{"id":1605,"date":"2018-02-01T18:12:05","date_gmt":"2018-02-01T17:12:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/navdanyainternational.org\/corporate-strategies-versus-people-s-interest\/"},"modified":"2023-05-08T15:42:23","modified_gmt":"2023-05-08T13:42:23","slug":"corporate-strategies-versus-people-s-interest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/navdanyainternational.org\/de\/corporate-strategies-versus-people-s-interest\/","title":{"rendered":"Food, environment and common goods: corporate strategies versus people\u2019s interest"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Corporate strategies aimed at appropriating\u00a0 common goods were the subject of a series of conferences and debates with Dr. Vandana Shiva, held in Florence at the end of January 2018 and organized by Navdanya International in collaboration with local partners.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-5906 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/navdanyainternational.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/BeFunky-collage-900.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"900\" height=\"499\" srcset=\"https:\/\/navdanyainternational.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/BeFunky-collage-900.jpg 900w, https:\/\/navdanyainternational.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/BeFunky-collage-900-300x166.jpg 300w, https:\/\/navdanyainternational.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/BeFunky-collage-900-640x355.jpg 640w, https:\/\/navdanyainternational.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/BeFunky-collage-900-768x426.jpg 768w, https:\/\/navdanyainternational.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/BeFunky-collage-900-600x333.jpg 600w, https:\/\/navdanyainternational.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/BeFunky-collage-900-450x250.jpg 450w, https:\/\/navdanyainternational.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/BeFunky-collage-900-272x150.jpg 272w, https:\/\/navdanyainternational.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/BeFunky-collage-900-500x277.jpg 500w, https:\/\/navdanyainternational.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/BeFunky-collage-900-200x111.jpg 200w, https:\/\/navdanyainternational.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/BeFunky-collage-900-140x77.jpg 140w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/156662786@N05\/albums\/72157691227218691\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>Link to the full photo album<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">On 27 January, Vandana Shiva talked about \u201cResponsibility and Environment\u201d, in the context of the event series \u201c<strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.firenzespettacolo.it\/articolo.php?n=sulla-scia-dei-giorni-chiara-saraceno-e-vandana-shiva&amp;tipo=articoli&amp;qc=4040&amp;id=4&amp;sid=56\">Sulla scia dei giorni<\/a>\u201d <\/strong>(In the Wake of Days) in the city\u2019s Teatro Niccolini, \u00a0conceived and promoted by <em>Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze<strong>, <\/strong><\/em><em>under the auspices of the Region of Tuscany, the Municipality of Florence, the University of Florence, in collaboration with Teatro Niccolini and Fondazione File. \u00a0She pointed out how everyone has a duty to take care of the Earth and its resources. \u201cMaking peace with the Earth\u201d is the<\/em> commitment we must make to implement the attendant ecological solutions, those of\u00a0 caring for the soil, seeds and biodiversity as the essential basis for solving most of the crises we are facing: environmental, food, health and climate change. Those who suffer and will suffer the most from\u00a0 the problems created by the current economic and agricultural\/food models are the most vulnerable and the youth, who are becoming more and more aware of the fact that the tools for change are in their hands and that they can be at the forefront in stopping the current race to the destruction of the fragile balance of our ecosystem.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/zwhmlE59kpg\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The following day, 28 January, Dr. Shiva gave a Lectio magistralis on \u201cEarth Democracy\u201d at the Odeon Cinema, organised in collaboration with <em>Cinema Odeon Firenze, Le Piagge\u00a0 editions, Terra Nuova and LEF Libreria Editrice Fiorentina.<br \/>\n<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Vandana Shiva underlined <strong>the schism between <\/strong><strong>politics, which should be in the interests of citizens, and <\/strong><strong>the present economic unsustainable and exploitative model.<\/strong> \u00a0In the Global South, this model has been promoted with terms such as \u201cstructural adjustment\u201d and \u201cfree trade\u201d, while in Europe the term \u201causterity\u201d has been used.\u00a0 \u00a0It is a model which undermines the power of the people, leaving citizens increasingly impotent, unable to protect their land and livelihoods. \u00a0It \u00a0is a system that creates economic insecurity and uses\u00a0 the \u201cfear\u201d of the \u201cother\u201d as a means to ensure electoral success.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Dr. Shiva invited people to say no to the dominant political system and the current economic model and to join and act together to create a system of <strong>circular<\/strong> <strong>economies, where organic and ecological agriculture becomes the foundation for the regeneration of soil, biodiversity and human dignity.<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/z10fQf_02Zs\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">On 30 January, a meeting titled <strong>\u201cProfits of corporations are poisoning \u00a0food, Earth, the Planet. What is the alternative?\u201d was held <\/strong>in the atrium of Palazzo Budini Gattai, and organized in collaboration with perUnaltracitt\u00e0 and Spazio Inkiostro. \u00a0Among the issues discussed, specific focus was given to <strong>the impact of globalization, which has progressively reduced the commons, including seeds and food, into commodities at the mercy of market fluctuations.<\/strong> \u00a0The essential role of large corporations in this process was highlighted and the consequences that impact directly the lives of people and farmers and the environment. \u00a0\u00a0<strong>Over the last decades, this economic system has enabled a handful of billionaires and the corporations they control to interfere in national laws which protect the right to health and a healthy environment, to dismantle the dignity of work, and to obstruct long-held democratic processes. <\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0Vandana Shiva recalled how in 1999 the movements in Seattle were able to stop the World Trade Organization\u2019s agenda and programme, and at the same time how <strong>corporations continue to implement new tricks and strategies, such as free trade agreements and creating increasingly large monopolies as a result of corporate mega-mergers<\/strong>. \u00a0\u00a0Their aim to they take control of natural resources, food and agriculture systems and invade national markets with imported products that destroy the fabric of local economies.