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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] 'Food Hero' says to Value Soil, Not Oil
  • Date: Mon, 12 Apr 2010 18:50:38 -0600


'Food Hero' says to Value Soil, Not Oil
Factory farms extending reach of global hunger crisis, she says.
Published on Monday, April 12, 2010 by South Bend Tribune (Indiana)
http://www.southbendtribune.com/article/20100411/News01/4110373/-1/googleNews

GOSHEN - Vandana Shiva was on the fast track for a career as a nuclear
physicist in the 1970s, working in an atomic research center in Bombay in her
native India.

[Vandana Shiva, the respected author and activist, says the world should be
focused on food security instead of devoting limitless resources to oil and
unsustainable energy production that threaten to devastate the planet and its
people if left unchecked.]Vandana Shiva, the respected author and activist,
says the world should be focused on food security instead of devoting
limitless resources to oil and unsustainable energy production that threaten
to devastate the planet and its people if left unchecked.
But when her sister, a medical doctor, pointed out Shiva's lack of
understanding of nuclear hazards, she planted a seed in Shiva's mind. That
seed took root and eventually caused Shiva to abandon her nuclear ambitions
and dedicate her life to what she calls "sciences that defend life."

In particular, she focuses on food security and sustainable farming to
protect and promote the most elemental form of life: the seed.

In a speech titled after her latest book, "Soil Not Oil" (South End Press,
2008), Shiva, whom Time magazine calls an environmental hero, told a full
house at the Goshen College Church-Chapel during a recent talk that the world
should be focused on food security instead of devoting limitless resources to
oil and unsustainable energy production that threaten to devastate the planet
and its people if left unchecked. She explained parallels she sees between
her past career and her present work.

"Feeding ourselves has become like warfare," she said, citing 1 billion
people worldwide going hungry, recent riots in more than 30 countries because
of increasing food prices and violent conflicts erupting when industrial
farming companies displace traditional farmers in emerging countries like
India. Additionally, Shiva mentioned literal wars fought today over oil and
water, such as the conflict in Darfur that began with the effects of a
drought.

Even the elements of war and food have become the same, she pointed out, with
leftover chemicals from weapons - nitrogen, Agent Orange and DDT - being used
to fertilize and treat crops. "Agriculture begins to look more and more like
war against the earth," she said.

This "war" is destroying soil, wasting water and other resources, polluting
the planet and devaluing and destroying human life and work. And for no more
food.

"We've been sold a major myth on the grounds that the application of
chemicals will improve yield. It's not true," she said. "It will kill soil."

Shiva pointed out industrial farming uses 10 times as much water as
ecological farming. And industrial agriculture is inherently wasteful because
it takes 10 kilocalories of energy to produce 1 kilocalorie of food, she
explained. Industrial farming of animals is even less efficient and requires
100 kilocalories of energy to produce 1 kilocalorie of protein.

"If you're living on a planet of shrinking resources, it doesn't make sense,"
she said. Especially when this wasteful, polluted farming has replaced the
perfect cycle of traditional farming that created no emissions, waste or
conflict, she said.

Calling out industrial farming corporations, Shiva explained these companies
are destroying biodiversity that is critical for sustainable farming.
Instead, they focus on crops Shiva called "non-foods" and "commodities" such
as corn and soybeans that are slipped into many food products. These
commodities are not nourishing, she said.

"You can have more commodities, but less food," she explained, pointing out
that 50 percent of what's grown is for animal feed or fuel for cars. Further,
half of the 1 billion hungry people in the world are food producers.

Industrial agriculture companies' practice of modifying and patenting seeds
goes against nature, she said. It stifles innovation because researchers
won't share knowledge until it's patented; and a genetically modified seed is
"not a true invention." Especially when a seed has been developed to
terminate the embryo, the life inside itself, instead of propagating the way
nature intended. A seed rendering itself sterile is a "war against creation,"
Shiva said. "If these seeds escape, you'll be terminating life."

One of the most devastating points of Shiva's talk was her explanation of a
trend that started in India after farmers started engaging in industrial
farming practices. Because those practices create debt, many farmers
eventually lost their land and their livelihoods. This powerlessness led to
200,000 suicides by small farmers in one cotton-growing area of India, she
said.

Her solutions? Through her organization Navdanya, Shiva has created a network
of seed banks (www.navdanya.org/earth-democracy/seed-sovereignty) and organic
producers (www.navdanya.org/organic-movement/organic-production) in India.
Navdanya has trained more than 500,000 farmers in seed sovereignty, food
sovereignty (www.navdanya.org/earth-democracy/food-sovereignty) and organic
farming in the past two decades, according to her Web site.

Navdanya's seed-saving program has proved crucial with the upswing in violent
weather conditions such as cyclones and tsunamis due to climate change. These
storms moved salt water farther inland, which affected the soil of farms that
had previously never dealt with this problem. Fortunately, Navdanya was able
to distribute seeds that were resistant to saltwater to help farmers get back
on their feet more quickly.

Another small but important solution in promoting soil over oil is
appreciating food. "Celebrate food," she said. "Bring back the spirituality
of food; recognize the sacredness of food."

Those concerned with food security solutions need to ask themselves, "Earth,
how do I serve you?" she said.

And don't underestimate individual or small efforts, Shiva said. "The beauty
of seeds is it multiplies. From one, you can make millions. All you need is
patience."




  • [Livingontheland] 'Food Hero' says to Value Soil, Not Oil, Tradingpost, 04/12/2010

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