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Vandana Shiva
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Biopiracy: The Plunder of Nature and Knowledge Paperback – July 1, 1999

by Vandana Shiva (Author)
4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 71 ratings
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In this intelligently argued and principled book, internationally renowned Third World environmentalist Vandana Shiva exposes the latest frontier of the North's ongoing assault against the South's biological and other resources. Since the land, the forests, the oceans, and the atmosphere have already been colonized, eroded, and polluted, she argues, Northern capital is now carving out new colonies to exploit for gain: the interior spaces of the bodies of women, plants and animals.
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  1. Print length
    148 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    South End Press
  4. Publication date
    July 1, 1999
  5. Dimensions
    5.4 x 0.4 x 8.5 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0896085554
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0896085558
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

A world-renowned environmental leader and recipient of the 1993 Alternative Nobel Peace Prize (the Right Livelihood Award), Shiva has authored several bestselling books, most recently Earth Democracy. Activist and scientist, Shiva leads, with Ralph Nader and Jeremy Rifkin, the International Forum on Globalization. Before becoming an activist, Shiva was one of India's leading physicists.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ South End Press; First Edition (July 1, 1999)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 148 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0896085554
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0896085558
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 6.4 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.4 x 0.4 x 8.5 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 71 ratings

About the author

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Vandana Shiva

Vandana Shiva

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Vandana Shiva is a world-renowned environmental thinker and activist, a leader in the International Forum on Globalisation, and of the Slow Food Movement. Director of Navdanya and of the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology, and a tireless crusader for farmers’, peasants’, and women’s rights, she is the author and editor of a score of influential books, among them Making Peace with the Earth; Soil Not Oil; Globalization’s New Wars; Seed Sovereignty, Food Security: Women in the Vanguard; Who Really Feeds the World?; and Oneness and the 1%.

Shiva is the recipient of over twenty international awards, including the Right Livelihood Award (1993); the Medal of the Presidency of the Italian Republic (1998); the Horizon 3000 Award (Austria, 2001); the John Lennon-Yoko Ono Grant for Peace (2008); the Save the World Award (2009); the Sydney Peace Prize (2010); the Calgary Peace Prize (2011); and the Thomas Merton Award (2011). She was the Fukuoka Grand Prize Laureate in 2012.

Customer reviews

4.7 out of 5 stars
4.7 out of 5
71 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

