The Seeds of Vandana Shiva
April 3, 2021
by Dr. Joseph Mercola
The Remarkable Life Story of Eco-activist Vandana Shiva
How did the willful daughter of a Himalayan forest conservator become the world’s most powerful opponent of Monsanto? The Seeds of Vandana Shiva, a feature-length documentary, presents the remarkable life story of the Gandhian eco-activist and agro-ecologist, Vandana Shiva. A classic David versus Goliath tale, the film shows how Vandana, a brilliant scientist, became Monsanto’s worst nightmare and a rock star of the international organic food movement.
Vandana Shiva is a modern-day revolutionary, and for forty years has been fighting a heroic battle on behalf of humanity and the ecologically besieged natural systems that support us. But she is opposed by powerful multinational corporations invested in continuing their degenerative but lucrative agricultural practices. By profiling one of the greatest activists of modern times, the film looks at the epic struggle over who controls the world’s food systems, and asks the question, who will prevail?
STORY AT-A-GLANCE:
* Vandana Shiva, Ph.D., is a physicist and activist who works tirelessly to defend the environment and protect biodiversity from industrial agriculture, GMOs and patented seeds
* Shiva’s involvement in the contemporary ecology movement began with the Chipko movement in 1973, in which Himalayan villagers, primarily women, fought back against loggers in the best way they could, by physically embracing the trees
* Shiva went on to found the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology, which she called the Institute for “Counter Expertise” because its goal was to counter the “expertise” of the destroyers and “bring to the front the knowledge of those who were defending the Earth”
* She also exposed the dark side of the Green Revolution and founded Navdanya, a nonprofit organization promoting biodiversity, organic farming and seed saving
* There are now at least 127 seed banks in India, which will keep growing, along with a network of farmers and seed savers who have been trained in organic farming
Vandana Shiva, Ph.D., is a physicist and activist who works tirelessly to defend the environment and protect biodiversity from multinational corporations. Her life's work has culminated in the creation of seed banks that may one day save future generations' food sovereignty, but how she got there is a fascinating story, chronicled in the documentary "The Seeds of Vandana Shiva."
Shiva, "a brilliant scientist" who became "Monsanto's worst nightmare and a rock star of the international organic food movement,"1 grew up in a Himalayan forest, where her father, a forest conservator, carried out inspections. She would travel up to 45 miles a day with her father as a young girl, and as they traversed the forest he taught her everything about the trees, plants and herbs therein.
"We had a classroom out in the forest," Shiva said, but her formal studies were done in a convent which, at that time, didn't regard science as a subject fit for girls. Shiva wanted to study physics, though, and she was especially intrigued by Einstein and his connections of intuition with science. "Everyone has their favorite person that they want to be," she said. "Einstein was the shaper of the dream of my life."
A Search for Knowledge as a Whole
Shiva got a scholarship to attend Chandigarh University in Punjab, India, and from there she went on to the Bhabha National Atomic Research Center in Mumbai, India, for training in atomic energy. Later, her sister, a medical doctor, asked her about the health and environmental effects of nuclear technology and radiation.
As Shiva grasped the devastation nuclear energy had caused, she said, "I realized that a science that only teaches you how to modify nature without the understanding of what that modification does to the larger world is not a complete science."
She gave up her idea of being a nuclear physicist and instead went looking for knowledge as a whole. She studied on her own, finding quantum theory, and while pursuing a Ph.D. in Canada, went to visit some of her favorite spots, including an oak forest she held close to her heart.
When she arrived, the forest had been cut down to make room for apple orchards, changing the entire microclimate in the area. The loss of something that she felt was a part of her impacted her deeply and set the stage for her environmental activism.
The Tree Hugging Movement Is Born
Shiva states that her involvement in the contemporary ecology movement began with the Chipko movement in 1973.2 The timber mafia were cutting down trees throughout the Indian Himalayas, taking away this precious resource from the rural villagers who depended on the forest for subsistence.
The government denied villagers access to the land and the lumber, while the logging companies cleared out forests, leading to problems with erosion, deple
