Rural Vermont welcomes Vandana Shiva to the State House
Rural Vermont was honored to collaborate with Sterling College, NOFA-VT, Cedar Circle Farm, Vermont Healthy Soils Coalition and many other grassroots food, farming and community-based organizations in bringing Dr. Vandana Shiva to the State House on May 6th as part of her ‘Northeast Earth Journey.” HUGE thanks to Rural Vermont’s Board Member Cat Buxton for her tireless work organizing this event.
Here’s a link to the video coverage of the event: https://youtu.be/Hb9TxDCPHlk
Dr. Shiva’s tour was focused on promoting and gathering signatures for the “Poison-Free Food and Farming by 2030 Pledge:
“We are creating a network of poison free organic zones that rejuvenate biodiversity, the soil and water, that create climate resilience and climate stability, that protect the health and well being of our children and the heirs of all species. Through poison free food and farming, we sow the seeds for a brighter future and the future of all beings on our living vibrant and generous Earth”
Sign the pledge here.
Dr. Vandana Shiva, one of the world’s leading advocates for a poison-free future and India’s most prominent spokesperson for biodiversity and climate change issues, came to the Northeast to galvanize support for her initiative to unite communities across the globe that are campaigning for food and farming practices not reliant upon the use of synthetic pesticides and other toxins. A physicist by training and an activist by necessity, Dr. Shiva brought her decades of experience in linking science and social action to Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New York from May 4-8. Sterling College’s School of the New American Farmstead coordinated Dr. Shiva’s “Northeast Earth Journey,” a series of presentations geared toward concerned citizens, farmers, health-care professionals, and policy-makers focused on the interrelated issues of food system toxins, biodiversity, rights of farmers, and climate change.
Since the fall of 2017, Dr. Shiva and her colleagues at Navdanya (the India-based organization founded by Dr. Shiva to promote seed-saving, biodiversity conservation, organic farming practices, and the rights of farmers) have been working to connect different communities around the world that are working toward poison-free futures through a variety of political, grassroots, and economic initiatives. Dr. Shiva’s “Northeast Earth Journey” comes at a critical moment in our history when the true costs of food and farming systems based on the use of synthetic pesticides and other toxins are becoming increasingly evident. Scientists have recently unveiled a broad range of studies documenting extraordinary declines in biodiversity around the globe. Meanwhile, juries in the US are siding with plaintiffs as a long line of individuals suffering from cancer pursue lawsuits against the manufacturers of glyphosate—the commonly used active ingredient in commonly-used herbicides such as Roundup.
