Vandana Shiva

She is a physicist, ecological activist and ecofeminist thinker. After receiving a PhD in Physics from the University of Western Ontario (Canada) she began to work with several research centres in India where she combined her knowledge of science and technology with environmental politics. In 1981 she founded the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Natural Resource Policy, which works together with local organisations and social movements in India on ecological and social projects including the promotion of ecological agriculture, study and maintenance of biodiversity, and actions to stimulate the commitment of women to the ecologist movement. One of the Foundation’s earliest projects, Navdanya,has now grown to become an NGO itself, working to promote organic farming and defending the rights of farmers and agricultural workers. Vandana Shiva has written numerous books advocating sustainable models of agriculture and changing food paradigms. These include The Violence of the Green Revolution (Zed Books, 1991) and Monocultures of the Mind (Zed Books, 1993). She has also criticised the ecological, social and economic costs of globalisation in her books Biopiracy: The Plunder of Nature and Knowledge (South End Press, 1999) and Water Wars: Privatisation, Pollution and Profit (South End Press, 2002).Another area of her research and activism is the struggle against the privatisation of seeds by big multinationals, as expressed in essays likeStolen Harvest: The Hijacking of the Global Food Supply (South End Press, 1999). In 1993 she received the Right Livelihood Award, which is popularly known as the Alternative Nobel Peace Prize, while in 2010 she was awarded the Sydney Peace Prize in recognition of her commitment to Social Justice.