Crusader Earth for the

BY JYOTI SHANKAR

Peace with justice. That is what the Sydney Peace Foundation’s “Peace Prize” aims to promote. And this year’s winner of the Sydney Peace Prize could not have been better picked.

Indian environmentalist Dr. Vandana Shiva was awarded the Sydney Peace Prize for the year 2010 in Sydney this month.

The 57-year-old activist was picked for the prestigious prize in recognition of her efforts towards women’s emancipation as well as her scientific contribution to ecological conservation.

Shiva was chosen from among 23 personalities shortlisted for Australia’s only international prize for peace.

Introducing her during the Peace Prize Lecture at the Sydney Opera House on 3 November, Prof. Stuart Rees, Director of the Sydney Peace Foundation, said that during the deliberations of the jury this year, global warming emerged as the main issue, especially that of courage and vision to respond to this issue. Based on three criteria – commitment to global peace with justice, evidence of commitment to universal human rights, and the use of philosophy, language and practice of non-violence, Vandana Shiva was unanimously voted the winner.

Her citation reads, “For courageous leadership of movements for social justice – the empowerment of women in developing countries, advocacy of the human rights of small farming communities and for her scientific analysis of environmental sustainability.”

Accepting the award, Vandana expressed joy at joining an amazing group of past recipients, people like Prof Muhammad Yunus, founder of the Grameen Bank; John Pilger, Australian journalist; Irene Khan of Amnesty International; Arundhati Roy, author and human rights campaigner and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, among others.

Vandana’s interest in the rights of the earth and farmers began as a volunteer in the Chipko movement in the 1970s, when women activists adopted the approach of forming human circles around trees to prevent their felling. The movement combined two of her pet passions - the protection of biodiversity, and support for women in agriculture - and Vandana the “ecofeminist” was born. As an eco-feminist, Vandana suggests that a more sustainable and productive approach to agriculture can be achieved through reinstating a system of farming in India that engages women. She advocates against the prevalent “patriarchal logic of exclusion”, claiming that a woman-focussed system will bring about better sustainability. The larger issue of ecological justice, according to Shiva, be it water crisis, climate chaos or disappearance of species, is a remnant of the war humans have waged for years against the earth. No place is safe in what she reckons is the biggest war taking place on this planet. “This war has its roots in an economy which fails to respect ecological and ethical limits, limits to greed, injustice and economic concentration, and it is the global corporate economy which is responsible for this. They are trying to transform the world into a supermarket, where everything is for sale,” she averred. War and militarisation are used as means to control the resources by the powerful. Vandana offered an example of the recent victory of tribals in the case of Orissa’s bauxite rich Niyamgiri hills where clearances granted to Vedanta, a UK-based company, were revoked. The government sent its military forces ostensibly to contain Naxalites and Maoists, but were, in fact, trying to empty out tribals from mineral rich areas. “Mining and smelting of one tonne of aluminium requires several thousand tonnes of water and electricity. It also destroys the bio-diversity of the hills and water sources,” she noted.

Issues like this are close to Vandana’s heart. She was also involved in the first court case fought and won on an ecological issue – limestone mining in the Doon valley. They proved to the courts and government that the revenues collected by the government to mine limestone was insignificant, compared to the contribution of water from the tributaries of rivers that originate in the limestone hills, to agriculture and the lives of people. She rightly said, “If commerce starts to undermine life support, commerce must stop, as life has to carry on.” the victims of the biological weapon Agent Orange in the Vietnam War, and fertiliser bombs used in Afghanistan, are all examples of this. War chemicals were reoriented to make pesticides and fertilisers, and were produced from the same factory that also produced explosives. The packed audience at the Concert Hall in Sydney Opera House tittered when Vandana started reeling off the names of Monsanto’s herbicides - RoundUp, Machete, Lasso, Pentagon, Sceptre, Squadron, Assert, Avenge. “What is this if not the language of war,” she asked. “Instead of controlling pests and weeds, they are creating super-weeds and super-pests. The high costs of seeds and chemicals pushed farmers into a debt trap and across India, 200,000 farmers have been driven to suicide!”

Refuting the argument that organic farming cannot feed the world, Vandana Shiva said that sustainable systems need diversity – cereals need to grow with pulses and oilseeds. Her organisation, Navdanya, is engaged in creating a non-violent farming system where one works with nature and not against it. The farmers who are doing this have more food per acre, and more incomes. Her message is to stop the patenting of seeds and recovery of the commons. There is no separation between rights of the earth and rights of people, she asserted, and ended her lecture with an ancient peace prayer from India.

The evening began with a Tamil song and dance, and ended with Aboriginal soprano Deborah Cheetham singing a tribute to peace and to Vandana. Lord Mayor Clover Moore of the City of Sydney which is the major supporter of the Sydney Peace Prize, spoke after Vandana’s lecture and affirmed the city’s obligation to redress the imbalance in nature, to make peace with the earth, and work with nature instead of exploiting it.

Listening to the lecture one was reminded of Gandhi’s words, “There is enough on this earth to satisfy our need, but not our greed”. It was an inspiring evening with a feisty woman who has been walking her talk. Vandana Shiva founded the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology, and Navdanya International, which aims to protect bio-