In Living Soil Lies the Solution to Climate Change

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In Living Soil Lies the Solution to Climate Change

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Mere desh ki dharti...

by Vandana Shiva, April 23, 2015

At this fragile moment of human evolution—in the immediate wake of yesterday's celebration of Mother Earth Day—we have a moment to reflect on the state of the Earth and the human condition, as well as an opportunity to renew our pact as members of the Earth family — Vasudhaiv Kutumbakam.

Vasudhaiv Kutumbakam, a Sanskrit phrase, is a worldview from which flow paradigms, policies, practices, as well as vision and values.

Science is reaffirming the worldview of life as an interconnected web. From soil to plants, from insects to animals, life is a food web. The Taittiriya Upanishad recognised this thousand years ago with the verse, “Everything is food; everything is something else’s food”.

The Upanishad also says that growing and giving good food in abundance is the highest dharma, and growing and giving bad food is the highest form of adharma. That is why growing and eating organic food without violence to the soil is our sacred duty. And growing and eating food with chemicals, pesticides, genetically modified organisms or junk food violates ecological ethics, our cultural ethics and the laws of health and nutrition.

Our farmers are in distress. Farmers committing suicide is a symptom of an exploitative agriculture which extracts fertility from the soil and wealth from farmers. Globalisation and neo-liberal policies, which put the rights of corporations above nature and people’s rights, are at the root of the farmers’ distress.

Since 1995, nearly 300,000 farmers have committed suicide. In Vidarbha, it is because of the greed of Monsanto, an agricultural biotechnology corporation which increased seed costs by more than 70,000 per cent and forced cotton farmers to commit suicide. In West Bengal, it is the greed of Pepsi. The potato farmer receives only Rs 0.20 per kg for potatoes for which the consumer pays Rs 200 in the form of Lays chips. The consumer also pays with their health through diseases linked to junk food.

This year climate chaos has added to the farmers’ distress with rain and hailstorms at harvest time destroying crops and, with it, farmers’ livelihoods.

More than 100 farmers have committed suicide in Uttar Pradesh because of crop damage last month.

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Dr. Vandana Shiva is a philosopher, environmental activist and eco feminist. She is the founder/director of Navdanya Research Foundation for Science, Technology, and Ecology. She is author of numerous books including, Soil Not Oil: Environmental Justice in an Age of Climate Crisis; Stolen Harvest: The Hijacking of the Global Food Supply; Earth Democracy: Justice, Sustainability, and Peace; and Staying Alive: Women, Ecology, and Development. Shiva has also served as an adviser to governments in India and abroad as well as NGOs, including the International Forum on Globalization, the Women’s Environment and Development Organization and the Third World Network. She has received numerous awards, including 1993 Right Livelihood Award (Alternative Nobel Prize) and the 2010 Sydney Peace Prize.