Vandana Shiva
At the heart of the ecological and social crisis we are experiencing today lies a simple yet revolutionary truth: biodiversity is life. It is not only the foundation of our food, our soil, our health, our landscapes, and our local economies—it is also the source of our freedom, our cultures, and our capacity to resist and regenerate.
Biodiversity is not a luxury. It is what sustains the resilience of ecosystems, regenerates the soil, nourishes our microbiome, and guarantees the food sovereignty of communities. Yet today, this biodiversity is under siege. Industrial agriculture—dependent on poisons, on both old and new GMOs, on monocultures and seed patents—has become the leading force of destruction. It has reduced seed diversity from hundreds of thousands of varieties to a few uniform ones. It has transformed food into a commodity, land into a mine to be exploited, and farmers into disposable cogs in a system dominated by greed and power.
This erosion of biodiversity is also an erosion of health. Industrial diets—built on ultra-processed food, stripped of nutrients and loaded with toxins—lie at the root of the global epidemic of chronic diseases. Industrial, ultra-processed food is at the root of both the environmental crisis and the epidemic of chronic illness. When we destroy the biodiversity of our gut microbiome by consuming these foods, chronic conditions such as diabetes and cancer reach epidemic proportions.
At the same time, the genetic uniformity of crops has made agricultural systems more vulnerable to climate change. Biodiversity is not just merely conservation—it is prevention, nourishment, and healing. The biodiversity crisis, the climate crisis, the food emergency, and the health emergency are all dimensions of a single planetary crisis—because the Earth is a living planet, where the biosphere and atmosphere form one deeply interconnected system.
At Navdanya, in India, for over thirty years we have been sowing a living alternative to this destructive paradigm. We have created more than 150 community seed banks, saved over 4,000 varieties of rice, and promoted biodiversity-based agroecology. Farmers who embrace this approach regenerate the soil, grow more nutritious food, improve their household income, and strengthen their autonomy. To cultivate biodiversity is an act of resistance—but also an act of love for the Earth.
The next step was the founding of Earth University, established in 2002 in India—a centre of experiential learning, where young people, farmers, scholars, and activists learn to live with the Earth not as an object of exploitation, but as a living being with whom we coexist.
Since 2023, this vision has also been taking root in Italy through the Ecoculturae programme, with educational paths such as Biodiversity is Life and Terrae Vivae, which guide young people in rediscovering the deep relationships between seeds, soil, landscapes, and health. Inspired by Earth University, Navdanya International promotes an educational model that integrates scientific knowledge, traditional wisdom, and hands-on experience. The goal is to regenerate communities through the formation of conscious citizens—able to act in defence and celebration of their local territories, understood as interdependent ecosystems.
True education does not merely transmit information—it awakens awareness. It helps us perceive the invisible threads that connect soil fertility with our immune system, biological diversity with cultural diversity, gut health with planetary health. It is a form of education that breaks the apartheid of knowledge, and restores what reductionist thinking has fragmented: body and Earth, food and health, economy and ecology.
For too long, we have been taught that there is no alternative to the industrial system—“There is no alternative” became the mantra of neoliberalism. But this is the monoculture of the mind—the most insidious legacy of the capitalist paradigm. It crushes imagination, erases diversity, and convinces us that extraction and violence are inevitable.
But another path is not only possible—it already exists. It is the path that millions of people are cultivating every day: saving seeds, tending gardens, cooking real food, building local economies rooted in reciprocity. It is the world of care, of regeneration, of cooperation.
To imagine and practice biodiversity-based agroecology is a powerful act of imagination. It is not merely an alternative to chemical agriculture—it is the blueprint for a new paradigm. A paradigm that heals the Earth and our communities, that replaces scarcity with abundance, uniformity with diversity, and violence with care.
To build this world, we need trust. Trust in the regenerative capacity of the Earth. Trust in our bodies, in the wisdom of our senses. Trust that even the smallest actions—planting a seed, sharing a meal, supporting a farmer—can change the course of history. With every seed we sow, every plant we nurture, and every bite we take, we are making a choice between degeneration and regeneration.
Biodiversity is the key. Not only to survival, but to an ecological, social, and cultural renaissance.
Let us celebrate the International Day for Biological Diversity by remembering that every act of regeneration is an act of freedom. Every seed saved is a seed of hope.
Illustration from “Biodiversity is not for sale” – illustrated booklet.