Terra Viva: My Life in a Biodiversity of Movements
About this ebook
“All of us who care about the future of Planet Earth must be grateful to Vandana Shiva.”—Jane Goodall, UN Messenger of Peace
A powerful new memoir published to coincide with Vandana Shiva’s 70th birthday.
Vandana Shiva has been described in many ways: the “Gandhi of Grain,” “a rock star” in the battle against GMOs, and “the most powerful voice” for people of the developing world. For over four decades she has vociferously advocated for diversity, indigenous knowledge, localization, and real democracy; she has been at the forefront of seed saving, food sovereignty, and connecting the dots between the destruction of nature, the polarization of societies, and indiscriminate corporate greed.
In Terra Viva, Dr. Shiva shares her most memorable campaigns, alongside some of the world’s most celebrated activists and environmentalists, all working toward a livable planet and healthier democracies. For the very first time, she also recounts the stories of her childhood in post-partition India—the influence of the Himalayan forests she roamed; her parents, who saw no difference in the education of boys and girls at a time when this was not the norm; and the Chipko movement, whose women were “the real custodians of biodiversity-related knowledge.” Throughout, Shiva’s pursuit of a unique intellectual path marrying quantum physics with science, technology, and environmental policy will captivate the reader.
Terra Viva is a celebration of a remarkable life and a clear-eyed assessment of the challenges we face moving forward—including those revealed by the COVID crisis, the privatization of biotechnology, and the commodification of our biological and natural resources.
“Vandana Shiva is an expert [on the dangers of globalization] whose analysis has helped us understand this situation much more deeply.”—Russell Brand
“One of the world’s most prominent radical scientists.”—The Guardian
About the author
Vandana Shiva is a world-renowned environmental thinker and activist, a leader in the International Forum on Globalisation, and of the Slow Food Movement. Director of Navdanya and of the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology, and a tireless crusader for farmers’, peasants’, and women’s rights, she is the author and editor of a score of influential books, among them Oneness vs. the 1%; Making Peace with the Earth; Soil Not Oil; Globalization’s New Wars; Seed Sovereignty, Food Security: Women in the Vanguard; and Who Really Feeds the World?
Shiva is the recipient of over twenty international awards, including the Right Livelihood Award (1993); the Medal of the Presidency of the Italian Republic (1998); the Horizon 3000 Award (Austria, 2001); the John Lennon-Yoko Ono Grant for Peace (2008); the Save the World Award (2009); the Sydney Peace Prize (2010); the Calgary Peace Prize (2011); and the Thomas Merton Award (2011). She was the Fukuoka Grand Prize Laureate in 2012.
