Every value we need as human beings comes from seeds, says Vandana Shiva

“Every value we need as human beings comes from seeds and plants as well as  the real solution to climate change,” said Vandana Shiva, scientist, ecologist, author, and founder, Navdanya.

“Every value we need as human beings comes from seeds and plants as well as  the real solution to climate change,” said Vandana Shiva, scientist, ecologist, author, and founder, Navdanya.

Ms. Vandana was delivering a talk on “seeds of change” organised by the Prakriti Foundation in the city on Thursday. 

Ms. Vandana took the audience on a journey of how her activism came to be, and spoke about the importance of how people should look at the agriculture and food system and organic farming.

She said that if the country was growing native seeds organically, this would make for nutrition that is enough for twice the population.

“When we talk of ‘yield’ alone, it is a meaningless term. It does not tell you about the state of the farmer, whether he is prosperous or in debt, doesn’t tell you anything about the state of the soil, biodiversity, health of the food, and thus, nothing about the agriculture or food system. This prompted me to look at the truth behind ‘high-yielding varieties’,” she said. 

Tracing the commercialisation of GMO Seeds  from the 90s, Ms. Vandana spoke of her beginnings with saving native seeds. “I didn’t know a lot about this and taught myself. For all the young people here, if you care enough about something, you will learn to do it. Learning comes from love and care,” she said.

She traced the history of how four large companies came to be controlling seeds, food and health, and highlighted the concerns raised about the efforts to patent seeds.