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Environmental activist Vandana Shiva says the real motives behind GMOs are the patents and royalties that come with it

Two things happened in 1984, begins environmental activist Vandana Shiva. One was Operation Blue star and the second, the riots following the assassination of the Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. “Something happened before Operation Blue Star and that story doesn’t get told, that is the story of the Green Revolution,” said Shiva, who was in town to speak at the International Women’s Conference at the Art of Living International Centre.

“And I wanted to understand why there was violence in Punjab when the Green Revolution had been given a Nobel peace prize. The Bhopal tragedy also happened in the same year. I did a study on the story behind the Green Revolution and it became the
Violence of the green revolution. I did it for the Untied Nations and thanks to the publication of the article, I started to get invited to agriculture meetings.”

Vandana recalls that her work in agriculture began in the late 80s though her organization was registered a little later. “I went to a conference on biotechnology, on the future of food. It was by an industry which had no product in 1987. There were no GMO products then. They were talking about having to do genetic engineering in order to take patents because and they said patents, ownership and royalty collection was their real interest.”