The Vandana Shiva Reader

by Vandana Shiva, Wendell Berry (Foreword by)

Overview

"Her great virtue as an advocate is that she is not a reductionist. Her awareness of the complex connections among economy and nature and culture preserves her from oversimplification. So does her understanding of the importance of diversity."—Wendell Berry, from the foreword

Motivated by agricultural devastation in her home country of India, Vandana Shiva became one of the world's most influential and highly acclaimed environmental and antiglobalization activists. Her groundbreaking research has exposed the destructive effects of monocultures and commercial agriculture and revealed the links between ecology, gender, and poverty.

In The Vandana Shiva Reader, Shiva assembles her most influential writings, combining trenchant critiques of the corporate monopolization of agriculture with a powerful defense of biodiversity and food democracy. Containing up-to-date data and a foreword by Wendell Berry, this essential collection demonstrates the full range of Shiva's research and activism, from her condemnation of commercial seed technology, genetically modified organisms (GMOs), and the international agriculture industry's dependence on fossil fuels, to her tireless documentation of the extensive human costs of ecological deterioration.

This important volume illuminates Shiva's profound understanding of both the perils and potential of our interconnected world and calls on citizens of all nations to renew their commitment to love and care for soil, seeds, and people.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813153292
Publisher:	University Press of Kentucky
Publication date:	01/27/2015
Series:	Culture of the Land
Pages:	364
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.80(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Vandana Shiva is the director of Navdanya in India. A physicist, philosopher, and feminist, she is the author of more than twenty books and the recipient of more than twenty international awards.

Table of Contents

Foreword Wendell Berry vii

Introduction: From Quanta to the Seed: An Unpredictable Journey 1

1 The Gendered Politics of Food 9

2 Science and Politics in the Green Revolution 15

3 The Hijacking of the Global Food Supply 41

4 Hunger by Design 55

5 Monocultures of the Mind 71

6 Toward a New Agriculture Paradigm: Health per Acre 113

7 Can Life Be Made? Can Life Be Owned? Redefining Biodiversity 139

8 The Seed and the Earth 159

9 Seeds of Suicide: The Ecological and Human Costs of the Globalization of Agriculture 179

10 Seed Freedom-What Is at Stake 219

11 Food and Water 229

12 Soil, Not Oil 239

13 The GMO Emperor Has No Clothes: Genetic Engineering Is a Failed Technology 277

Appendix: Tables 299

Selected Bibliography 329

Copyrights and Permissions 333

Index 335

Editorial Reviews

Vandana Shiva has had an enormous impact on how we view the world around us; it is a hugely valuable service to have her key writings in one place for easy reference. Because we should refer to them often!

Bill McKibben

The Vandana Shiva Reader provides an important East-West agrarian bridge connecting two of the world's great democracies and their struggles with industrial agriculture as it drives out sustainable alternatives, destroying both ecosystems and human communities along the way. To read Dr. Shiva's work is to feel the power of a fertile theoretical mind engaged in fierce and inspirational acts of resistance. Hers is a unique voice.

Bill Vitek

The Vandana Shiva Reader is a thought-provoking challenge to the notion that modern methods and technologies of farming are helping feed people around the world.

Tennessee Library Association

Vandana Shiva stands alone as an powerful critic of industrial agriculture. The clarity of her voice and the commitment of her life work are evident in this reader. There are few who match her tireless dedication to seeds and their life generating capacities. As this book shows, she is blazing a path toward healthy soil and food for future generations.

Mary Evelyn Tucker

" The Vandana Shiva Reader is a thought-provoking challenge to the notion that modern methods and technologies of farming are helping feed people around the world." -- Tennessee Library Association

" The Vandana Shiva Reader provides an important East-West agrarian bridge connecting two of the world's great democracies and their struggles with industrial agriculture as it drives out sustainable alternatives, destroying both ecosystems and human communities along the way. To read Dr. Shiva's work is to feel the power of a fertile theoretical mind engaged in fierce and inspirational acts of resistance. Hers is a unique voice." -- Bill Vitek, coeditor of The Virtues of Ignorance: Complexity, Sustainability, and the Limits of Knowledge

"Her great virtue as an advocate is that she is not a reductionist. Her awareness of the complex connections among the economy and nature and culture preserves her from oversimplification. So does her understanding of the importance of diversity." -- Wendell Berry, from the foreword

"Vandana Shiva has had an enormous impact on how we view the world around us; it is a hugely valuable service to have her key writings in one place for easy reference. Because we should refer to them often!" -- Bill McKibben, author of Deep Economy

"Vandana Shiva stands alone as an powerful critic of industrial agriculture. The clarity of her voice and the commitment of her life work are evident in this reader. There are few who match her tireless dedication to seeds and their life generating capacities. As this book shows, she is blazing a path toward healthy soil and food for future generations." -- Mary Evelyn Tucker, Forum on Religion and Ecology at Yale University

From the Publisher

Her great virtue as an advocate is that she is not a reductionist. Her awareness of the complex connections among the economy and nature and culture preserves her from oversimplification. So does her understanding of the importance of diversity.

Wendell Berry