Mustard-oil sales were widely banned, and shortly thereafter India announced that it would institute the free import of soybeans. The government then banned the sale of all unpackaged edible oils, effectively destroying a traditional method of autonomous food production and economic independence. The government control over oil became absolute. According to the health minister of Delhi, the adulteration was not possible without a mass conspiracy. Once again, no cost proved too high in the pursuit of absolute control, especially not that of mere human life.
Industries move into economically depressed areas bearing false promises of creating more jobs.
Without fail, those same corporations time and again heavily technologize and centralize their operations, further depressing the economy and devastating the natural environment. The recurring theme of the book is a stern demonstration of the cycle of destruction set in motion when the inability or unwillingness to think holistically informs corporate practice. When we buy a hamburger at McDonald's, its price in no way reflects the true cost of its production. Shiva's powerful narratives allow us to hold a piece of food in our hands and, in a thought process we have never been taught to follow, lets us trace backwards the story of the land it was grown on, the cultural and economic toll on the ecosytem and people, the sacrifice endured so that it might be made, the full weight of environmental devastation present in its existence. The seed and the plant become so much more than the sum of their parts, they become symbols of all that we stand to lose, all of the life concentrated in its smallest, most basic structure.