Vandana Shiva
Author of Stolen Harvest: the Hijacking of the Global Food Supply
About the Author
Vandana Shiva is a world-renowned environmental leader, activist, and scholar who has dedicated her life to defending the sovereignty of biological and Indigenous knowledge.
Works by Vandana Shiva
Who Really Feeds the World?: The Failures of Agribusiness and the Promise of Agroecology (2015) 93 copies
The Violence of the Green Revolution: Third World Agriculture, Ecology and Politics (1991) 90 copies, 1 review
Reclaiming the Commons: Biodiversity, Traditional Knowledge, and the Rights of Mother Earth (2020) 44 copies
Seed Sovereignty, Food Security: Women in the Vanguard of the Fight against GMOs and Corporate Agriculture (2015) 31 copies
Agroecology and Regenerative Agriculture: Sustainable Solutions for Hunger, Poverty, and Climate Change (2022) 17 copies, 1 review
Ecology and the Politics of Survival (United Nations university programme on peace & global transformation) (1991) 8 copies
The Seed Keepers 4 copies
Seeds of Suicide: The Ecological and Human Costs of the Globalization of Agriculture (2005) 3 copies
Food, Farming and Health: Respecting "Annam" - Agricultural Biodiversity and Traditional Indian Dietary Wisdom (2018) 2 copies
ANNADANA The Gift of God 1 copy
සොරාගත් අස්වැන්න 1 copy
Eine Erde für alle! – Einssein versus das 1 %: Aufstehen gegen die Monokultur von Wirtschaft und Weltsicht (2021) 1 copy
Roti Kapda aur Makaan: How 10 years of WTO have Robbed India of Lives and Livelihoods. (2006) 1 copy
Seed: the Untold Story 1 copy
Associated Works
The Feminist Standpoint Theory Reader: Intellectual and Political Controversies (2004) — Contributor, some editions — 68 copies
The Case Against Free Trade: GATT, NAFTA, and the Globalization of Corporate Power (1993) — Contributor — 58 copies, 1 review
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Other names
- Shiva Navdanya, Vandana
- Birthdate
- 1952-11-05
- Gender
- female
- Education
- University of Western Ontario (PhD|Philosophy|1978))
University of Guelph (BS|Physics) - Occupations
- physicist
environmental activist
author - Organizations
- International Forum on Globalization
Chipko Movement
International Organization for a Participatory Society
La Fundación IDEAS - Awards and honors
- Right Livelihood Award (also known as the 'Alternative Nobel Prize' ∙ 1993)
Global 500 Award of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP ∙ 1993)
Earth Day International Award of the United Nations (UN ∙ 1993)
Order of the Golden Ark (Netherlands ∙ 1993)
International Award (Spain ∙ 1993)
The Golden Plant Award (International Award of Ecology ∙ 1997) (show all 8)
Save The World Award (2009)
...and numerous other awards from around the world! - Short biography
- Vandana Shiva (b. November 5, 1952, Dehra Dun, Uttarakhand, India), is a philosopher, environmental activist, eco feminist and author of several books. Shiva, currently based in Delhi, is author of over 300 papers in leading scientific and technical journals. She received her Ph.D. in physics from the University of Western Ontario, Canada, in 1978 with the doctoral dissertation:“Hidden Variables and Non-locality in Quantum Theory”. Shiva participated in the nonviolent Chipko movement during the 1970s. The movement, some of whose main participants were women, adopted the approach of forming human circles around trees to prevent their felling. She is one of the leaders of the International Forum on Globalization, (along with Jerry Mander, Edward Goldsmith, Ralph Nader, Jeremy Rifkin, et al.), and a figure of the global solidarity movement known as the alter-globalization movement. She has argued for the wisdom of many traditional practices, as is evident from her interview in the book "Vedic Ecology" (by Ranchor Prime) that draws upon India's Vedic heritage.
- Nationality
- India
- Birthplace
- Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India
- Places of residence
- Delhi, India
- Associated Place (for map)
- India
Members
Reviews
In The Nature of Nature, world-renowned environmental thinker and activist Vandana Shiva argues that food is the currency of life, a thread woven throughout the web of all life, indivisible from Earth and its natural systems. When this interdependence is ruptured—as it is now—the conditions for the “metabolic disorder” of climate change and countless other ecological imbalances come into being.
Proposals put forward by Big Ag and Big Tech to solve the intertwined climate and food show more crises will only exacerbate both. With clarity and a detailed analysis, Shiva unpacks the false promises made by technology-oriented, lab-intensive digital agriculture, revealing the dangers posed by fake and ultra-processed foods—dangers to the environment, to increasing greenhouse gas emissions, to the health of animals, and to our health and food security.
In The Nature of Nature, Shiva takes a powerful stand, arguing with urgency and passion for a food and climate future based not on techno-optimism, hallucination, and corporate delusions, but on the natural regeneration of biodiversity in partnership with the biosphere. show less
Proposals put forward by Big Ag and Big Tech to solve the intertwined climate and food show more crises will only exacerbate both. With clarity and a detailed analysis, Shiva unpacks the false promises made by technology-oriented, lab-intensive digital agriculture, revealing the dangers posed by fake and ultra-processed foods—dangers to the environment, to increasing greenhouse gas emissions, to the health of animals, and to our health and food security.
In The Nature of Nature, Shiva takes a powerful stand, arguing with urgency and passion for a food and climate future based not on techno-optimism, hallucination, and corporate delusions, but on the natural regeneration of biodiversity in partnership with the biosphere. show less
If you needed a(nother) reason to regret the existence of Monsanto and Big Pharm, Vandana Shiva provides ample material here. The core story is the attempt by US and international corporations to extend the ability to patent cell lines and bioengineered organisms, currently allowed in US patent law, to international trade agreements. However, if you're not already convinced, this book isn't going to change your mind. It's less a well-reasoned argument than a string of examples of advances in show more bioengineering glued together with Carolyn Merchant's theory on science.
