Who’s Who in Green: Vandana Shiva

Physicist, ecologist, activist and author Vandana Shiva is often called one of the world’s top environmental leaders and thinkers. The Indian food-sovereignty activist is an outspoken critic of industrialized globalized agriculture and has dedicated much of her life’s work to uncovering the devastating human and environmental impacts of corporate international trade agreements. Her books include Water Wars: Privatization, Pollution, and Profit, Stolen Harvest: The Hijacking of the Global Food Supply and Soil Not Oil: Environmental Justice in an Age of Climate Crisis.

Shiva was one of the most influential figures of India’s environmental movement and has played a major role in the international ‘ecofeminism’ movement. Shiva believes that a more sustainable and productive approach to agriculture can be achieved by reinstating a system of farming in India that is more centered around women. She was a co-chair of the 1991 World Congress on Women and the Environment and more recently launched a global movement called Diverse Women for Diversity.

One of Vandana Shiva’s most ardent causes is the introduction of genetically modified crops to Indian farmers by big corporations like Monsanto, which have led to thousands of farmers committing suicide when the experimental crops failed. The seeds are engineered not to reproduce, so the farmers have to continually buy more every year, putting new financial strain on people who are already struggling.

Shiva believes that corporate seeds aren’t about increasing productivity, they’re about increasing debt. That’s why she set up the Navdanya movement to counter corporate seed control in 1991. Navdanya distributed seeds to farmers and taught them how to go organic, creating what she calls “an alternative to corporate destruction”.

Opposing monoculture in the fields is far from Shiva’s only cause. She helped build the Movement for Retail Democracy to oppose monopolies in the commercial distribution of food, fighting to keep Wal-Mart out of India. She also heads up the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology, an independent research institute that she founded in 1982 and has argued on behalf of the wisdom of many traditional practices as a superior alternative to a life ruled by corporate money-mongering.

Yes Magazine interviewed Shiva in 2003, asking her what keeps her so energized and alive.

Well, it’s always a mystery, because you don’t know why you get depleted or recharged. But, this much I know. I do not allow myself to be overcome by hopelessness, no matter how tough the situation. I believe that if you just do your little bit without thinking of the bigness of what you stand against, if you turn to the enlargement of your own capacities, just that in itself creates new potential.

And I’ve learned from the Bhagavad Gita and other teachings of our culture to detach myself from the results of what I do, because those are not in my hands. The context is not in your control, but your commitment is yours to make, and you can make the deepest commitment with a total detachment about where it will take you. You want it to lead to a better world, and you shape your actions and take full responsibility for them, but then you have detachment. And that combination of deep passion and deep detachment allows me always to take on the next challenge because I don’t cripple myself, I don’t tie myself in knots. I function like a free being. I think getting that freedom is a social duty because I think we owe it to each other not to burden each other with prescription and demands. I think what we owe each other is a celebration of life and to replace fear and hopelessness with fearlessness and joy.

Vandana Shiva’s Green Score: 85,689

Photo credit: Benjamin Root via Treehugger

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