Reclaiming the Commons: Biodiversity, Indigenous Wisdom, and the Rights of Mother Earth

Endorsements

As she has, nonstop for 30 years, Vandana Shiva has done it again. Reclaiming the Commons is a magnificent, profound, timely and politically vital book; a vital aid to a magnificent local resistance movement in India. At a crucial moment in history, as a handful of gigantic global corporations are aggressively seeking ultimate control over global agricultural resources and products, Shiva steps forward and leads the movement to block their incursions. As she has done so many times before, she clearly articulates, creates and sustains a vital, powerful resistance movement, both globally, and notably in her native India, where global corporatists’ powers seek full take-over. Shiva brilliantly articulates what is at stake in the battle between “two paradigms”, that of an age-old system based on local community rights, and the outrageous over-reach of global corporations seeking invasion and control of local systems, notably food and agriculture. This is a profound and disturbing book, brilliantly articulated in exquisite detail by the one most powerful local forces on these matters. It is a vital and illuminating work; timely, powerful, and profound. — Jerry Mander, author of Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television and The Capitalism Papers

A powerful, deeply moving call to rethink the very way we understand life, including our own. We will protect and, ultimately―save―life on this planet only as we experience ourselves in relation to all―only as we move from the manufactured fear of scarcity to fall in love with the majesty our connectedness. Reclaiming the Commons is about reclaiming ourselves. I love this book. — Frances Moore Lappe, author of Diet for a Small Planet