The TRIP/GATT material is already dated (the agreement referenced in the book is from 1994), but the basic argument that US intellectual property law becomes farcical and dangerous when applied to living organisms is worth reading. The last two chapters, on the values of self-determination and diversity and on the political implications of ecological disaster, are also a good read.
There is a lot of name calling in the beginning: patriarchy, colonialism, etc. I sometimes wonder if authors, in constructing a narrative of "everything was better before those old white guys got here" are ascribing an almost superhuman power to a group of people that really don't deserve it. How can one overcome an invading army who has the power to rewrite history, religion, interpersonal relations, political relations and cosmology? show less
The TRIP/GATT material is already dated (the agreement referenced in the book is from 1994), but the basic argument that US intellectual property law becomes farcical and dangerous when applied to living organisms is worth reading. The last two chapters, on the values of self-determination and diversity and on the political implications of ecological disaster, are also a good read.
There is a lot of name calling in the beginning: patriarchy, colonialism, etc. I sometimes wonder if authors, in constructing a narrative of "everything was better before those old white guys got here" are ascribing an almost superhuman power to a group of people that really don't deserve it. How can one overcome an invading army who has the power to rewrite history, religion, interpersonal relations, political relations and cosmology? show less
This book is classic of the environmental movement. In it, Vandana Shiva envisions a world beyond our current dependence on fossil fuels and globalization, and makes the compelling case that food crises, oil dependency and climate change are all inherently interlinked. Any attempt to solve one without addressing the others is therefore doomed to failure.Condemning industrial agriculture and biofuels as recipes for ecological and economic disaster, Shiva instead champions small independent show more farmers. What is needed most, in a time of hunger and changing climates, are sustainable, biologically diverse farms that are better able to resist disease, drought and flooding. Calling for a return to local economies and small-scale agriculture, Shiva argues that humanity's choice is a stark one: we can either continue to pursue a market-centred approach, which will ultimately make our planet unliveable, or we can instead strive for a people-centred, oil-free future, one which offers a decent living for all.This edition features a new introduction by the author, in which she outlines recent developments in ecology and environmentalism, and offers new prescriptions for the environmental movement. show less
This book describes the impact of the “Green Revolution” on the Punjab region of India. The Punjab region spans Pakistan and India, but this book mainly deals with India, except when discussing water issues which involve both countries.
The subject of the book as stated in the Introduction is:
“[This study] traces the conflict and violence in contemporary Punjab to the ecological and political demands of the Green Revolution as an experiment in development and agricultural show more transformation.”
It starts by telling the history of the Green Revolution. It then describes technical problems associated with the revolution: the need for more chemical fertilizer, pesticides, and irrigation water, the degradation of formerly fertile soil, and the need to constantly develop new hybrid seed on order to combat pests which quickly adapt to the monoculture crops. The name “High Yield Varieties” (HYV) for the Green Revolution crops correctly describes the higher output of the methods and the seeds, but fails to capture the fact that inputs are also higher, and harmful side effects are produced (e.g. destruction of fertile soil). The book also describes the social and political problems that have been induced by to this change in agricultural processes. Clearly, the book has been well researched. However, the writing is sometimes repetitive. It could have been edited better. Some sentences obviously contain typos. There is no index. This is a source of frustration throughout the book, whenever the reader needs to be reminded of the meaning of an acronym, of which there quite a few. There are many tables and figures in the book. Some are effective, but others seem vague and unnecessary. Some large data tables present what appears to be significant information, but, in order to be effective, should have been summarized somehow – perhaps via a plot of the data.
I enjoyed reading the book in spite of the drawbacks. Despite my objections to the quality of the writing and editing, I'll keep my copy on my bookshelf, since it is a good reference source for the negative impacts of the Green Revolution. show less
The subject of the book as stated in the Introduction is:
“[This study] traces the conflict and violence in contemporary Punjab to the ecological and political demands of the Green Revolution as an experiment in development and agricultural show more transformation.”
It starts by telling the history of the Green Revolution. It then describes technical problems associated with the revolution: the need for more chemical fertilizer, pesticides, and irrigation water, the degradation of formerly fertile soil, and the need to constantly develop new hybrid seed on order to combat pests which quickly adapt to the monoculture crops. The name “High Yield Varieties” (HYV) for the Green Revolution crops correctly describes the higher output of the methods and the seeds, but fails to capture the fact that inputs are also higher, and harmful side effects are produced (e.g. destruction of fertile soil). The book also describes the social and political problems that have been induced by to this change in agricultural processes. Clearly, the book has been well researched. However, the writing is sometimes repetitive. It could have been edited better. Some sentences obviously contain typos. There is no index. This is a source of frustration throughout the book, whenever the reader needs to be reminded of the meaning of an acronym, of which there quite a few. There are many tables and figures in the book. Some are effective, but others seem vague and unnecessary. Some large data tables present what appears to be significant information, but, in order to be effective, should have been summarized somehow – perhaps via a plot of the data.
I enjoyed reading the book in spite of the drawbacks. Despite my objections to the quality of the writing and editing, I'll keep my copy on my bookshelf, since it is a good reference source for the negative impacts of the Green Revolution. show less
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Statistics
- Works
- 105
- Also by
- 8
- Members
- 2,836
- Popularity
- #9,044
- Rating
- 3.8
- Reviews
- 25
- ISBNs
- 246
- Languages
- 15
- Favorited
- 5