Trial lecture - time and place
29th of January 10:15-11:00am in Gamle festsal, 1st. floor Urbygningen
Adjudication committee
- Professor Kristin Bergtora Sandvik, University of Oslo (leader)
- Professor Rob White, Universitety of Tasmania
- Associate Professor Tanya Wyatt, Northumbria University
Chair of defence
Head of Department May-Len Skilbrei
Supervisors
- Professor Ragnhild Sollund
- Professor John Braithwaite
Summary
MONOPOLISING SEEDS, MONOPOLISING SOCIETY
The world faces an “ever increasing spiral of seed monopolisation” that can affect the lives of rural communities in any region of the world. Seed monopolisation is produced by everyday dynamics like marketplace interactions, loan agreements with banks, and dietary trends. These dynamics help corporations to appropriate seeds. How was this spiral established? What harms does seed monopolisation cause?
Colombian peasants are further impoverished
The thesis ‘A study about biopiracy from a green criminological perspective’ focuses on the seed monopolisation that takes place in Colombia. It describes how the legal framework that regulates the use of seeds has been greatly shaped by lobbying strategies implemented by multinational corporations. As result, the current seed governance has produced further impoverishment of rural communities as they end up losing their lands because of the impossibility of their being part of the market. Rural communities have also lost control over their daily practices given that foreign farming methods have been imposed on them.
Seeds are an important part of the lives of Colombian rural communities, not only in the productive sense, but also for their culture and for the strengthening of their social fabric. Simply put, seeds have been the element that knit rural communities together. Nonetheless, rural communities have lost control over seeds, and with them, over important aspects of their social life.