Corporate privatization of water and seeds erodes local communities’ decision-making power

Evidence

For example, the takeover of local water supplies in the name of “efficiency” by transnational corporations such as Bechtel and Coca Cola, or the patenting by Cargill and Monsanto of seeds that once served as the basis of many cultures’ food supply are severely undermining what Vandana Shiva (2005) calls, “Earth Democracies” (see Chapter 2) —the decision-making power of local communities to protect the basic foundations of life, and the future of their children and ecosystems. — Rebecca A. Martusewicz, Jeff Edmundson, and John Lupinacci, EcoJustice Education, 223

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines Shiva’s Earth Democracies term as local communities’ decision-making power to protect life foundations.
• XREF: Connects to the law/institutions shared thread and Bowers’ cultural commons concept. — connects to: Corporations patent community-bred seeds by altering a few genes, an act communities call biopiracy — Rebecca A. Martusewicz, Jeff Edmundson, and John Lupinacci, EcoJustice Education: Toward Diverse,…, 1460; Controlling water supplies enables control over the people who depend on them — Rebecca A. Martusewicz, Jeff Edmundson, and John Lupinacci, EcoJustice Education: Toward Diverse,…, 1527; Workers’ latent community hunger gets wasted by privatism. — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics: how Americans…, 938 (+10 more)
• ADDENDUM: Supports the trees-as-infrastructure piece: seed patenting and water privatization are the same enclosure of commons the graft article’s root-grafting exemplifies.

Broader Connections

• Capitalism perpetually seeks new privatization frontiers like water and seeds #expands (0.85) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 81
• Municipal water privatization victimized and blamed already-impoverished Highland Park residents #exemplifies (0.85) — Rebecca A. Martusewicz, Jeff Edmundson, and John Lupinacci, EcoJustice Education, 1520
• Misrecognition and political exclusion structurally block poor communities’ participation in environmental decisions #corroborates (0.82) — David Schlosberg, Defining Environmental Justice, 248
• Corporate power lets private groups make binding decisions with continuing effect #expands (0.80) — Henry M. Hart, Jr. and Albert M. Sacks, The Legal Process, 4445
• Workers’ latent community hunger gets wasted by privatism. #corroborates (0.78) — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics, 938
• Community autonomy over local space is proposed as the essence of environmental justice #corroborates (0.75) — David Schlosberg, Defining Environmental Justice, 203