Seed is not just the source of life. It is the very foundation of our being. Vandana Shiva More Quotes by Vandana Shiva More Quotes From Vandana Shiva The people who see the population explosion in the Malthusian way - as a geometric progression - forget that population growth is not a biological issue. People are not increasing in numbers out of stupidity and ignorance. Population growth is an ecological phenomenon linked very intimately to other issues, such as the usurpation of the resources which allow people to live. Vandana Shiva issues ignorance numbers There are scarcities in drinking water when you pollute the groundwater with nitrates. There is a scarcity in diversity when you create huge cornfields with the same strain of corn so that when one disease strikes - which happened in the United States in the 70s - all the cornfields in the country are wiped out. That was the first time the U.S. realized the value of diversity in agriculture and began to discuss genetic resources and their conservation. Vandana Shiva agriculture drinking country Nobody defines it as something women shouldn't be doing. In a way, there are more mathematicians, more doctors, more scientists in India than there are in this country. We even had a woman head of state, and that's something the United States has yet to catch up with. Vandana Shiva doctors india country I didn't leave physics because of boredom. I left it because other issues compelled me in a bigger way. And I always say to myself, "When I'm 60, I'd like to go back to what I interrupted." Vandana Shiva boredom issues way My links with [Mahatma] Gandhi now are very political links because I do not believe there is any other politics available to us in the late twentieth century, a period of a totalitarianism linked with the market. There is really no other way you can do politics and create freedom for people without the kinds of instruments he revived. Civil disobedience is a way to create permanent democracy, perennial democracy, a direct democracy. Vandana Shiva political believe people I saw some women had written that the cloning of Dolly was wonderful since it showed that women could have children without men. They didnt even understand that this was the ultimate ownership of womenof embryos, of eggs, of bodiesby a few men with capital and control techniques, that it wasnt freedom from men but total control by men. Vandana Shiva eggs men children The problem of numbers can only be dealt with by recognizing that people have a fundamental right to economic security. If you provide them with economic and environmental security, the population will stabilize itself. Vandana Shiva environmental numbers people It is only with local [agriculture] that we can manage the complexity and care that sustainability requires. Vandana Shiva sustainability agriculture care I do have fun. Even when Im fighting Im enjoying it: I think theres nothing as exhilarating as protecting that which you find precious. Vandana Shiva fighting fun thinking One particular spark was when I went back to my favorite spot in the mountains where my father always used to take us before my graduate studies in Canada and finding that the stream I had gone swimming in wasnt there. The forest had been converted into an apple orchard with World Bank financing. The entire place, literally, had changed. Vandana Shiva apples swimming father We have reached a stage where governments and political processes have been hijacked by the corporate world. Corporations can within five hours influence the vote in the U.S. Congress. They can influence the entire voting patterns of the Indian Parliament. Ordinary people who put governments in power might want to go in a different direction. I call this the phenomenon of the inverted state, where the state is no longer accountable to the people. The state only serves the interests of corporations. Vandana Shiva political government people There is now a patent restricting the use of an herb called philantis neruri for curing jaundice. An even more blatant example is the use of turmeric for healing wounds, which is something every mother and grandmother does in every home in India. Now the Mississippi Medical Center claims to have "invented" the capacity of turmeric to heal wounds. Vandana Shiva healing mother home The abuse of the Earth is the ecological crisis. Vandana Shiva ecological-crisis abuse earth It is from the Himalayan forests and ecosystems that I learned most of what I know about ecology. Vandana Shiva knows forests needs We're living in the anthropocene age and now human beings will be the shapers of our future, that totally control the overall functions of not just our planet, but our relationship with other planets. Vandana Shiva relationships-with-others our-relationship age The idea of engineering is an idea of mastery. And today the role that we are being asked to play is a role based on informed humanity. Vandana Shiva engineering play ideas The role of geo-engineering should, in a world of responsibility, in a world of scientifically enlightened decision making and ecological understanding, it should be zero. There is no role for geo-engeneering. Because what is geoengineering but extending the engineering paradigm? Vandana Shiva engineering zero responsibility In civilizational issues you don't look at the tiny details as the debate. You have to look at the big picture! Vandana Shiva details issues looks I've just been told that Nestle has taken out patents on the making of pullao. (Pullao is the way we make our rice in India, with either vegetables or meat or whatever.) Before you know it, every common use of plants will be patented by a Western corporation. Vandana Shiva corporations vegetables taken If you see cattle as a source of organic manure, animal energy, as well as milk products, then Indian cattle are not inferior. It is only when you measure them as milk machines that they become inferior. What if we measured the dairy cows of America or Jersey or the Swiss Alps in terms of their work functions? They would be terribly inferior. Vandana Shiva what-if animal america
