Hart House presents Vandana Shiva
October 22, 2009 | 7:00 p.m

Register by October 9 to win tickets, click here.

Don’t miss the keynote event of Hart House’s World Food Week: internationally acclaimed author, ecologist, physicist and activist Vandana Shiva will engage audiences in an Earth Democracy discussion – her philosophy based on inclusion, nonviolence, reclaiming the commons and freely sharing the earth’s resources. At the core of this philosophy is the idea of Food democracy.

Shiva is the vice- president of the global organization Slow Food International and the author of such books as Soil Not Oil, Earth Democracy and Stolen Harvest: The Hijacking of the Global Food Supply and one of the leaders of the International Forum on Globalization. She has made numerous appearances in both film & television including “One Water“, “Flow: For Love of Water” and is featured on the PBS NOW documentary entitled “On Thin Ice“.

Tickets: $15 students, $25 non-students

About the Earth Democracy Evening with Vandana Shiva

The web of life is a food web. Today, this web is severely threatened by new technology to manipulate seed and terminate its fertility, by the obsession with monocultures, by the excessive use of oil and petrochemical based inputs, by the diversion of food to make biofuel to run automobiles. In effect we are eating oil and our food is being transformed into oil.

Across the world, food riots are taking place. In Mexico there have been tortilla riots. In Italy, pasta protests. In India, people have attacked ration shops in West Bengal. In Mauritania and Mozambique, in Burkina Faso and Senegal, people have descended on streets to fight for food. 33 countries face social unrest due to rising food prices.

Food democracy has become vital to defend people’s food rights. And food democracy is a vital pillar of Earth Democracy. Either we will produce good food for all, working with gaia and her laws, or we will have no food at all. Good food for all is not just possible, it has become a necessity.

About Vandana Shiva

For physicist, environmental activist, feminist, ecologist and author of a dozen books and over 300 articles Vandana Shiva, “being change” means a life of campaigning for the right of people and our planet to live and thrive, free of the interference of corporate and governmental greed.

She does her work by travelling almost constantly to meet with a huge range of people: grassroots organizations of women and farmers, research scientists, governments and corporations. She advises international bodies such as the United Nations, she works on an organic farm in India with other women, and she challenges the richest and most powerful multinational corporations in the world, corporations like Monsanto and Wal-Mart.

Shiva grew up in the foothills of the Himalayas, and was educated in India and Canada, where she earned a master’s degree in the philosophy of science at Guelph University and a PhD in particle physics at the University of Western Ontario. Returning home from Canada, she was horrified to find ancient forests being ripped out of existence by westerners who wanted to grow apples where the forests had been. She joined the Chipko Movement, grassroots women who were campaigning to save trees.

Since then, Shiva’s activities have multiplied almost beyond belief. In order to be independent of influence from governments and wealthy corporations, she founded the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology, which she defines as “a participatory, public interest research organization.” While it now has offices in New Delhi, at first the foundation met in her mother’s cowshed. “When I found global corporations wanted to patent seeds, crops or life forms, I started Navdanya to protect biodiversity, defend farmers’ rights and promote organic farming.” Part of this work now involves conserving and storing heritage seeds.

In this case, I’m referring to separate calls with Seth Godin and Guy Kawasaki–details below.

I’m always tied up around lunch, but if you sign up, you’ll get notification of when the recorded calls are available.

I love the social back-patting here. I sincerely hope this process works well for all participants because it’s such a great example of marketing that offers value instead bugging the shit out of you. Well maybe I’m hyper-sensitized to lazy marketing and other people just filter it out. But I’d imagine anyone with anyone to sell would rather endear themselves than be ignored, especially in this financial climate.

FRIDAY, NOV 7 at 1pm ET – SETH GODIN LIVE

This Friday at 1pm ET, join us for another great call in the
Tribes Book Tour!  You will hear Seth, along with these two
leaders who demonstrate how to effectively lead a Tribe:

-> Rich Sloan, co-founder of StartupNation.com and author of
Startup Nation

-> Andy Sernovitz, author of Word of Mouth Marketing and Founder,
Word of Mouth Marketing Assn

http://www.sethgodinbooktour.com <- SAVE YOUR SEAT

TUESDAY, NOV 11 at 3pm ET – GUY KAWASAKI UNPLUGGED

The next stop on Guy’s book tour features more of Guy’s great new
book and a powerful discussion with two business experts:

-> John Jantsch, author of Duct Tape Marketing and columnist for
Entrepreneur

-> Penelope Trunk, author of Brazen Careerist, Boston Globe
columnist and serial entrepreneur

http://www.authorteleseminars.com/realitycheck2.html <- RESERVE YOUR SPOT

Saw a giant billboard on the side of a bus for the Christmas One of A Kind Show. With a huge local movement afoot, it’s hard for a huge empire like One of A Kind to feel authentic. Even if you didn’t know that it’s owned by Merchandise Mart Properties Inc. in Chicago you would notice the horrible crowds, the overpriced tickets and the bad crafts (because the booths are so expensive, real crafts people can’t afford to go.)

This holiday season, there are reams of truly local craft shows that support local artists. This one at the Gladstone caught my eye. 

With a strong local movement afoot, it’ll be a challenge for One of a Kind to keep a foothold in this market. Want to know how to do it well? Just ask Etsy. They are all about helping craftspeople do their job well. They do everything in their power to help them market themselves better. They have a whole community section dedicated to craftspeople.

Sure, you can be big and small at the same time. You just gotta be smart.

Rotman School Integrative Thinking Experts Speaker Series

TIMING: 4:15 to 4:55pm attendees arrive, receive their books and sit down (random seating); 5:00 sharp to 6:15pm conversation between Prof. Martin and Mr. Gladwell.

TOPIC: “Outliers: Why Some People Succeed and Some Don’t”

Rotman School of Management