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Among the rules \u201cwritten by corporations\u201d and imposed by WTO, Dr. \u00a0Shiva emphasized those rules related to intellectual property rights, which have allowed patents on life, \u00a0and favored \u00a0hugely the expansion of chemical and seed industries in the field of genetic engineering, producing an exponential increase in these markets and in mono-cultures at a global level.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The consequences of the industrial model of agriculture are known. It is a system that is destroying biodiversity, soil, water resources, while contributing to only a small part of the food produced globally.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">It is still small farmers who provide most of the global food needs, in spite of not being protected by the current system, which prefers to favour the distribution of low cost and nutritionally empty agricultural and food products, often loaded with a wide range of chemicals dangerous to health.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>Dr. Patrizia Gentilini <\/strong>of ISDE Association of Doctors of the Environment, stressed the close and clear link between people\u2019s health and the environment and how this principle has yet not been fully assimilated by the medical and scientific community. Based on her experience, Dr. Gentilini has noticed an increase of cancer cases in younger and younger people. <strong>The statistical data about the Italian situation tell us that in a lifetime one man out of two and one woman out of three are destined to be given a diagnosis of cancer. <\/strong>The presence of a wide quantity of dangerous chemicals in the environment and in our food are also linked to a number of other diseases: metabolic disorders, neurodegenerative diseases, infertility. Especially alarming are the damages to the developing brain and the increase in cases of children with cognitive delay of various kinds. \u00a0Faced with this scenario, <strong>there are serious shortcomings at the regulatory and institutional level<\/strong>, as seen in the risk assessment process on glyphosate\u00a0 which resulted in a further approval of the use of the substance in Europe for another five years, in spite of the clear corporate interferences and questionable, if not criminal,\u00a0 behaviours of production businesses.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In closing, \u00a0<strong>Roberto Budini Gattai<\/strong>, of the association perUnaltracitt\u00e0, pointed out that also historical Italian cities like Florence have \u00a0become a source of ever increasing corporate profits. \u00a0\u00a0Public \u00a0administrations which see\u00a0 attracting capital \u00a0as a panacea to all problems, are in fact acting in <strong>the interest of large speculators without taking the interest of people \u00a0into account<\/strong>: \u201cFlorence is among the first in Italy in unbridled competitive free-markets of the tourist industry.\u00a0 The main target is the historical centre where the maximum income can be attained through the stockpiling and buying out of large and prestigious public and private buildings.\u00a0\u00a0 With the ideology of \u201cmore private and less State\u201d, administrators are acting as estate agents on one side, and as facilitators of major works on the other, which are harmful to and encroach on surrounding settlements,\u00a0 are useless to society, and which\u00a0 only go towards increasing the transfer of wealth from citizens to deep-pocketed investors. He concluded that here are many affinities with previous speakers to unite and join forces to \u00a0build another kind of city, another social landscape, another world which is possible and necessary. &#8222;<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/n7xqNWGejpE\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Corporate strategies aimed at appropriating\u00a0 common goods were the subject of a series of conferences and debates with Dr. Vandana Shiva, held in Florence at the end of January 2018 and organized by Navdanya International in collaboration with local partners. Link to the full photo album On 27 January, Vandana Shiva talked about \u201cResponsibility and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2136,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pgc_sgb_lightbox_settings":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,14,345,50,161],"tags":[89,83],"class_list":["post-1605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-event-reports","category-events","category-in-focus","category-news","category-our-articles","tag-italy","tag-vandana-shiva","thematic_area-corporate-free-future","thematic_area-food-for-health","thematic_area-free-trade","thematic_area-poison-free-future"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/navdanyainternational.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/900-vsflorence.jpg","wpml_translations":[{"language_code":"it","post_id":1489,"original":false},{"language_code":"en","post_id":1605,"original":true}],"custom_fields":{"_fgj2wp_old_id":["544"],"_edit_lock":["1551440645:2"],"_edit_last":["2"],"_thumbnail_id":["2136"],"wpl_sidebar_option":["on"],"wpl_featured_image_post":["on"],"wpl_share_buttons":["on"],"_wpml_media_duplicate":["1"],"_wpml_media_featured":["1"],"_wp_attachment_metadata":[""],"_wpml_media_has_media":["1"],"_alp_processed":["1552411847"]},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9KkNM-pT","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/navdanyainternational.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/navdanyainternational.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/navdanyainternational.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/navdanyainternational.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/navdanyainternational.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1605"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/navdanyainternational.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1605\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6145,"href":"https:\/\/navdanyainternational.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1605\/revisions\/6145"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/navdanyainternational.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/navdanyainternational.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/navdanyainternational.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/navdanyainternational.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}