JV
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on December 31, 2016
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Sophie Lagace
5.0 out of 5 stars A primer on the topic
Reviewed in the United States on February 10, 2009
An excellent overview of the emerging issues associated with our new-found ability to read and manipulate the genetic code. The issues described -- patenting of genes that make it illegal for traditional medicines to use their fount of knowledge, creation of hybrid species without understanding of the full ramifications and potential disaster, irreparable damage to natural biodiversity webs, outright theft of natural resources -- may have seem far-fetched and alarmist in 1997, but has become common 12 years later. A short, well-written book and a must-read to understand the basics of the issues.
7 people found this helpful
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Robert Walker
5.0 out of 5 stars Impeccable analysis of one of world's greatest problems
Reviewed in the United States on December 20, 1999
In Biopiracy, the Plunder of Nature and Knowledge, Vandana Shiva starts from the very reasonable premise that life forms, used for nutritional and medicinal purposes by native cultures for centuries, should not be patented by foreign multinational corporations as "new discoveries". In other words, this book is not for anyone who feels that it is okay to patent life forms which are modifications of already existing species. If you are interested in the problems with this approach and its political, economic, and moral implications, this book is necessary reading. Shiva exposes this exploitation of the intellectual and material wealth of the third world in the name of profits. Shiva's Monocultures of the Mind is also strongly recommended.
42 people found this helpful
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George Shaw
5.0 out of 5 stars fascinating and invaluable
Reviewed in the United States on May 3, 2000
In "Biopiracy: The Plunder of Nature and Knowledge" Vandana Shiva posits that the biotechnology industry of today is but a continuation of the piracy of Columbus, John Cabot and Walter Raleigh. Euphemistically called "discoveries" their exploitation legitimized piracy as the "natural right of the colonizer, necessary for the deliverance of the colonized."
Shiva maintains that this system of exploitation, continuing under the auspices of the World Trade Organization, now treats "biopiracy" as a "natural right of Western corporations, necessary for the development of Third World communities." Shiva writes that Western capital is now seeking out new colonies, new properties - the interior spaces of women plants and animals - to invade and exploit. Shiva posits that to understand and fight against "biopiracy" is to resist "the ultimate colonization of life itself - a struggle to conserve both cultural and biological diversity."
hBiopiracy: The Plunder of Nature and Knowledgeh is a fascinating and invaluable book that sheds much-needed light onto the controversies surrounding the ethics of biotechnology.
19 people found this helpful
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Mark DeRespinis
4.0 out of 5 stars An important introduction to the global threat to biodiversity
Reviewed in the United States on November 7, 2005
Vandana Shiva has become one of the most outspoken defenders of biodiversity and the commons, persistently working to advance the public understanding of a complicated history of corporate and legislative decisions that have changed the landscape of our lives and the lives of people the world over. She has contributed to a vital dialogue about the effects of globalization and the silent tragedies that are occuring every day because of strange business practices and the relentless politics of the new manifest destiny. "Biopiracy: The Plunder of Nature and Knowledge" is a succinct and accessible introduction to the issue of patents and corporate control of the natural world. Shiva is an articulate educator who writes about the difficult and often unspoken history of corporate exploitation of the knowledge of non-Western cultures. By arguing vehemently for the preservation of the farmer's right to save seeds, as well as local rights to ecological and historically tested uses of the natural world, Shiva outlines an ethical path for movement forward and for responding proactively to unfair business practices. I read this book in the context of a larger look at the world's food supply from an ecological and political perspective, but it speaks to a wide audience and can reach far in spreading truth about what is happening in our world - much of which is not getting reported in the mainstream media.
15 people found this helpful
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angyh@singnet.com.sg
2.0 out of 5 stars A powerful theme that is let down by sensationalist writing
Reviewed in the United States on October 17, 2001
Amidst all the tirade and rhetoric, cold hard truths emerge: the way IPRs are framed, especially those pertaining to the biotechnology field, is biased towards the interests of multinational corporate entities, and that the current mechanistic gene-centric paradigm in the "life" sciences ignores holistic perspectives of lifeforms and nature which are useful in their own way. While the urgency and potency of the message is not in doubt, the presentation of the content, with all the sidetracks and rambling discourses, leaves much to be desired. Read this book with an open mind, don't take everything in it too seriously, and look up alternative sources of information as well.
11 people found this helpful
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Jon
3.0 out of 5 stars hard to say really
Reviewed in the United States on November 5, 2001
i didnt really like this book as much as stolen harvest. it was hard to read and kind of boring, but i learned alot and i appreciate the effort i put into reading it. but it didnt suck me in like stolen harvest, so im only gonna give it 3 stars.. its average.
4 people found this helpful
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Amazon Customer
1.0 out of 5 stars For the weak willed and easily fooled
Reviewed in the United States on September 17, 2001
If your IQ is less than your age, you might actually like this book. I was forced to read this as an assignment for a college course, and I lost all respect for anyone stupid enough to be swayed by such a weak argument. Shiva uses only fear and hyperbole to convince the reader that corporate America is out to destroy everything, much like all the other pieces we read in that course. I beg of you, don't submit yourself to this ... (can I say that?), for if you are really stupid, you might be persueded by it. This is the stuff that people who support acts like the Word Trade Center attack read for inspiration. Just ask my professor.
9 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Barbie Wallace
5.0 out of 5 stars Perspective
Reviewed in Canada on January 7, 2021
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AP
5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing book everyone in this planet need to read immediately.
Reviewed in India on August 25, 2022
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Amazing book everyone in this planet need to read immediately.
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Joanna Dawn Taylor
5.0 out of 5 stars We need to know!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 26, 2013
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Not a new book but little has changed and we need to change to ensure our future. I love Vandana's passion and her fight continues.
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Paul
2.0 out of 5 stars Great information, spoiled by petty feminism
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 29, 2021
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What this woman is doing for the protection of seeds and our natural inheritance is something to be applauded. The information about what’s happening and the methods global corporations are using to plough the land is eye opening and highly disturbing.

Why she felt the need to inject her tepid misandry into every paragraph she could is beyond me though. Clearly ideologically possessed, equating all the world’s problem to men’s apparent enslavement of women. In one part, she claims that men stole the “creative urge” from women, whatever that means, and transformed child birth and pregnancy into a “morbid disease” in another. This is just but a few examples. I had to put the book down in the end. All this had nothing to do with the subject, and it was all based on wild conjecture. Which is a shame, as I was learning a lot. But I can’t trust someone who’s so wilfully flippant and disingenuous about facts, history and the reality of how life was for most people hundreds of years ago. Most men died young, through disease and war, and for every 5 kids you had, only one of them reached adulthood. That’s why women were oppressed. Cept it wasn’t men that did it, but nature itself. It’s through science that we have liberated women from this drudgery. She conveniently forgets all this.

So yeah, if you’ve been indoctrinated by the humanities department at a university already, you’ll probably eat all this right up. It’s a damn shame she had to ruin a book so enriching with this trite though.
One person found this helpful
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in India on March 21, 2016
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well played conspiracy of western is very well written..
One person found this helpful
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