What's in a seed? The smallest is as tiny as 0.05 millimetres. Its hard coat is packed with nutrients and protects a tiny embryo.

It is dormantThe word comes from the Latin word for sleep. at first, but water and warmth nurture it to life. A green shoot fights up through the soil towards the light, and strong roots burrow deep into the earth.

For Dr Vandana Shiva, seeds are a symbol of everything beautiful in life. They represent sovereigntyThe authority of a state to govern itself, or sometimes another state., courage, survival, and biodiversity. For five decades, Shiva has fought for the cause of environmental justice in India and beyond, inspired by the humble seed.

Shiva was born in 1952 in the forests in Uttarakhand, a mountainous state in northern India. "The forests were my identity and from an early age the laws of nature captivated me," she told The Guardian.¹

After earning her PhD, she became inspired by the Chipko movementA protest against deforestation in India in the 1970s, where people hugged trees in a bid to protect them from loggers., when protesters hugged trees to prevent them from being harvested by loggers.

Shiva says it opened her eyes to the ways in which landscapes, and poor local people, were being devastated by new technologies.

Her first research foundation had humble beginnings: it started in her mother's cow shed in Dehradun, the winter capital of Uttarakhand.

In 1987, Shiva founded Navdanya, which translates to "nine seeds" in Hindi. This began her focus on "seed freedom", fighting the corporate control of seeds.

She has campaigned for decades for the protection of traditional seed varieties, resistance to corporate patent laws allowing corporations to take ownership of seed genetics, and against genetically modified organismsOrganisms whose genes have been artificially altered to modify their characteristics in some way. - GMOs.

"Food is the place, seed is the place where we have to reclaim our democracy," Shiva said in one 2014 speech.²

With her simple lifestyle, passionate environmental advocacyGiving support to help others express their views and wishes, and to stand up for their rights. and struggle for the rights of poor and disadvantaged people, Shiva seeks to remind us all of the humble origins of all life on Earth: a small seed, struggling towards the light.

Have we forgotten what life is?

Yes: Dr Vandana Shiva reminds us that we are supposed to live for our world, instead of at odds with it. Her life has been driven by a love of nature and a desire to remain in equilibriumA state of balance between opposing forces. with its beauty, never taking more than our share or altering what is natural.

No: We have not forgotten what life is, but we are adapting to the modern world. We are no longer restricted to the patterns of nature. We can shape and alter nature to fit our will. There is no need to be ashamed of progress.

Or... What Shiva is criticising is a movement that was built to save millions of people from famine. If the green revolution had not happened, some believe, many more people might have suffered.