3′ reading
06/07/2024 – Yesterday evening, 6 June 2024, the Municipality of Pesaro hosted the Indian environmentalist Vandana Shiva in the Council Room, who in the morning had already met the students of the A. Cecchi Higher Institute and in the first in the afternoon she had been at the center of an event in Isola del Piano, at the Montebello Monastery, characterized by the organic agriculture of the Girolomoni family.
In front of the packed room, the writer, awarded the prestigious Right Livelihood Award in 1993, was the protagonist of the event “Words change the world”, organized by the Councilor for Sustainability and Cohesion Maria Rosa Conti and presented by the activist for the environment Grazia Francescato, who underlined Shiva’s words several times, highlighting their fundamental importance in this era devastated by climate change and industrial speculation.
Vandana Shiva clearly and incisively exposed the issues that are dear to her and to which she has been committed for many years: the fight against GMOs and the industrialization of agriculture, the defense of biodiversity, the fundamental importance of agriculture regenerative and protection of the local economy. Shiva intervened by answering questions from the audience, which included activists and leaders of sustainable purchasing groups. The questions mostly focused on the topic of food: how can we choose healthy, organic food today, when the market offers us foods that the great environmentalist bluntly defines as “poisonous”? Vandana Shiva has been providing for many years the only answer that can be put into practice: we need to increase the organic movement, educate farmers to give up genetically modified seeds, pesticides and chemicals. Educate consumers to understand the benefits of natural food, benefits that are measured in terms of personal and environmental health. The audience applauded the answers of Vandana Shiva, whose economic model asks us to think beyond the easiest and most reassuring answers, to rediscover connection with nature that regenerates; for these positions of hers, the activist not only receives acclaim, but also heavy criticism from scientists who have no doubts about the risks of genetic engineering and monocultures.
I had the privilege of presenting the activist and writer with the Lifetime Achievement Award assigned by the International Poetry and Civilization Prize “Beauty remains”, of which I am president, which is part of the National Bioethics Festival, organized by the Italian Institute of Bioethics , based in Genoa. The Award is sponsored, among other institutions, by UNICEF and the European Union. I read the motivation for the award in front of the attendees: “For having given voice – and poetry – to lands, forests and oceans; for having transformed words into instruments of justice, truth and defense of the planet. For choosing regeneration over destruction. To educate humanity for many years, warning it against the dangers inherent in the unbridled development of capitalism. To be the best friend of the Earth and of every form of life that inhabits it.” Vandana Shiva was moved and subsequently cited, in her speeches, some parts of the text and in particular the concept that to defend the Earth we must first protect every single form of life, starting from the seeds, the basis of organic agriculture. Those who attended the meeting will not forget it, because Vandana Shiva is the symbol of a generous and far-sighted humanity, which looks to the future, hoping for a healthy planet and abundant resources not only for this, but also for future generations.
