Call of the Earth!
Mother Earth Declaration, 22nd April 2017.
From Navdanya Community Seed bank,
Balasore, Odisha
On Mother Earth Day 22nd of April as a part of our pilgrimage for Living India 2047 (Jaivik Bharat 2047) we commit ourselves to protect the rights of our Earth, of her biodiversity.
We are all children of this Earth, members of an ancient and diverse family of beings living in harmony of Vasudeva Kutumbhakam. Not even the tiniest bacteria is separate from us, it is us.
We have defended rights of diverse species, the rights of the seeds to be sown freely, evolve in freedom, in diversity and resilience providing nourishment to all species of our Earth Family.In thousand ways, we hear our mother Earth’s cries of pain and we feel her pain through our own.
The health of the Earth and our health is interconnected. The poisons that kill the Earth and her diverse species are also killing us.
75% of the ecological violence against our Earth and 75% of chronic diseases are rooted in the poison and fossil fuel based industrial agriculture.
#MotherEarthDay Yatra (march ) for the earth , the intelligence & creativity of animals plants & microbes,of women & farmers as scientists
— Dr. Vandana Shiva (@drvandanashiva) April 22, 2017
The web of life is a food web. We have protected and rejuvenated our soil through agro-ecological organic farming. By feeding the soil organic matter, through the law return we have created abundance for ourselves to trillions of micro-organisms. The organic matter gifts the soil, fertility and the soil bless us with more food and nourishment, and makes our farms living reservoirs of water, providing them drought resilience and life.Living soils with organic matter in them have the potential to reverse desertification and climate change.
We are the seed, we are the soil, we are the water, we are the air, we are the Earth, and she gives us the gift of life.
The Earth has nourished and sustained billions of beings including human beings. Dignity of life for all being and human rights will only be sustained if we treat our Mother earth with dignity and recognise and respect her rights.
#MotherEarthDay festival begins at our Odisha seed Bank to celebrate Earth's gifts of abundance thru Biodiversity. pic.twitter.com/k0HiCSWixh
— Navdanya (@NavdanyaBija) April 22, 2017
Though Bija Satyagraha we have said no to GMOs and patents on seeds and life, as well as rejected laws that criminalise our biodiversity and farmers’ native varieties and try to steal the livelihoods of millions of small farmers. Small farms produce more food than large industrial farms. 70% of the food we eat comes from small farms. Real nourishment can only come from diverse foods which can only be grown through agro-ecology by small farmers, our annadattas.
We will continue our bija satyagraha to defend our seed freedom.
The one 1% is trying control all life on the Earth and all wealth created by people. Exploitation of the Earth and humans, go hand in hand. The ecological crisis, the crisis of economic inequality and social injustice are rooted in the same exploitative economic model driven by greed.
Seed grab through patenting, water grab through privatisation and land grab from indigenous people and farmers have become the basis of the violent economy of the 1%.
#MotherEarthDay #MarchforEarth #Marchforbiodiversity@NavdanyaBija Seed bank in Orissa with 840 rice varieties salt tolerant flood tolerant
— Dr. Vandana Shiva (@drvandanashiva) April 22, 2017
Water is life, a commons.Through our Jal Satyagraha, we have resisted the privatisation of our waters, the dam-ing and pollution of our rivers.
We will continue our movement for water democracy, a vital pillar of Earth democracy.Across the World people are rising to protect Mother Earth and defend their rights.
The seeds of Earth Democracy are been sown in millions of local struggles. We celebrate the victories against land grab, for factories in Singur, Nandigram and Posco in India, we celebrate the resistance at Standing Rock, and in every place of our common home, where through nonviolence and love people are seeding hope.
#motherEarthDay with seed keepers of #orissa @NavdanyaBija community seed bank 870 rice varieties incl salt & flood tolerant #seedsofhope
— Dr. Vandana Shiva (@drvandanashiva) April 22, 2017
We are fully aware that the 1% are using every means, to hijack democracy, to steal our governments, to buy and distort science and replace knowledge with propaganda and alternative facts and “post truths”. For the 1%, the destruction of diversity and creation of divisions, the spreading of hate and fear have become necessary to tear apart our communities for corporate profits through divide and rule and thus continue the plundering of our mother Earth.
Gandhi had reminded us, that, “the Earth has enough for everyone’s needs but not for a few people’s greed.”
We can together create local living Swadeshi economies that respect the Earth and her limits while providing for the last person’s needs for food, water and shelter.
Through Ahimsa and truth, through non-violent Satyagraha (force of truth) we will dismantle the violent structures of an extractive economy, that the 1% is putting in place.
Self organisation is life’s intelligence & life’s freedom. Self organisation as swaraj is also the basis
of our human freedoms. It is this creativity of our interconnected freedoms and intelligence that has the power to stop the destruction of our world by a globally organised militarised surveillance corporate state.
#MotherEarthDay The rice biodiversity heritage of Odisha conserved at our seed bank, gifts us climate resilience pic.twitter.com/alq4zprwDK
— Navdanya (@NavdanyaBija) April 22, 2017
Today, on Earth Day, we hear the call of our mother clearly and renew our commitment to protect her by living in accordance with her laws and making her laws, our guide to right livelihood. We pledge to practice Earth Democracy everyday, through the food we grow and eat, the clothes, we wear and the relationships of love, compassion and nonviolence that we cultivate.
Main Campaign page
Satyagraha Yatra 2017, a pilgrimage for Seed Freedom and Food Freedom
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