Dr. Vandana Shiva
World-renowned environmental activist, scientist and writer Dr. Vandana Shiva gave a public lecture on “Soil, Not Oil: Food Security in Times of Climate Change” at Goshen College on Saturday, March 27, 2010 at 7 p.m. in our Church-Chapel.
Read an article that was published on CommonDreams.org, “‘Food Hero’ says to Value Soil, Not Oil,” about the lecture.
And check out these photos from the event!
Shiva has been singled out by Time magazine as an environmental “hero.” Her lecture will draw connections between three of the world’s most serious issues: food insecurity, peak oil usage and climate change. She calls for small, sustainable, bio-diverse farms in an effort to evade the environmental and economic problems associated with industrial agriculture. She proposes solutions based on principles of self-organization, community and environmental justice, in opposition to trends of globalization, fossil-fuel dependence and corporate power.
Shiva has worked for changes in agricultural and food production systems, calling for greater protection of indigenous rights to biodiversity, particularly for seeds of food crops. She also has played an important role in the ecofeminist movement, calling for greater participation of women in agriculture as a means to achieve sustainability.
Among Shiva’s books are “Biopiracy: the Plunder of Nature and Knowledge” (1997), “Stolen Harvest: The Hijacking of the Global Food Supply” (2000), “Water Wars” (2002), “Earth Democracy” (2005), “Manifestos on the Future of Food and Seed” (2007) and “Soil Not Oil” (2008).
In India, Shiva established Navdanya, a movement for biodiversity conservation and farmers’ rights; founded the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology; and is vice president of the global movement, Slow Food International.
View videos of Shiva speaking at:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3833110324043445440
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KfvYjZ5fyw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vi1FTCzDSck&feature=fvw
This lecture was sponsored by the Ecological Stewardship Committee of Goshen College, the agroecology program of the Merry Lea Environmental Learning Center of Goshen College and Organic Valley Co-op.