Credit: Dale Robbins
I entered the White House on your call for “change we can believe in.” This term, I will be the change that you and I want to see.
For the sake of the Earth, our family farms and our children’s health, we must send a signal across America and the world that organic is the future. Every child must have access to healthy and safe food. We’ve started an organic garden at the White House, and I will work to create a system to ensure that healthy and safe food is a reality worldwide.
I have realized that neither genetic modification nor chemicals help to produce more food. Gardens and small ecological farms are the basis of food security. Currently, 90 percent of all food commodities grown become biofuel or animal feed; this is a crime when 1 billion people go hungry. So I will work on a transitional plan for phasing out subsidies to a wasteful and unjust agriculture system.
I had promised in my first election campaign that I would ensure that genetically-modified foods be labeled as such. I apologize to my fellow citizens and to citizens of the world that I did not keep my promise. The right to know what you are eating is fundamental to any democracy. What happened with Prop 37 in California should not have happened. It is the subversion of democracy by corporate power.
I will work with you to create food democracy in the US and the world.
Vandana Shiva is a world-renowned physicist, activist, feminist and philosopher committed to issues of sustainability and social justice. Shiva has authored over a dozen books covering subjects of ecology, biodiversity, globalization and feminism. In her latest book, Making Peace With the Earth, she calls for a paradigm shift away from corporate control of natural resources to one of long-term respect for the environment and social justice. Shiva’s work has won her many awards, including the Global 500 Award of the UN, the Earth Day International Award, the Right Livelihood Award, and the Sydney Peace Prize 2010.
