Sector Strategy Speakers: Vandana Shiva

Vandana Shiva

Vandana Shiva is an author and environmental activist and has been a long-time critic of GMO. OANZ is thrilled to have her as a special guest speaker at the upcoming Sector Strategy Workshop on 14 April 2021.

Register your attendance at the Sector Strategy Workshop here.

Born in India in 1952, Vandana Shiva has built a career — and a legacy — around advocating for Indian rural farmers who have been persecuted due to seed monopolies perpetuated by GMO multinational corporations.

Trained as a physicist, Shiva founded the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology in 1982, and later went on to create a charitable organisation called Navdanya, which seeks to protect the diversity of living resources — particularly native seeds. As part of Navdanya’s initiative, more than 40 seed banks across India were established. At these seed banks, native seeds are able to be classified and conserved — an important step in preserving nutritious and natural traditional crops. Through her work with Navdanya, more than 4,000 varieties of rice have been collected and conserved. 

Shiva is a strong opponent of corporate patents on seeds and has campaigned to implement protections, as opposed to restrictions, for rural farmers using corporate GMO seeds. For three years, Shiva’s charitable organisation Navdanya fought against the US corporation RiceTec for their biopiracy of basmati rice, and were successful in stripping RiceTec of its claims to the basmati patent.

Shiva has authored over 20 books on environmental topics and has advised the Indian government, as well as overseas governments, on topics of globalization and environmental practices. Shiva chairs the Commission on the Future of Food in Italy, and is a member of the Scientific Committee that formerly advised the Spanish government. She currently serves on the Government of India Committees on organic farming.