The more biodiversity intensifies, the more economy and development are produced. We could feed two Indies if we intensify biodiversity in agriculture. With these words Vandana Shiva, political activist and environmentalist and director of the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Natural Resource Policy, spoke via video link at the conference, promoted by the Barilla Center for Food Nutrition (Bcfn), held yesterday in Milan via the web.
He is about to end up run over, his mother saves him
“The more biodiversity intensifies, the more economy and development are produced. We could feed two Indies if we intensify biodiversity in agriculture". With these words Vandana Shiva, political activist and environmentalist and director of the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Natural Resource Policy, spoke in a video link to the conference, promoted by Barilla Center for Food Nutrition (Bcfn), held yesterday in Milan via the web.
"One's large scale monoculture - he said - it's wrong, and now it's a model that has entered into crisis. And if we don't switch to smallholder agriculture, there will be new crises. After all - continued the Indian activist - it is the small producers who represent 85% of the food at the table, while it is l’agri-business to remove food from people. Therefore, the efficiency of a system must be assessed where a minority representing 15% of food production has caused the hunger that afflicts the planet on a global scale “.
For this Vandana Shiva invited everyone to reconsider the theme of sustainable development, evaluating all aspects, including economic ones: from wars that lead to poverty and famine, to GMOs that have created plants resistant to pesticides, up to the impossibility of organic crops in countries where there is almost total control of seeds.
“Talking only about seeds and not talking about biotechnology - he added - is like having the car broken down, and just looking at the tools. It is useless to watch the jack ”.
And in the same seminar promoted by Barilla, another interesting reality emerged: according to a recent survey, in all EU countries a evident decline in confidence in transgenic crops. In our country, confidence went from 42% in 2005 to 24% in 2010, in Spain from 43% to 35%, in Portugal from 56% to 37%, in France from 23% to 16%, while in Germany it is stands at around 22%.
Is this a sign that we are heading on the right path?
Verdiana Amorosi
