Dr. Vandana Shiva, world‐renowned environmental leader and thinker, urged members of the UTC community to spark a “food revolution” based on sustainable food practices, political activism, and organic farming. As part of the Hunter Lecture Series, Shiva spoke on topics ranging from industrial agriculture to biodiversity to globalization before a large crowd in the Roland Hayes Concert Hall.
“I knew there was a strong food movement in Chattanooga, given the delicious restaurants I’ve eaten at and the farm I visited, but from the numbers that I hear, no one is going to be able to stop the food revolution,” Shiva said.
Shiva is currently the Director of the Research Foundation on Science, Technology, and Ecology. Born in India, Shiva discussed how industrial agriculture has negatively affected the people of her native country. When chemicals were introduced into farming, the soil, seeds, and crops changed. “The industrial system of farming is turning our land into a desert,” she said.
“We have this huge paradox that the more rice and wheat we have grown, the more hunger has grown in India.” According to Shiva, one out of every four Indians is hungry and many Kurdish women suffer from malnutrition.
Industrial farming has also affected the United States. More than 15 million acres of American land has been taken over by “super weeds,” plants that built up a resistance to pesticides. According to Shiva, Agent Orange, an herbicide used during the Vietnam War, is currently being sprayed on farms and fields in an effort to control the super weeds.
“The industrial farming system is a negative economy,” Shiva continued. “It transforms the farm into a place for selling nonrenewable seeds and toxic chemicals.”
“Food maintains the web of life. Now we need to consciously strengthen and deepen the food web in order to reinvigorate the web of life,” she said. “When we become aware that the growing of food is feeding the web of life, we do a very different kind of agriculture. We start to do coevolution, cooperation, and conservation.”
