pair.
Biorape is EXACTLY what’s going on. Good on Dr. Shiva!