Sinem Uğurdağ from Aposto talked to Shiva, who participated in the Second Economic Congress of the Century in Izmir, about ecofeminism, post-earthquake reconstruction and Turkey’s food policies.
Prof. Vandana Shiva, an Indian-born eco-feminist, scientist and environmental activist, works on the right to seeds and guides policy makers in the food ecosystem in India and around the world.
She has organised popular movements to prevent logging and the construction of large dams. In the 1960s, she led the establishment of seed banks across India to preserve India’s agricultural heritage and train farmers in sustainable agricultural practices.
Shiva has criticised the problems caused by corporate domination by examining issues such as trade agreements of global corporations to protect biodiversity, privatisation of water resources, and encouraged the development of realistic solutions. In 1993, Shiva received the Right Livelihood Award, known as the “Alternative Nobel Prize”, and is the author of more than fifteen books and over three hundred scientific articles.
Sinem Uğurdağ from Aposto talked to Shiva, who participated in the Second Economic Congress of the Century in Izmir, about ecofeminism, post-earthquake reconstruction and Turkey’s food policies.
The magnitude of ecological crises and disasters have increased. In Turkey, we had a terrible disaster last month. How do you think sustainable agricultural development can be promoted in these lands?
First of all, I would like to express my deepest sympathy and sorrow for the victims and those affected by the disaster. According to what I have read, it was your new buildings that collapsed and the villages that survived. This means two things; firstly, we need to restrain uncontrolled cementing. Because as I have seen in my region, it is concrete that kills people, not earthquakes. Therefore, we need to give much more importance to local building systems and be more involved in planning.
When you say how to rebuild agriculture, the world is still there, the world is still waiting for us to take care of it. So the relevance of ecological agriculture is going to keep increasing, because part of what has happened in the thirty years since we wrote the book is that globalisation has made agriculture almost impossible and pushed people out of the villages and into the cities, and then you have this boom. But this process cannot continue because cities have a much bigger carbon footprint than villages. But to revitalise the countryside, we need rural people. They have hands, they have minds, they have hearts, and all these things need to be put to work for regeneration.
I understand what you mean, and I think that’s the way to go, but it’s relatively more difficult to involve the feminist movement or ecofeminism in the processes because of the economic collapse and the current post-earthquake disaster which creates difficult conditions. How do you think this has gone in India?
There are times of shutdown. What I mean by shutdown is a mental shutdown so as not to see that there are alternatives, and at the same time a political shutdown that does not allow for the emergence of multiplicity of voices. These are precisely the times when we need the strength to endure. Because, at least for me, there is no time for ecofeminist philosophy or feminist movements. They are a combination of how nature works and how women sustain society through care. Even during wars, how did food get to the table? The woman still found ways to prepare something to eat for her family. So this economy of care and modesty in the context of nature is even more important today. Just because there is a shutdown for a short period of time does not mean that we have to stop thinking, talking, mobilising. We have to keep going.
You’ve been a passionate advocate for sustainable agriculture, social justice, ecofeminism and all sorts of other great things. I’m really curious, have you experienced anything in the last few years that has changed your perspective, that has taken you from one point to another?
My perspective has deepened. I confronted Monsanto giants. They don’t like it when I confront them because they are determined to monopolise, they want to have all the seats. And when I intervene in their full monopoly projects, of course they are not happy. But every time they do something terrible, I learn a little bit more about how unjust and undemocratic the Victorian dictatorial system is. Your principles don’t change, but you find that your strategies understand their minds more deeply. Because we’re dealing with an economy that looks like a mafia economy. Sticking to your own knowledge, values and choices means in this context that you have to be more pluralistic in your methods.
Source: Aposto