The Vandana Shiva Reader

Culture of the Land

by Vandana Shiva

"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.

Genres: Nonfiction, Environment, Politics, Sociology, India, Agriculture, Feminism

364 pages, Paperback

First published December 19, 2014

About the author

A major figurehead of the alter-globalization movement as well as a major role player in global Ecofeminism, Dr. Vandana Shiva is recipient to several awards for her services in human rights, ecology and conservation. Receiving her Ph.D in physics at the University of Western Ontario in 1978, Dr. Vandana Shivas attentions were quickly drawn towards ecological concerns.

Reviews

[l · Rating 3 out of 5]

tbh my eyes glazed over at some points. i get the idea - biodiversity good, indigenous knowledge good, monoculture terrible, globalization/neo-imperialism terrible. the parts where she talks about india's history with gmos is interesting, but i wonder how accurate it is, tbh. she seems to romanticize the past but i really wouldn't know [the 101 'environment, food and people' course i took to fill distribution requirements funnily enough did not make me an expert in issues of environmental justice]

[Glen Gersmehl · Rating 5 out of 5]

if you haven't read her yet, here's a great starting point