What is life, but the endless regeneration of Earth Herself??
Numerous women have asked themselves and eachother where in history the feminine was erased; and to this search women scholars have dedicated their lives.
Indigenous women already know. They all bear the scars of cultures of warring males trumpeting death.
Colonization has always been patriarchal plunder and ecoside.
It has never been anything less.
Conquering, displacing, and dominating is the patriarchal creed. But life does not flourish under tyrannical regimes.
Regeneration is impossible under patriarchal rule.
My last article on regenerative agriculture peered into the devious world of patenting and exclusively owning all seeds, microbes, and life; and the work of India’s Dr Vandana Shiva, global seed saving activist, phD physicist, and proponent for the supreme value of ancient wisdom and indigenous ways. Foremost in her message is our sacred covenant to protect and nurture life; and the divine blueprint within the soil of our own bodies and our land.
Aren’t mothers worldwide are working for this very same thing??
For the day comes when we ask ourselves and eachother:
”Where have all the women gone??
…and what has become of the food and medicine Earth gave us so freely before this?”
Women nurture life. They always have.
But once their forest temples were burned down by the Caesars of all time; once their sacred seed were stolen and patents barred them from growing and making medicine as they always had; once their farmlands were repossessed…
we end up here.
Stuffy white men own everything and run the show. Some brown people go along to profit and save their own skin. But this whole demented club is obsessed with complete domination and control, and willing to stop at nothing to
kill
all
life.
BUT IN THESE MOTHERS’ HEARTS, HOPE SPRINGS…
As farmers worldwide fight for their lives, their land, and their lawful birthright to grow food, history shows this to not the first time patriarchy ever laid siege on life.
Today weaves together a tale of of India’s women taking matters into their own hands.
VANDANA SHIVA
Vandana Shiva comes up again and again as a beacon of history and hope, and always has. In the 70’s, she volunteered with Chipko, where the local women taught her three pivotal lessons:
1) Nature is not “out there” - WE are Nature.
2) Protecting Nature is not a luxury.
3) Biodiversity is the foundation of life; while the lobbies that cause climate change are destroying all biodiversity .
Says Dr Vandana “We learned a lot from Himalayan women who changed India’s policies (to recognize) the most important product of the forest is soil, water, and pure air.”
With one billion children a year starved to death in India; and 1/3 of the budget funneled into poisoning Earth with chemical agriculture,
Dr Vandana points out the perverse train of thought guiding Capitalist Patriarchy:
a) Nature is dead
2) Nature needs to be declared dead to establish man’s empire over all Nature; all species can be exterminated; all people can be displaced
“The birth of masculine time”, which Francis Bacon called colonization, effectively robbed men of feeling, and eliminated women completely. A mechanistic world does not see interconnections and cycles. Instead, blind to biodiversity, it breaks the cycle of nutrition that should return to the land.
Monoculture mindset destroys food systems while claiming to produce more food; and meanwhile, ever more people starve and die.
VANDANA SHIVA 2011:
VIJAYA VENKAT
A millet seed “gives a thousand seeds”, said Dr Vijaya Venkat, “while what we call modern science is preventing the organic multiplication of seeds. In the patent process, genetic engineering gave rise to the “terminator seed”, and made it illegal for farmers to save or share their own seeds” - leading to mass suicides due to insurmountable debt and loss. “This is genocidal and ecocidal.”
It was her infant daughter’s vaccine injury that woke her up to the harms of western medicine and the industrial approach to health, in which she lost all faith. Instead, she learned all she could, restored her daughter’s health, and became a prominent voice for the values and methods of traditional indigenous ways.
Dr Vijaya later added her other conclusions:
“All of us can live life without medicine. Whatever the condition can be reversed…to the original blueprint of Nature.”
“Life has to be integrated. Food has to be wholesome, natural, ethical.”
Dr Vijaya Venkat:
KAVITHA MISHRA
2021 Ted X SCEM
Kavitha Mishra hails from a small Indian village, where restriction of women’s activities continues to this day. Her husband supported her to buck the system and farm their land.
Two minutes into the interview, she switches to her native Indian language to describe the process and challenges of water supplies and irrigation - at which point i moved on…
MANISHA LATH GUPTA
2021 Ted Ex
Aanandaa Permaculture Farm was born of Manisha Gupta’s vision to leave behind all dependence on city life and its industries and create life. She succeeded wildly well. Says Manisha, “you create an ecosystem with plants, animals, birds, and insects…(and it becomes)…a highly productive food forest.”
The Gupta’s purchased 6 acres of dry dead sandy soil with no organic life at all. It was a virtual desert, except for six old date palm trees. They planted 1000 trees and perfected water management, and Manisha now speaks of all she learned about permaculture design:
*Trees are a part of permaculture design for a solid healthy earth and microclimates.
*Soil is a living organism; it needs organic matter and moisture.
*Cover the soil - do not till, because tilling dries it out; and leaving it uncovered encourages weed proliferation.
*Covering the soil is called mulching.
The Gupta’s mulched all 1000 saplings with wood chips, and switched to watering twice a week instead of twice a day. Now her own trees produce the mulch.
*Soil nutrient deficiencies increase vulnerability to pests, she explains. Animals add richness to the soil.
“Our farm is an oxygen factory. We believe this is a necessity.”
Her conviction is inspiring; and the results of six years nurturing Aanandaa Farm into a self-sustaining food forest speak for themself.
A very worthwhile watch:
Manisha Gupta PERMACULTURE:
Women managed medicine and agriculture for eons. Their holy temples were gardens and groves of trees, and Nature freely showered upon them infinite varieties of roots, stems, flowers, and seeds.
Women understand regeneration. Since ancient times, women have carried the gifts of life in their bodies, hearts, and hands.
Women nurture life. They always have. It’s who they are and what they naturally do. Industrial farming is killing the planet and destroying the future of food. Let’s keep life real.
dear yolanda, thank you for the big beautiful breath of fresh and loamy-scented air. love you and the women you've recorded here to inspire and strengthen our Spirits. really hit the sad and outraged spot tonight.
🙏♥️💐