VLP S7 1 Vandana Shiva: Yoga for the Earth

“The answer to climate change is the yoga of the earth”

Greetings Rainbow Warriors, It’s me Magda Freedom Rod It is my absolute pleasure to welcome you to the first episode of Season 7 of the Visionary Lifestyle Podcast.

I’m coming to your day from Bali Indonesia. Please listen to the previous episode for an introduction to everything that’s coming up this season.

Right now, I am so excited to jump right into today’s show. Our guest today is Dr. Vandana Shiva. She is an Indian scholar, environmental activist, food sovereignty advocate, and alter-globalization  author who has written more than 20 books..^[2]She received the Right Livelihood Award in 1993, an honor known as an "Alternative Nobel Prize".

Vandana Shiva has spent much of her life in the defense and celebration of biodiversity and indigenous knowledge. She has worked to promote biodiversity in agriculture to increase productivity, nutrition, farmer's incomes and It is for this work she was recognized as an 'Environmental Hero' by Time magazine in 2003. She is also enemy #1 of the GMO giant Monsanto.

I first met Dr.Vandana Shiva in person in my hometown of Ojai, California where she was presenting an earth day speech at Krishnamurti’s school there. I had also heard her speak and heard of her and her work prior to that, and I’ve got to say, that the first time I heard her speak, she became my shero. I would even go so far as to call her the conscious eating queen. This powerhouse of a woman has been fighting for our food system for decades. She is enemy #1 of Monsanto, the corporation who now owns over 90% of our seeds and is intent on owning our food system which would, of course, give them control of our population. Monsanto, of course, is the producer of most GMO seeds which are poisoning our bodies and our precious mama earth.

I was fortunate enough to hear Dr. Shiva speak two years in a row at the International Yoga Festival in Rishikesh, and was honored to be invited to her organic biodiverse farm named Navdanya, for an eco-feminism retreat after the festival.

This was a tremendously inspirational trip. I can still remember waking up in this pristine ecosystem, with the early morning rays of the sun shining down on the fields. The birds were singing, the butterflies were everywhere, and I could feel the health and vitality of the land in every cell of my being. I taught yoga to some of the students who were there on internships and attended all of the doctor's lectures on eco-feminism. We ate meals together all harvested from the land there and surrounding farms. 1000% organic, and vegetarian of course.

I was blessed enough to get this one on one time with her.

Our conversation starts as a continuation of a chat we started that morning, about her bindi. Have you ever noticed Vandana Shiva’s bindi is huge compared to the ones you usually see?

I love everything about this conversation.

In this interview we discuss:

consciousness

world hunger

eco feminism

biodiversity

seed freedom

capitalist patriarchy

conscious eating

This episode is packed with the wisdom of this tremendous activist that has dedicated her entire life to protecting your and our food system.

I also recorded some of her other lectures that I will put out as bonus episodes so be on the lookout for those.

Check the show notes for links to Dr. Shiva’s websites and books. Find those at visionary-lifestyle.com/podcast

I deeply enjoyed producing this show for you, I’m really so proud of this interview, and I hope you get some inspiration from it and will join us on our common mission of practicing Yoga for the Earth

Enjoy and namaste

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vandana_Shiva

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0794476/

http://www.navdanya.org/navdanyas-biodiversity-conservation-farm

http://www.navdanya.org/publications

https://www.amazon.com/Vandana-Shiva/e/B001JO49BM