Que Hejia / one of the seven most influential women in the world, Dr. Dr.Shiva Shiva, leader of environmental agriculture, will visit Taiwan to give a speech.

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(Que Ho-chia/tr. by Peter Eberly)

From May 10 to 12, 2018, NTU's Department of Bioethics will collaborate with EurSafe to organize the Asia-Pacific International Symposium on Food and Agriculture Ethics (APSafe), inviting Dr. Vandana Shiva to give an opening speech on May 10 on the theme of "Real Food vs Food Food".

Dr. Siva is a world-renowned interdisciplinary environmental agricultural ethicist with a background spanning physics, agricultural science, environmental thought, feminism, philosophy of science, literature, and a world-leading advocate of green agricultural policy. Her contributions led Time Magazine to name her an "Environmental Hero" in 2003, Asia Week to name her one of Asia's top five communication forces, and Forbes Magazine to publish Dr. Shiva became one of the seven most influential women in the world. Dr. Siwa's ideas lead the development of new agriculture worldwide, and she is an important consultant for Taiwan's current promotion of new agricultural transformation.

In 2017, ahead of the G7 Agriculture Ministers 'Meeting, Dr. Vandana Shiva told Upstream Downstream that "smallholder farmers must unite across borders, but the starting point is to know the land under their feet." She also warned: "If the G7 continues on its current path, agriculture will not find a way out."

Xi Wa's Speech at G7 Agricultural Week 2017 (Photo/Zheng Jieyi)

Agriculture and environment cross-field well-known scholars, social activists

Dr Siva was born in Dehradun, India, to parents who worked as forest conservators and farmers, and loved nature since childhood. Dr. Siva began her formal education at St. Mary's School in Nainital, India, and later attended Mary's Convent in Dehradun. In high school, he aspired to become a scientist and was also keen on environmental conservation activities. In the 1970s, she was involved in India's famous Chipko movement, with several women around a tree to resist human deforestation.

Dr. Siva studied in Canada and received her Bachelor of Science and Master of Philosophy in Physics. She received her PhD in Physics in Quantum Theory from the University of Western Ontario in Canada in 1979. With a love of nature, Dr. Siva pondered the question of how technology harms the environment and returned to the Indian Academy of Sciences and Indian Institute of Management to study cross-cutting issues of science, technology and environmental policy. Since then, Dr. Siva has become an internationally renowned cross-disciplinary scholar on agriculture and the environment, and a social activist advocating organic agriculture and safeguarding women's rights.

Dr. Siva has a wealth of books, including 20 books and more than 300 articles. The topics discussed are wide-ranging, including reviewing the Green Revolution of the 1970s, intellectual property rights for life, genetic modification technology, and even discussing the development of smallholder agriculture and opportunities for farmers under globalization or multinational enterprises. Dr. Siva has analyzed and proposed the possible agricultural environmental disasters associated with the first generation of green revolution (fertilizers and pesticides), and warned the world of the possible dangers of the second generation of green revolution (genetic modification) in the future.

Dr. Siva is one of the seven most influential women in the world.

Dr Siva is committed to educating the general public on GM technology and promoting consumer awareness of the risks of GM. In action, he works closely with anti-GM grassroots organizations in Africa, Asia, Latin America, Ireland, Switzerland and Australia to increase public awareness of GM technology.

In the face of the impact of trade liberalization on local agriculture and farmers, Dr. Siva advocates organic agriculture, local varieties, farmers 'traditional agricultural knowledge, and promotes women's contribution to agriculture and ecology. In order to fight for the right to subsistence of Indian small farmers and protect farmers injured under globalization, she opposed the exploitation agreement of WTO on Indian agriculture, fought against Monsanto, and opposed Coca-Cola Company's theft of water. Dr. Siva's compassion and advocacy for human rights are the main reasons why she is one of the seven most influential women in the world.

Establishment of independent research institutions to protect biodiversity and endemic species

In addition, Dr. Siva has set up independent research institutes that work closely with local communities and social movements, rather than receiving government and corporate funding, to conduct high-end independent research to solve today's most important ecological and social problems. For example, in 1982 she founded the Foundation for Scientific, Technological and Ecological Research (RFSTE) to work on biodiversity conservation, and in 1991 she founded the Navdanya Foundation, which actively protects farmers 'indigenous seeds by referring to the seeds of nine important crops.

