Winnie Mandela

Vandana Shiva: Over the past decade we have been gaining ground. And when I say "we", I mean ordinary people committed to the welfare of all humanity. All people irrespective of gender and class and race and religion. All species on the planet. We managed to take the biggest government and one of the largest chemical companies to court on the case of Neem and win a case against them. W.R. Grace and the US government's patent on Neem was revoked by a case we brought along with the Greens of the European Parliament and the International Organic Agricultural Movement. We won because we worked together. We have overturned nearly 99% of the basmati patent of Ricetek. Again, because we worked as a worldwide coalition, old women in Texas, scientists in India, activists sitting in Vancouver, a little basmati action group. We stopped the 3rd World being viewed as the pirate and we showed the corporations were the pirate. Look how little it took for Gandhi to work against the salt laws of the British where the British decided the way they would make their armies and police forces bigger is just tax the salt. And all that Gandhi did was walk to the beach, pick up the salt and say, "Nature gives it for free. We need it. We've always made it. We will violate your laws. We will continue to make salt". We've had a similar commitment for the last decade in India. That any law that makes it illegal to save seed is a law not worth following. We will violate it because saving seed is a duty to the earth and to future generations. We thought it would really be symbolic. It is more than symbolic. It is becoming a survival option. Farmers who grow their own seeds, save their own seeds, don't buy pesticides, have three-fold more incomes than farmers who are locked into the chemical treadmill, depending on Monsanto and Cargill. We have managed to created alternatives that work for people.

Jeremy Rifkin: There are many tools for bringing back community. But the importance is not the tools. I mean, there's litigation, there's legislation, there's direct action, there's education, boycotts, social investment. There's many, many ways to address issues of corporate power. But in the final analysis, what's really important is the vision. You have to have a better story.