Vandana Shiva: Seeding freedom in this time of oneness vs. The 1%
Dr. Vandana Shiva (@drvandanashiva) is a world-renowned environmental thinker and activist, a leader in the International Forum on Globalisation, and of the Slow Food Movement.
She is the Director of Navdanya International (Twitter: @NavdanyaInt; Instagram: @navdanyainternational) and of the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology and the author and editor of multiple influential books, including Making Peace with the Earth, Soil Not Oil, Globalization’s New Wars, Seed Sovereignty, Food Security, Who Really Feeds the World?, and her latest, Oneness vs. the 1%.
In this podcast episode, Dr. Shiva sheds light on what philanthrocapitalism is and how this form of charity may not lead to a net benefit for our humanity and ecological wellbeing; how Bill Gates has shown, by his work, that he may be on a quest for a new type of colonization that concerns all of life; and more.
To start, get a glimpse below into the conversation between Dr. Shiva and Green Dreamer Podcast's host, Kamea Chayne.
Musical feature: Trust The Sun by American Dream by Raye Zaragoza
“There is nothing primitive about doing organic farming in the year 2020; it is futuristic, because with industrial agriculture, we are watching a closure of the future.”
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This is a conversation on Green Dreamer with Kamea Chayne, a podcast and multimedia journal illuminating our paths towards ecological regeneration, intersectional sustainability, and true abundance and wellness for all. This preview has been edited for clarity. Subscribe to Green Dreamer Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any podcast app, and support Green Dreamer on Patreon so we can keep the show going and accessible to a wider audience!
On Bill Gates pushing chemical agriculture onto Africa:
"In 1984, we [in India] had started to realize chemical farming was causing damage. And then in the 2000s, Gates picked it up to push it on Africa as AGRA, the Alliance for the Green Revolution in Africa.
I remember the World Social Forum in Africa, where thousands of people were saying that they didn't want this disaster—but he kept pushing it."
On the impacts of banning cash:
"In 2016, something very strange happened in India. Overnight, our Prime Minister announced that cash would be illegal, and a war was declared on cash.
Three days later, Bill Gates arrives and gives a speech to our highest agency of government on how the government was brilliant in declaring 'war on cash', which is merely a medium of exchange between the hardworking, honest poor.
The poor deal in cash—they sell 10kg of vegetables and have cash at the end of the day. When I do something with that cash, that 200 rupees stay 200 rupees. But Gates designed the [deterioration] of money and made cash illegal. Overnight, 90% of India's economy disappeared—the hard-earned money of the poor."
On redefining ‘primitive’, ‘modernity’, and ‘futuristic’:
"I realized colonizers engage in what I call 'crono-colonization'—they colonize our time.
They take our present and push it to the past, and they take their present and push it into the future.
And then they make the inevitability of this futuristic vision. The last version of it was modernity: ‘We've got to be modern!’
What is primitive about me wearing a beautiful sari in the year 2020? It's timeless. There is nothing primitive about doing organic farming in the year 2020; it is futuristic, because with industrial agriculture, we are watching a closure of the future."
Final words of wisdom:
"To dream is wise.”
