Saving the world one seed at a time: Vandana Shiva speaks at UP on food rights and ecofeminism

Shiva, often called the “Gandhi of Grain,” is an Indian activist who has been advocating over the last 30 years for the rights of farmers, women and the natural world through her dozens of books and movies, as well as Navdanya, her organization with over 150 community seed banks. 

Shiva holds a decorated educational record, with Ph.D.s in physics and philosophy, but she credits the women in her life with her ecological knowledge.  

“I learned my biodiversity and my ecology from peasant women [who] have never been to school, but they were in the school of life,” Shiva said. “They were in the school of nature.”

Shiva spoke about Indigenous practices, saying that through the process of excluding nature, an entire way of knowing has been wiped away. 

“How did women get excluded, and how did nature get excluded? And how did so many ways of knowing, the Indigenous ways of knowing?” she said. “You know that we are part of the earth, we are not separate.”

Shiva is also known for her lawsuit against the agrochemical-corporation Monsanto for their attempt at commodifying crop seeds, which Shiva argued are a fundamental aspect of life and something that cannot be patented. 

She discussed how Monsanto established new legislation that banned seed saving for all Indian farmers. 

However, according to Shiva, this all happened without Indian officials. Thus, Monsanto was able to manipulate the government due a lack of regulations. 

“I think putting governments to sleep with deregulation is the passion of this time,” Shiva said. 

Shiva believes that the Earth is not for sale, stating that all things are equal and important. She explained that profit margins determine the fate of the world now, meaning every aspect of life, some as fundamental as seeds and water, can be commodified simply to line board members’ pockets. 

Shiva is actively fighting against this in her daily work. 

“You can’t treat a seed as a machine, and they [Monsanto] said, ‘By the time we are through, it will be defined as a machine,’” Shiva said. “By the time I’m through, we will reclaim the seed and the sanctity of life.”

Shiva’s new book, “The Nature of Nature: The Metabolic Disorder of Climate Change,” releases in October 2024. 

“We are for the Earth, we are for our freedom, we are for democracy,” Shiva said. “That is why we resist a system that would commodify every aspect of life and destroy every dimension of democracy.” 

Ethan Sanders is a reporter for the Beacon. He can be reached at sanders25@up.edu.