Terra Viva: My Life in a Biodiversity of Movements
Trained as a physicist, Vandana Shiva says, “It was Chipko that made me realise, in intimate detail, how biodiversity is at the heart of sustainable economies.” Working with peasant women in her home state of Uttarakhand, she learnt her first lessons in ecology: transferring fertility from the forest to the field. Chipko was her ‘university’ and, turning away from quantum physics, she made the preservation of biodiversity, and of sustainable societies, her life’s work.
For over four decades Vandana Shiva has worked with farmers’ and people’s movements across the world, against what she calls ‘seed imperialism’, economic polarisation, and the digital colonisation of our ecological and social diversity. Her Gandhian philosophy of resistance is rooted in people’s power, true science, and real facts, through which she challenges the Billionaires’ Club of Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jeff Bezos, as well as the transnational corporations that manipulate and control what we cultivate and consume and how we communicate, via Big Ag, Big Pharma and Big Data.
This powerful and eloquent memoir looks back at the most memorable campaigns and movements that she has been part of, while looking ahead to the challenges posed by the COVID crisis, the privatisation of biotechnology, and the commodification of our biological and natural resources.
JUNE/JULY 2022 | 9781925950526 | Paperback | 140 x 216 mm | 264 pp Co-edition with Women Unlimited, India
Trained as a physicist, Vandana Shiva says, “It was Chipko that made me realise, in intimate detail, how biodiversity is at the heart of sustainable economies.” Working with peasant women in her home state of Uttarakhand, she learnt her first lessons in ecology: transferring fertility from the forest to the field. Chipko was her ‘university’ and, turning away from quantum physics, she made the preservation of biodiversity, and of sustainable societies, her life’s work.
For over four decades Vandana Shiva has worked with farmers’ and people’s movements across the world, against what she calls ‘seed imperialism’, economic polarisation, and the digital colonisation of our ecological and social diversity. Her Gandhian philosophy of resistance is rooted in people’s power, true science, and real facts, through which she challenges the Billionaires’ Club of Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jeff Bezos, as well as the transnational corporations that manipulate and control what we cultivate and consume and how we communicate, via Big Ag, Big Pharma and Big Data.
This powerful and eloquent memoir looks back at the most memorable campaigns and movements that she has been part of, while looking ahead to the challenges posed by the COVID crisis, the privatisation of biotechnology, and the commodification of our biological and natural resources.
JUNE/JULY 2022 | 9781925950526 | Paperback | 140 x 216 mm | 264 pp Co-edition with Women Unlimited, India
Trained as a physicist, Vandana Shiva says, “It was Chipko that made me realise, in intimate detail, how biodiversity is at the heart of sustainable economies.” Working with peasant women in her home state of Uttarakhand, she learnt her first lessons in ecology: transferring fertility from the forest to the field. Chipko was her ‘university’ and, turning away from quantum physics, she made the preservation of biodiversity, and of sustainable societies, her life’s work.
For over four decades Vandana Shiva has worked with farmers’ and people’s movements across the world, against what she calls ‘seed imperialism’, economic polarisation, and the digital colonisation of our ecological and social diversity. Her Gandhian philosophy of resistance is rooted in people’s power, true science, and real facts, through which she challenges the Billionaires’ Club of Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jeff Bezos, as well as the transnational corporations that manipulate and control what we cultivate and consume and how we communicate, via Big Ag, Big Pharma and Big Data.
This powerful and eloquent memoir looks back at the most memorable campaigns and movements that she has been part of, while looking ahead to the challenges posed by the COVID crisis, the privatisation of biotechnology, and the commodification of our biological and natural resources.
JUNE/JULY 2022 | 9781925950526 | Paperback | 140 x 216 mm | 264 pp Co-edition with Women Unlimited, India
Watch the launch of the book on our YouTube channel.
In this conversation, Vandana Shiva weaves together stories of her life with a critical examination of our current economic system along with inspiring stories of non-violent grassroots actions to protect and preserve the health and well-being of people and the planet. How can we reject the spread of hierarchy and division and begin reclaiming our right to live free, think free, breathe free, and eat free? How can we go upstream to decolonize all the spheres of our lives and focus on strengthening and revitalizing the commons? Listen now.
Endorsements
Vandana Shiva has led an extraordinary life as a scientist/activist and leader of a global movement for food sovereignty, and she tells her remarkable story in this powerful new memoir. Filled with important information and history on the corporate theft of biodiversity, Terra Viva also tells the rich stories of the grassroots fight to take back sacred community knowledge and rights, in India and around the world. Just as our world would be a lesser place without Vandana Shiva, our literary heritage would also be diminished without this crucial book.
—Maude Barlow, author of Blue Covenant, activist and Right Livelihood Award Laureate
I warmly recommend this brilliant and deeply moving book.
—Fritjof Capra, author of The Tao of Physics
Vandana Shiva is the most brilliant woman I know; she is impressive, with a global knowledge of the environmental problems created above all, by social disorders and the selfishness of short-term power. The awareness that her work and her actions provoke is sublime. This book is brilliant. It will bring you light. And answers.
— Gilles-Éric Séralini, molecular biologist and co-author of The Monsanto Papers
Shiva is the world’s most eloquent and persuasive champion of family farms, traditional agricultural practices, and against the evils of chemical and industrial farming and GMO crops. She documents, in this book, the insidious role chemical agriculture plays in diminishing food quality, soils, microbiomes, species diversity. Human health, personal freedom, and in the corrosive impoverishment of the human soul.
—Robert F. Kennedy Jr., environmental lawyer
This beautifully-written memoir is a compelling narrative which should be read by everyone who loves land, life and the integrity of our precious Planet Earth.
— Satish Kumar, Founder, Schumacher College
Terra Viva is one of the most remarkable books I have ever read. It is an awe-inspiring tale of multiple struggles against multiple injustices against people and our environment; an engaging life story of how one perceptive individual can empower various groups of people to take on governments and corrupt corporations and win justice for them—a classic David versus Goliath.
—André Leu, International Director, Regeneration International
Reading this book will open your mind to the causes of deep problems we have been pushed into by the actions of a few, and give you hope and courage to reverse the downward spiral.
—Hans R. Herren, Founder and President, Biovision Foundation
From tackling the water barons and the manufacturers of genetically modified seeds, to the pharmaceutical companies and the food markets of the world, she has shown such superior insight and knowledge that she has been able to floor these giants. This book is a must-read for all of us who are interested in an alternative world order, where issues of environmental protection, conservation, food sovereignty, peace and nonviolence are uppermost priority.
—Ela Gandhi, peace activist and former Member of Parliament in South Africa
Reviews
“This book like the biodiversity she's committed to saving - is an invaluable resource.”
— Good Reading Magazine“It is clear that Shiva, once dismissed as a Cassandra by those unwilling to share her fears for the future, was right all along, after all.”
— Ramya Kannan, The Hindu“Shiva’s book is a record of a remarkable life and a compelling assessment of the challenges we face. We would all be a little more informed, inspired, perhaps even wise, after reading it.”
— Elizabeth Wainwright, Geographical Magazine UK