I recently went to the National Heirloom Expo in Santa Rosa. I was honored to hear Vandana Shiva speak. I read a few of Vananda Shiva's books while studying international food systems and gender in university. I'd love to share with you some of the thoughts that Dr. Shiva shared with us at the expo. This is a bio of Dr. Shiva: > Dr. Shiva combines sharp intellectual enquiry with courageous activism, and her work spans teaching at universities worldwide to working with peasants in rural India. Time Magazine identified Dr. Shiva as an environmental ‘hero’ in 2003, and Asia Week has called her one of the five most powerful communicators in Asia. In November 2010, Forbes Magazine identified Dr. Shiva as one of the Seven Most Powerful Women on the Globe. Dr. Shiva has contributed in fundamental ways to changing the practice and paradigms of agriculture and food. Her books The Violence of the Green Revolution and Monocultures of the Mind pose essential challenges to the dominant paradigm of non-sustainable, industrial agriculture. Through her books Biopiracy, Stolen Harvest and Water Wars, Dr. Shiva has made visible the social, economic and ecological costs of corporate-led globalisation. Dr. Shiva chairs the Commission on the Future of Food set up by the Region of Tuscany in Italy, she is a Board member of the International Forum on Globalisation (IGF), and a member of the Steering Committee of the Indian People’s Campaign Against the WTO. [Source](http://vandanashiva.com/?page_id=2) --- --- ![](https://s26.postimg.org/nwfo3k1wp/21533846_10155471449926839_1587736018_o.jpg) ### Organic farming is feeding the soil **Only seeds in the hands of caring farmers and gardeners will nourish a future that creates life** --- --- ![](https://s26.postimg.org/4osj6yjl5/21460351_10155471449786839_1771552080_o.jpg) ### *We do not believe in measuring yield to determine success of agricultural practices - what is the point of measuring the yield of nutritionally empty foods?* > - Rather, we will measure the nutrition in the seeds > - By ignoring diversity in agriculture, we have created disease epidemics because the monoculture in agriculture is reflected by monoculture in our gut (our microbiome) --- --- ![](https://s26.postimg.org/6ygnhpsix/21533588_10155471450036839_1282347638_o.jpg) #### If a land is not externally controlled by a colonizer then it has been considered empty #### Similarly, if a land isn't externally controlled by an agribusiness, then it is considered empty ### If something is not making a profit in the capitalist system, then it has no value and can be destroyed or taken control of --- --- ![](https://s26.postimg.org/9opzewp7t/21533532_10155471449851839_343821785_o.jpg) *Now Monsanto is a "digital farming" company* - They are maintaining control of our food and biofuel system through having exclusive control over big data of agriculture, climate, soil, and people ### Knowledge is power. Who is controlling our information? --- --- ![](https://s26.postimg.org/h794njgkp/21534011_10155471450016839_183992472_o.jpg) ### In the intelligence of life is the ability to adapt to the next phase of climate change, but only if the seeds are *allowed* to continue their lives in freedom ## The seeds of the future lie in the seeds of the past --- --- ![](https://s26.postimg.org/uf8ighe3t/U5dtn1_Fu_C3ps8_V8vtf_F3_JHSQ4dmx_AJ3_1680x8400.jpg) [Image Source](http://vandanashiva.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/9780813145600.jpg)