How Economic Growth Has Become Anti-Life
By Vandana Shiva
An obsession with growth has eclipsed our concern for
sustainability, justice and human dignity. But people are not disposable – the
value of life lies outside economic development
Limitless growth is the fantasy of economists, businesses
and politicians. It is seen as a measure of progress. As a result, gross
domestic product (GDP), which is supposed to measure the wealth of nations, has
emerged as both the most powerful number and dominant concept in our times.
However, economic growth hides the poverty it creates through the destruction
of nature, which in turn leads to communities lacking the capacity to provide
for themselves.
The concept of growth was put forward as a measure to
mobilise resources during the second world war. GDP is based on creating an
artificial and fictitious boundary, assuming that if you produce what you
consume, you do not produce. In effect , “growth” measures the conversion of
nature into cash, and commons into commodities.
Thus nature’s amazing cycles of renewal of water and
nutrients are defined into nonproduction. The peasants of the world,who provide
72% of the food, do not produce; women who farm or do most of the housework do
not fit this paradigm of growth either. A living forest does not contribute to
growth, but when trees are cut down and sold as timber, we have growth. Healthy
societies and communities do not contribute to growth, but disease creates
growth through, for
example, the sale of patented medicine.
example, the sale of patented medicine.
Water available as a commons shared freely and protected by
all provides for all. However, it does not create growth. But when Coca-Cola
sets up a plant, mines the water and fills plastic bottles with it, the economy
grows. But this growth is based on creating poverty – both for nature and local
communities. Water extracted beyond nature’s capacity to renew and recharge
creates a water famine. Women are forced to walk longer distances looking for
drinking water. In the village of Plachimada in Kerala, when the walk for water
became 10 kms, local tribal woman Mayilamma said enough is enough. We cannot
walk further; the Coca-Cola plant must shut down. The movement that the women
started eventually led to the closure of the plant.
In the same vein, evolution has gifted us the seed. Farmers
have selected, bred, and diversified it – it is the basis of food production. A
seed that renews itself and multiplies produces seeds for the next season, as
well as food. However, farmer-bred and farmer-saved seeds are not seen as
contributing to growth. It creates and renews life, but it doesn't lead to
profits. Growth begins when seeds are modified, patented and genetically
locked, leading to farmers being forced to buy more every season.
Nature is impoverished, biodiversity is eroded and a free,
open resource is transformed into a patented commodity. Buying seeds every year
is a recipe for debt for India’s poor peasants. And ever since seed monopolies
have been established, farmers debt has increased. More than 270,000 farmers
caught in a debt trap in India have committed suicide since 1995.
Poverty is also further spread when public systems are
privatised. The privatisation of water, electricity, health, and education does
generate growth through profits. But it also
generates poverty by forcing people to spend large amounts of money on what was available at affordable costs as a common good. When every aspect of life is commercialised and commoditised, living becomes more costly, and people become poorer.
generates poverty by forcing people to spend large amounts of money on what was available at affordable costs as a common good. When every aspect of life is commercialised and commoditised, living becomes more costly, and people become poorer.
Both ecology and economics have emerged from the same roots
– "oikos", the Greek word for household. As long as economics was
focused on the household, it recognised and respected its basis in natural
resources and the limits of ecological renewal. It was focused on providing for
basic human needs within these limits. Economics as based on the household was
also women-centered. Today, economics is separated from and opposed to both
ecological processes and basic needs. While the destruction of nature has been
justified on grounds of creating growth, poverty and dispossession has
increased. While being non-sustainable, it is also economically unjust.
The dominant model of economic development has in fact
become anti-life. When economies are measured only in terms of money flow, the
rich get richer and the poor get poorer. And the rich might be rich in monetary
terms – but they too are poor in the wider context of what being human means.
Meanwhile, the demands of the current model of the economy
are leading to resource wars oil wars, water wars, food wars. There are three
levels of violence involved in non-sustainable development. The first is the
violence against the earth, which is expressed as the ecological crisis. The
second is the violence against people, which is expressed as poverty,
destitution and displacement. The third is the violence of war and conflict, as
the powerful reach for the resources that lie in other communities and
countries for their limitless appetites.
Increase of moneyflow through GDP has become disassociated
from real value, but those who accumulate financial resources can then stake
claim on the real resources of people – their land and water, their forests and
seeds. This thirst leads to them predating on the last drop of water and last
inch of land on the planet. This is not an end to poverty. It is an end to
human rights and justice.
Nobel-prize winning economists Joseph Stiglitz and Amartya
Sen have admitted that GDP does not capture the human condition and urged the
creation of different tools to gauge the wellbeing of nations. This is why
countries like Bhutan have adopted the gross national happiness in place of
gross domestic product to calculate progress. We need to create measures beyond
GDP, and economies beyond the global supermarket, to rejuvenate real wealth. We
need to remember that the real currency of life is life itself.
Dr. Vandana Shiva is a philosopher, environmental activist
and eco feminist. She is the founder/director of Navdanya Research Foundation
for Science, Technology, and Ecology. She is author of numerous books
including, Soil Not Oil: Environmental Justice in an Age of Climate Crisis;
Stolen Harvest: The Hijacking of the Global Food Supply; Earth Democracy:
Justice, Sustainability, and Peace; and Staying Alive: Women, Ecology, and
Development. Shiva has also served as an adviser to governments in India and
abroad as well as NGOs, including the International Forum on Globalization, the
Women’s Environment and Development Organization and the Third World Network.
She has received numerous awards, including 1993 Right Livelihood Award
(Alternative Nobel Prize) and the 2010 Sydney Peace Prize.
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