Environmental activist Vandana Shiva delivered her talk “Soil not Oil: Biodiversity-Based Agriculture to Address the Climate Crisis” on [Jan. 23] at CEMEX auditorium [at Stanford University].
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In her talk, Shiva attacked industrial farming as immoral and fraudulent, claiming that “the poisoned cartel wants to destroy small farms because of the illusion that industrial agriculture is more effective.”
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Shiva, who is outspoken against the globalization of agriculture, has argued that “the prevailing model of industrial agriculture, heavily reliant on chemical fertilizers, pesticides, fossil fuels and a seemingly limitless supply of cheap water, places an unacceptable burden on the Earth’s resources.”
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The event — in which …. organizers did not allow direct questions from the audience but read some questions from written submissions — saw little acknowledgment of outside controversy.
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The event took place despite a December open letter by dozens of scientists and bioengineers who blasted Stanford administrators for inviting Shiva. The letter decries Shiva’s “use of anti-scientific rhetoric to support unethical positions.”
