Did you know that colonialism had a big impact on Mother Earth? Probably yes. What you might not know is that promoting female leadership, empowering grassroots communities, or avoiding genetically modified products can still be the solution to global problems in the world today. In fact, community work and mother earth have never been so close to each other. Doctor Vandana Shiva, an Indian activist and eco-feminist will explain to you why.

Even though the extractive systems say that if you produce more you’ll be richer, the fact is that 60 million people have starved during the British regime in India, since half the production was taken away from them. Managing resources is not easy, as you may know, and today, more than ever, community work must be a priority.

What these producers didn't know is that mass production culture and lack of community work can lead to the destruction of the environment. What should be done, then? Indigenous people are quite close to the solution because their main concern isn´t just to make a profit. You should follow their example:

• Start looking at nature differently, embracing its feminine energy and leadership. Women should be valued for their strength in taking care and handing over a future to the next generations, since "there is a future for humanity where women lead the way or we will have no future for our species", as our guest refers.

• Start celebrating the diversity of genders, colors, religions, knowledge, and seeds. Colonialism means a monoculture of the mind: "It has to create uniformity and it has to create the colonizer as the measure of what is superiority. So blackness becomes a problem, women become a problem. So it is just a question of changing the false paradigm in your mind, just starting to think differently, knowing we are part of nature, knowing women and men are equal". Working with grassroots communities is the best way to attain development since community work and Mother Earth should be seen as part of the solution.

• Avoiding genetically modified products. Nowadays, “seventy-five percent of the poverty problem comes because you have to buy inputs rather than work with the Earth to renew your soil fertility”.

• Standing for health and nourishment, looking for seeds, as a source of life and hope.

However, how can we manage agriculture and science to increase profitability and make it sustainable for small farmers? That´s a difficult question, but the answer is quite simple. When people notice that manipulating scientific data and consuming genetically modified products may cause cancer, some start choosing nourishing meals, instead of the cheapest. That's why raising awareness is important so that people know exactly how to act and find the right motivations, as our guest found: "The biggest change comes when you love something so much, it can be Earth, it can be society, it can be children, it can be the poor, it can be whatever draws your passion, you love them so much that you will hug them and prevent harm from coming to them".

In conclusion, Vandana´s motivation to change some behaviors is simple: Love, the start of everything. 

Listen to this episode and discover how you can start promoting sustainable development by having a sense of purpose in your daily actions. Remember that, as part of nature, you should take care of it. It’s not that hard if you add a small amount of love to all your daily actions/decisions.