Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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'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."