Vandana Shiva's Grace and Intelligence Gives Us All Hope that Humanity Might Survive

Yesterday, after publishing my bit on Vermont's brave mandatory labeling law which concluded with a a short list of the GMO promoter's propaganda talking points and the promise to counter them, i read Vandana Shiva's 'We Are the Soil'. In it she answers every point that i mentioned and so many more with such grace and intelligence that it moved me to tears. Dr. Vandana Shiva, executive director of the Navdanya Trust, gives us all, me for sure, hope that humanity might survive, hope that my children, grandchildren and theirs might live in a world as rich in the natural wonders as i have.

Vandana's article begins, "The claim that the Green Revolution or genetic engineering feeds the world is false. Intrinsic to these technologies are mono-cultures based on chemical inputs, a recipe for killing the life of the soil."

Adding:
"This ecological truth is forgotten in the dominant paradigm because it is based on eco-apartheid, the false idea that we are separate and independent of the earth and also because it defines soil as dead matter. If soil is dead to begin with, human action cannot destroy its life. It can only “improve” the soil with chemical fertilisers. And if we are the masters and conquerors of the soil, we determine the fate of the soil. Soil cannot determine our fate."

"No technology can claim to feed the world while it destroys the life in the soil by failing to feed it on the basis of the Law of Return. This is why the claim that the Green Revolution or genetic engineering feeds the world is false. Intrinsic to these technologies are mono-cultures based on chemical inputs, a recipe for killing the life of the soil and accelerating soil erosion and degradation. Degraded and dead soils, soils without organic matter, soils without soil organisms, soils with no water holding capacity, create famines and a food crisis, they do not create food security."

"Living seeds and living soils are the foundation of living and lasting societies."

Vandana's conclusion that "No technology can claim to feed the world while it destroys the life in the soil" speaks to what is IMO one of the fundamental questions underlying humanity's culturally divided worldview - What will save humankind: Technology or Nature? As this article based on a study by Arizona State University's Dr. Braden Allenby says, "This divide feels uniquely 21st century. But it may stretch all the way back to medieval Christianity. From this foundation of Western thought came two enduring Utopian visions: one the basis for salvation by technology, and the other by nature." Vandana and millions of others including myself clearly come down on the side of Mother Nature.

Vandana's article of a few days ago is a short version of  her book 'Soil Not Oil' which discusses the problems humanity faces from our abuse of the commons. In it she details the reasons we teeter on the brink of extinction and provides a broad green boulevard to a solution. Shiva's book is filled with both scientific and small farmer based rational for our enslavement to agribusiness and solutions to help us wiggle out from their domination.

Tomorrow The Mud Report will focus on the many organic solutions that Mother Nature has provided to the problems, big and small,  that we the rogue primate have created through our myopic and short sighted consumption of needless crap.