Paris: Agro-food industry / GMOs

Case Presenter: Vandana Shiva (Navdanya, India)

Dr. Vandana Shiva, together with witnesses and experts she called, presented a case for why the actions of the Agro-food Industry were violations of Nature’s Rights on a massive scale. Corporations such as Monsanto were defining and owning the processes of life through their patents of genetically modified seeds, violating the fundamental right of Mother Earth to her vital life cycles and increasing the financial dependence of cotton seed farmers in India on their BT1 and BT2 seeds leading to the suicide of over 300,000 farmers. Evidence was also given on how Monsanto’s “Roundup” pesticide had become one of the greatest health scandals on the planet and how the agro-food business as a whole system was contributing far in excess of the 15% of global GHG emissions usually cited.

Ronnie Cummins, Organic Consumers Association (OCA)

Andre Leu, IFOAM

José Bové,Green European Deputee

Marie-Monique Robin, Journalist

Judge’s Statement: Phillippe Desbrosses

Thank you for your attention. I’d like to ask you a question with regard to the agro industry. The question is “Can we be nurtured by a human sized agriculture, talking on a human scale, made by humans, knowing that humans deserted earth, they’ve been replaced in the field by robots and chemical molecules?”

The earth is dying in the general indifference in a world that has lost its relationship to the soil, to the earth to the ground. We’ve been showed that the food model dominating in the last century is the most disastrous since we started to inhabit this planet. In the last half century it has been proven that its been degrading the state of Mother Earth in an irreversible way and threatens her life conditions, her livelihood. We have noticed that the Mother Earth is attached by this umbilical cord; from the antiquities to now days, we’ve had this link between the earth and human and we should understand and begin our awakening because we need to know that the protection of environment is indistinguishable from the respectful practices, good practices, the social justice and a fair division of the resources. We need to stop these predators whose actions are absolutely criminal and have disastrous consequences on lots of populations.

It is unbearable to see that we know how to proceed to make earth livable again, and we want to sustain, we want to support and share this vision, because this return to this balance cannot be accomplished without a common awakening and a common awareness, so we need to participate in this challenge – changing or disappearing.

Thank you very much for your attention.

For more visit:  Paris International Rights of Nature Tribunal

Also visit:  Paris Judges’ Statements.

Tribunal Video Credits:  A special thank you to Panasonic; 2nd Side Adventures, LLC; Diana Weynand, Producer, Supervising Editor; Clément Guerra, Camera; Sophie Guerra, Sound; and Editors: Sean Lea, Sachie Masuda, and Rebecca Ryden.