Review of Vandana Shiva: Seeds of Change

A film about activist and scientist Vandana Shiva that left me slightly uneasy. It's more or less a biopic, from her early days as a sort of privileged middle-class Indian woman who wants to study Physics even though her convent school tries to dissuade her, to her involvement with the Chipko movement, and on to her campaigns in support of small farmers in India and against the global seed companies in general, and GMO in particular. And then there she is, on the stage at the anti-globalisation protests in Seattle alongside trade unionists and campaigners, and being cheered to the rafters.

Most of the time I was carried along and just thought how wonderful she was, but I was surprised to see that one of the people she cites as a sort of corporate shill who's been attacking her was Mark Lynas, who I had always thought well of as a climate activist and writer. So I searched a little, and I found that George Monbiot - who I also think well of - is not very keen. And some of this is about the debate over veganism and lab-grown meat vs. "natural" organic farming, and I've said before that I am not entirely happy with Monbiot's uncritical acceptance of food produced in factories rather than on farms. I wish it were true that we could feed everyone well from small organic mixed farms, but I don't think it is.

So there's something about Vandana Shiva that doesn't quite feel right either..the big bindi on her forehead, the spiritual influences that she cites, and which the audience for the film lapped up . For her Gandhi is the shaping influence, but I can't feel entirely good about him since I read Perry Anderson's rather critical articles...like this one and also this.

Watched at a special screening at Hawkwood College, which has also been a venue for some dodgy events in the past, which didn't help any.