Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

India’s organic food pioneer to speak at PCC Cascade

Photos and story by James Hill

An Indian physicist who pioneered the organic movement in India and established Navdanya, the country’s biggest network of seed and organic food producers, is coming to Portland Community College.

Vandana Shiva, whose visit is part of the college’s internationalization effort, will speak from 10 to 11:30 a.m., Thursday, Feb. 24, in the Moriarty Auditorium, Cascade Campus, 705 N. Killingsworth St. The lecture is free and open to the public.

The few remaining tickets can be secured at:

Cascade Women’s Resource Center (SSB-103).

Shiva is a scientist and activist on issues of agriculture and food, bioethics, globalization, gender and the worldwide impacts of climate change. She is the founder and director of the Research Foundation on Science, Technology, and Ecology, Navdanya. The latter is a network of seed keepers and organic producers spread across 16 states in India that has helped set up 54 community seed banks, trained more than 500,000 farmers in seed and food sovereignty, and sustainable farming.

Shiva is the author of many books, including “Water Wars: Pollution, Profits, and Privatization” (South End Press, 2001) and “Biopiracy: The Plunder of Nature and Knowledge” (South End Press, 1997). She recently released “Soil Not Oil: Environmental Justice in an Age of Climate Change.”

Shiva earned her doctorate from the University of Western Ontario in Canada and later shifted to inter-disciplinary research in science, technology and environmental policy, which she carried out at the Indian Institute of Science and the Indian Institute of Management in Bengaluru, India. Time Magazine identified her as an environmental hero in 2003 and Asia Week has called her one of the five most powerful communicators in Asia.

Her awards include the Right Livelihood Award, Order of the Golden Ark, Global 500 Award of the United Nations and the Earth Day International Award. Shiva also serves on the boards of many organizations including World Future Council, International Forum on Globalization and Slow Food International.