I recently went to the National Heirloom Expo in Santa Rosa. I was honored to hear Vandana Shiva speak. I read a few of Vananda Shiva's books while studying international food systems and gender in university. I'd love to share with you some of the thoughts that Dr. Shiva shared with us at the expo. This is a bio of Dr. Shiva:
Dr. Shiva combines sharp intellectual enquiry with courageous activism, and her work spans teaching at universities worldwide to working with peasants in rural India. Time Magazine identified Dr. Shiva as an environmental ‘hero’ in 2003, and Asia Week has called her one of the five most powerful communicators in Asia. In November 2010, Forbes Magazine identified Dr. Shiva as one of the Seven Most Powerful Women on the Globe.
Dr. Shiva has contributed in fundamental ways to changing the practice and paradigms of agriculture and food. Her books The Violence of the Green Revolution and Monocultures of the Mind pose essential challenges to the dominant paradigm of non-sustainable, industrial agriculture. Through her books Biopiracy, Stolen Harvest and Water Wars, Dr. Shiva has made visible the social, economic and ecological costs of corporate-led globalisation. Dr. Shiva chairs the Commission on the Future of Food set up by the Region of Tuscany in Italy, she is a Board member of the International Forum on Globalisation (IGF), and a member of the Steering Committee of the Indian People’s Campaign Against the WTO. Source
Organic farming is feeding the soil
Only seeds in the hands of caring farmers and gardeners will nourish a future that creates life
We do not believe in measuring yield to determine success of agricultural practices - what is the point of measuring the yield of nutritionally empty foods?
- Rather, we will measure the nutrition in the seeds
- By ignoring diversity in agriculture, we have created disease epidemics because the monoculture in agriculture is reflected by monoculture in our gut (our microbiome)
If a land is not externally controlled by a colonizer then it has been considered empty
Similarly, if a land isn't externally controlled by an agribusiness, then it is considered empty
If something is not making a profit in the capitalist system, then it has no value and can be destroyed or taken control of
Now Monsanto is a "digital farming" company
- They are maintaining control of our food and biofuel system through having exclusive control over big data of agriculture, climate, soil, and people
Knowledge is power. Who is controlling our information?
In the intelligence of life is the ability to adapt to the next phase of climate change, but only if the seeds are allowed to continue their lives in freedom
The seeds of the future lie in the seeds of the past
I have seen the documentary 'The seed war' That's where I discovered Vandana Shiva and her unreal determination to advocate the agricultor rights to use and share any seeds [the good biodiversed ones] not the modified ones people need to boost with Monsanto products. So, i can imagine how great it was to hear from her!
Happily, she inspires people like you to change the world.
great that you share this important information .. for our long term gene pool variety.. which is also our long term security. Nature spent millions of years evolving so much variety into our fruit and vegetables so that they are less vulnerable to a wipe out from disease or climate change.. and yet we are quickly wiping out more and more of it as we homogenise our strains..
Luckily there are a lot of people holding and growing heirloom varieties and massive seed banks.. and people like you posting ;-)
Thank you for sharing this very important story. I will only plant heirloom varieties in my garden because I believe the same thing. Nutrition is more important than yield.
Interesting thoughts. Thank you, I voted
Great posts and interesting. Thank you for sharing for all
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WOW! What an amazing event to attend! I just went on a seed walk a couple days ago and harvested seeds from local/native plants that I could not identify. I was surprised at how many that turned out to be! Some I was able to name after looking in my local plant guide and others are still perplexing me. I pulled my botanist friend into trying to solve some with me and even she is stumped! Plants and seeds are AMAZING! So many we don't yet appreciate.
Dr. Shiva is a true hero. bows
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Would love to hear her speak live. I am a massive fan such an inspirational woman. I hope she manages to achieve her goal in her lifetime, in turn saving humanity for a huge disaster !
Thank you for sharing this very important story.Nutrition is more important than yield.