Our compliments to the “Sustainable Ag” organization of graduate students at Iowa State University for managing to invite Dr. Vandana Shiva for a lecture at Great Hall on the Iowa State campus Wednesday evening, March 11 at 8 p.m.
Dr. Shiva is one of the world’s most articulate and outspoken advocates for wholistic, family farm food production. And she’s equally keen on criticizing corporate control of seed and production via the GMO and chemical approach. Iowa State’s Committee on Lectures, which scheduled the event, has been challenged by pro-GMO advocates, on campus and elsewhere, for slating an Iowa State lecture by one of the most dynamic opponents of transgenic technology.
Vandana Shiva was a lead speaker at last July’s international conference on food safety in Beijing, China. That meeting has generated a network of global experts dedicated to soil-friendly, wholesome food production.
Here’s the link to the Iowa State University lecture program information.
She will also present a lecture Tuesday evening, March 10, at 7:30 in the Englert Theatre at the University of Iowa, where she is honored as the 2015 Distinguished Lecturer. Her lecture there, carrying the title of “Eco Feminism: Women in Defense of the Earth” sounds consistent with the ethos of the University of Iowa.
But clothed within that feminist title is a fierce opposition to the corporate, global model being sold as saving the planet with GMOs and herbicides. That becomes clear when you read her bona fides on the University of Iowa website, promoting the event. Here’s the link.
Her background, many of her essays and other information are at her website at this link.
For an example of the tough logic Ms. Shiva uses to confront corporate marketers, she and associates prepared a response to a new campaign to deregulate “Golden Rice” as the most effective way to provide vitamin A and save children from deficiencies. All through March, a delegation to “Allow Golden Rice” will be touring several Southeast Asian nations with the message to make an exception to non-GMO controls there. You can read the detailed, explicit response to this argument in a PDF analysis posted by Shiva and “Moms Across the World.”