Selection 41 Summary

Vandana Shiva’s article Women’s Indigenous Knowledge and Biodiversity Conservation brings up the concept that women’s knowledge is key to preserving biodiversity. She begins by drawing connections between the unequal treatment of women and how we treat the environment. Both are by-products of our patriarchal world view. According to Shiva this view leads towards monocultures, monocultures and homogeneity. She states that diversity is the cornerstone of women’s work and knowledge. Tribal societies that base their production on diversity are seen as primitive while crop uniformity is seen as progressive. Women are on the forefront of many third world industries because of their knowledge. She says that women are the “custodians” of biodiversity but their work has been discredited. Diversity is continued through the culture. Generally people do not excerpt this view because cultural knowledge did not come from a lab. She claims this cultural knowledge comes solely from women. She then compares third world women’s relation with the environment to that of corporate men. to women biodiversity has intrinsic value while companies just see it as a resource to exploit. She then discusses the issue of GMOs. Companies patent their seed which stops farmers from producing their own. She says that these GMOs steal biodiversity from the third world and the health and safety of the consumers.