The two foundations encourage local farmers to resist political and economic pressures to ensure that India's biodiversity continues to be maintained. 2004 Dr. Shiva has partnered with Schumacher College in the UK to set up an international school (Bija Vidyapeeth) at the Nine Species Foundation's Organic Farm to teach the science of sustainability and holistic living. All of these efforts have transformed agricultural and food practices and paradigms and made significant contributions in the areas of intellectual property and biodiversity.

Siva participates in world agricultural policy and advises governments

In addition to her outstanding achievements in agriculture, Dr. Siva is also known as a feminist social activist. She developed a unique environmental feminism that received an international response in conjunction with Earth Democracy issues. Her book Staying Alive changed the popular perception of women in the Third World. She practices gender mainstreaming at the International Centre for Mountain Development (ICIMOD) in Kathmandu and is a founding board member of the Women's Environment and Development Organization (WEDO).

She also launched the Plural Women's Diversity Movement, an international women's movement working for food and agriculture, officially launched in Bratislava, Slovakia, in May 1998. She also founded the Diversity Women for Diversity program under the Nine Kinds Foundation to promote eco-feminism. In addition, in the democratic part of the earth, its initiative begins with community power, reversing the collusion between government and big business under globalization, and sharing global natural resources to achieve identity, culture, politics and economic democracy. Believing that people should not be separated by competition, conflict and hatred, Earth Democracy unites people under care, cooperation and concern. This is Dr. Siva's special action on democracy and human rights, which interweaves agriculture, food, gender and indigenous people as the main axes of human rights. It has made an important contribution to democracy in the field of agriculture and rural society in the world.

Dr. Siva is also involved in agricultural policy at all levels of the world, providing important policy advice and reform recommendations to governments around the world. She has worked with Tuscan and Roman governments to create a hopeful and livable future for these young people in times of crisis. She has also served as a consultant to government departments in India and other countries, and has also served as a consultant to many non-governmental organizations such as the International Forum on Globalization, Women's Environment & Development Organization, Third World Network, etc., demonstrating the importance of discussing issues such as women and human rights in the face of globalization.

She is also Chair of the Italian Tuscany Food Prospect Committee and a member of the Steering Committee of the Indian People's Movement towards WTO, dedicated to preserving traditional wisdom and a unique approach to how traditional culture is transmitted and preserved. For example, she launched the New Global Seed Freedom Initiative to defend seed sovereignty. She is currently working with the Government of Bhutan to achieve 100 per cent organic crop production in Bhutan.

Come to Taiwan for dialogue and continue to deepen green agriculture

Dr. Siva is a charismatic, articulate and persuasive educational speaker. Her presentation has been featured in more than 40 YouTube videos. Dr. Siva has lectured around the world to promote her views on agriculture, gender and human rights justice, and actively disseminated her research and ideas around the world through lectures. Dr. Xi Wa delivered a speech on "Global Green Tide and Taiwan" in Taiwan in 2010, and had an in-depth dialogue with Tsai Ing-wen, then chairman of the Democratic Progressive Party, to discuss topics such as climate crisis and post-Copenhagen green tide, globalization and localization in the era of climate crisis, and emerging public governance in the era of climate crisis.

At that time, Taiwan had just begun to develop green agriculture, and her speech was widely echoed. Seven years later, Taiwan is now vigorously promoting environmentally friendly farming, sustainable use of agricultural resources, food security, and agricultural product safety. How to implement these ideas in Taiwan is sure to benefit Taiwan greatly from Dr. Xi Wa's dialogue and discussion with Taiwan's academic circles, industry, and government decision-making units.

APSafe Asia-Pacific International Symposium on Agrifood and Food Ethics, May 2018, Taiwan

Zhang Weiqi/How to Build Food Thinking Power?│Paul B. Thompson, From Land to Table: The Food Ethics for Everyone

G7 Site/"Woman with Seed" Siva: If G7 continues on its current path, agriculture has no way out

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