Great simplification pulsing lines

Ep 46  |  Vandana Shiva

Vandana Shiva: “Agroecology and The Great Simplification”

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Great simplification pulsing lines The Great Simplification

Today, ecology activist and regenerative agriculture advocate Vandana Shiva joins me to discuss how her lifetime of work has shaped the way she sees the world. From chaining herself to trees to winning against powerful agriculture giants like Monsanto, Vandana shares the many lessons she’s learned in fighting for food systems that are better for the Earth and better for humans. Can we shift away from fossil input intensive agriculture that produces commodities lacking in full nutrients towards one with more labor, more community and more nutritious food?

About Vandana Shiva

Vandana Shiva is a well known activist, author of many books, and is a global champion on regenerative local agriculture, biodiversity and nutritious food. She has a PhD in physics and 40 years ago founded the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology, an independent research institute that works on the most significant ecological problems of our times.

In French, we have a motto that says that a simple drawing is often better than a long explanation. Jean-Marc Jancovici Carbone 4 President

That’s very understandable because with left atmosphere thinking, one of the problems is that you see everything as a series of problems that must have solutions. Iain McGilchrist Neuroscientist and Philosopher

We can’t have hundreds and hundreds of real relationships that are healthy because that requires time and effort and full attention and awareness of being in real relationship and conversation with the other human. Nate Hagens Director of ISEOF

This is the crux of the whole problem. Individual parts of nature are more valuable than the biocomplexity of nature. Thomas Crowther Founder Restor

Show Notes & Links to Learn More

00:37 – Vandana Shiva Works + Info

00:52Navdanya Research Foundation for Science, Technology, and Ecology

01:10Chipko Movement

03:20Ecological effects of deforestation

05:22International Forum of Globalization

05:35Outsourcing emissions

06:31The violence of the green revolution

07:11Haber-Bosch and its violent roots

07:34Rachel Carson, Albert Howard

07:48Red Revolution

08:19Heavy water use in industrial agriculture using chemicals

08:32Punjab farmers revolting in India

09:00The cancer train in Punjab

10:05The agricultural testament

10:16Rodale Institute, Soil Association in England

11:33Monsanto and seed controversy

11:45Indian law that states that no plant, animal, seed is a human invention and cannot be patented

12:26Sri Lanka and ban of imports of synthetic fertilizer and recent uprisings

13:05Sri Lanka’s deep debt, BlackRock

15:38 60% of the seeds in the world controlled by big agriculture companies

16:20Nutrition per acre and soil fertility is much higher in organic agriculture

16:44Cuba sanctions stopping imports of synthetic fertilizers and they shifted their agriculture to not need oil at all

17:54British empire taking half of food grown in India as tax in cash, 3-6 million people die of famine

20:01 Nate’s research on our compulsive, growth based system

20:51 Pastoralism

21:02Rice growing regions of Asia have massive populations

21:15Involution, intensification of the carrying capacity

24:04Amory Lovins – work on energy slaves

25:45COP 27 + Frankly on the topic

28:29 Soil Not Oil

30:52Food grown in industrial agriculture is devoid of nutrition

32:05 Percentage of people working in agriculture in the US, percentage in India

32:42If we focused on biodiversity on every part of the land, we would feed 2x the people

34:22 India initiative to shrink the number of people farming

34:57 Vandana’s calculation that absorbing all the farmers into cities would take 350 years

35:33After NAFTA, ⅓ of Mexico’s economy became an economy of crime because productive work was gone

36:22Afghanis having to grow opium to survive

37:48 Percentage of US food that is wasted

37:55 Percentage of emissions come from the food system

38:08If we reconstructed agriculture, we could take down emissions in 10 years and produce more food

40:29Vandana’s seed saving project

41:02 Seeds that can tolerate salt

41:32Millet, 2023 year of millet

42:41400,000 farmers commit suicide in India since globalization, overlapping with cotton belt

43:37 Gandhi’s ashrams, work with the spinning wheel, economic freedom the base of political freedom

46:45Staying Alive: Women, Ecology, and India

48:00The care economy

48:34The Masculine Birth of Time – Francis Bacon

49:15Geo engineering, Bill Gates

49:55 Gandhi quote, “Make me more womanly”

50:40Herman Daly

51:32Greed to Care

51:45Oikonomia – the art of living vs Chrematistics – the art of money making

53:17Mark Zuckerberg’s Harvard Address

58:45Chapati and 1857 communication via chapati

1:05:00Regenerative agriculture can increase water capacity of soil and water table levels

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