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In 2001, well-known food activist Vandana Shiva spoke to an audience in Vancouver at an event sponsored by the Basmati Action Group. It was during that time that the company RiceTec, had recently attempted to patent basmati rice, a staple of Indian and Pakistani livelihoods and diets. The Basmati Action Group was formed to launch a North American-wide boycott on all products produced by the company.

Vandana's lecture addresses the patenting of life and the genetic modification of food. She speaks of the crisis in India that continues today, where over 40,000 farmers have taken their lives as a result of what she refers to as genocide by the multinational pesticide and seed companies.

The broadcast explores the new Green Revolution being pushed onto the African continent by the Bill and Melinda Gates and Rockefeller Foundations. We explore the company Bayer, and their role in the recent contamination of the global supply of rice with an unapproved variety that had been genetically modified.

The segments of Vandana Shiva's lecture were recorded by the Vancouver-based Necessary Voices Society.

Speakers

Vandana Shiva, Founder - Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology / Navdanya (New Delhi, India) - Vandana has been involved in the protection of ecosystems, farmers, and food security for well over 2 decades. Shiva studied philosophy at the University of Guelph in the late 70's and moved on to complete her Ph.D in Quantum Theory Physics at the University of Western Ontario. Using her background in physics and her love of nature, she began questioning how science technology has impacted the environment In 2001 she founded a program called Navdanya, formed to provide education and training on subjects such as biodiversity, food, biopiracy, sustainable agriculture, water and globalization. She is the author of dozens of books.

• Rice Tec
• Navdanya
• Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
• Rockefeller Foundation
• Canadian Biotechnology Action Network (CBAN)
• Bayer
• Bayer CropScience
• BioGateway (Gov. of Canada)
• Organic Consumers Association (GE Food)
• Patenting Lives
• Necessary Voices Society

• "Bayer: Science For A Better Life" - Bayer
• Bayer Promotional Videos ("Integrated Crop Management" featured on this broadcast)
• AIDS HIV Bayer - MSNBC

• "Movement to Stop the Genocide of Farmers" - Navdanya
• "Rice Industry in Crisis" - Greenpeace
• "Bayer defends genetic contamination as "Act of God" - Greenpeace
• "Boycott Called Against Rice-Tec Biopirates by Basmati Action Group"
• "Demonstration at Bayer's plant in Berkeley" - CBG
• Seeds of Suicide Links - PBS
• "Rice Industry Troubled by Genetic Contamination" - Washington Post
• "The Rice With Human Genes" - DailyMail
• "Big Pharma Sues Government to Block Affordable Medicine" GTAC