Vandana Shiva | An appreciation post

This is a post dedicated to the Indian environmentalist, food sovereignty advocate, philosopher and author, Vandana Shiva. I hope you enjoy learning about her. There are some resources at the bottom of this post where you can continue to learn more.

We humans are every bit a part of nature as our fellow fauna, but we often think and behave as though we are not. As we walk the earth, our actions have impacts and it’s up to us to make sure most of those impacts are positive.

In the Humans section of Tellurian Treasures, I celebrate those who embody the characteristics of what I would call a true ‘earthling’. These are the people who nurture and respect their connection to the natural world. They are careful to tread lightly on the earth, while developing their knowledge of the intricacies of nature. They then share this knowledge with others, creating a valuable legacy that we can all live by and look up to.

Who is Vandana Shiva?

Vandana Shiva is well known for her social, political and environmental activism, particularly around issues relating to food sovereignty and agriculture. She has assisted grassroots organizations across the world that oppose advances in agricultural development that are not sustainable and damage the environment, such as genetically modified crops. Vandana Shiva believes that a transition away from industrial farming, back to small-scale farming is needed to fight climate change, and this is a belief I personally share with her. The more I learn, the more I see how important it is to buy food from small, local businesses with good ethics and practices when it comes to protecting the environment and working with nature, rather than against it.

Vandana’s work on agriculture began in 1984 and was motivated by the violence she witnessed in Punjab along with the Bhopal gas tragedy – a gas leak from Union Carbide’s pesticide manufacturing plant. The incident is considered one of the worst industrial disasters in history, where over 500,000 people were exposed to highly toxic methyl isocyanate gas. Tragically, thousands of people died, and hundreds of thousands were injured. Vanada has since spent the last three decades fighting for change through her activism.

Vandana Shiva founded the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology in the early 80s. This later led to the creation of Navdanya in 1991. Navdanya is a national movement in India that protects living resources such as native seed and promotes organic farming and fair trade. Navdanya consists of a vast network of famer families across India and has helped hundreds of thousands of farms convert to organic. The organisation has also helped set up a number of community seed banks across the country.

I admire Vandana Shiva for her relentless energy and determination when it comes to standing up for what she believes in and embodying the change she wants to see in the world.

Ecofeminism

Vandana Shiva is often described as an ecofeminist. Ecofeminism is a movement that combines feminism with environmentalism. According to the United Nations, 80% of people worst affected by climate change are women. This is because women are statistically more likely to experience poverty and have less socioeconomic power than men. This makes it more difficult for women to recover from environmental disasters.

The Ecofeminism movement aims to address this problem. It favours collaboration over domination as a means to enhance and maintain life in society in a way that is in harmony with nature. The domination of women and nature essentially stem from the same patriarcal roots.

On the Navdanya website she writes; ‘For me, ecology and feminism have been inseparable. And Diverse Women for Diversity is one expression of combining women’s rights and nature’s rights, celebrating our cultural diversity and biological diversity.

‘The defence of nature’s rights and people’s rights have come together for me in Earth Democracy – the democracy of all life on earth, a living democracy which supports and is supported by living culture and living economies.’

You are not Atlas carrying the world on your shoulder. It is good to remember that the planet is carrying you.
Vandana Shiva

Find out more about Vandana Shiva

Visit the Navdanya website to learn more about the work of the organisation promoting biodiversity conservation, organic farming and the rights of farmers.

Books:

Vandana Shiva has authored 20 books. Below I have shared a few on my personal reading list.

Description from hive.co.uk: ‘Examining the position of women in relation to nature – the forests, the food chain and water supplies – the author links the violation of nature with the violation and marginalization of women in the Third World.

One result is that the impact of science, technology and politics, along with the workings of the economy itself, are inherently exploitative.

Every area of human activity marginalizes and burdens both women and nature. There is only one path, Vandana Shiva suggests, to survival and liberation for nature, women and men, and that is the ecological path of harmony, sustainability and diversity.

She explores the unique place of women in the environment of India in particular, both as its saviours and as victims of maldevelopment. Her analysis is an innovative statement of the challenge that women in ecology movements are creating and she shows how their efforts constitute a non-violent and humanly inclusive alternative to the dominant paradigm of contemporary scientific and development thought.’

Description on Hive.co.uk: This book remains one of Vandana Shiva’s key works, in which she addresses some of the most pressing issues of our age – the privatization of our natural resources, the looming environmental crisis, and the rising tide of fundamentalism and violence against women. In spite of all this, Shiva still sees cause for hope.

Across the globe, a new wave of protest movements are championing alternatives based on inclusion, nonviolence, the free sharing of resources and the reclamation of the commons.

Shiva argues that these ideals can serve as the basis for “earth democracy”, and for a more just and sustainable future. This edition features a new preface by the author, in which she outlines recent developments in ecology and environmentalism, and offers new prescriptions for the environmental movement.’

View more booked by Vandana Shiva on hive.co.uk

Thank you for reading. Have a beautiful day.

~ Faine

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