Who is Vandana Shiva
“Consumption was the word for tuberculosis in the Middle Ages. Now we use consumption as a positive word, in an age of never having enough.”
Vandana Shiva is an environmental thinker and feminist philosopher who has dedicated her life to advocating for science and ecology.
She founded the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology, Navdanya, and Bija Vidyapeeth “Earth University” in Uttarakhand, India. Her Ph.D. on ‘Hidden Variables and Non-locality in Quantum Theory’ from the University of Western Ontario, Canada, gave her the expertise to shift into interdisciplinary research in science, technology and environmental policy.
In 1982, she founded the independent research institute RFSTE, which addresses critical ecological issues of our time. Two years later, she started the Navdanya movement in defense of biodiversity and the contributions made by small farmers to the climate, environment, and society.
With her numerous awards, including the Right Livelihood Award (the ‘Alternative Nobel Prize’) and the Sydney Peace Prize, Vandana Shiva has been named among the top five “Most Important People in Asia” by AsiaWeek. She is a prolific author and board member of the International Forum on Globalization, and executive committee member of the World Future Council.