Thanks to Water LA!

David King with Vandana Shiva

Sunday, August 18, SLOLA founder and chair, David King, represented SLOLA and urban ag at a screening of the film, Dirt, The Ecstatic Skin of The Earth and served on a panel afterwards with Dr. Vandana Shiva and Treepeople's Director of Programs Christyne Imhoff.

Dr. Shiva stressed the seriousness of farmer suicides in India following the failure of genetically modified rice that forced farmers into impossible debt.  Pointedly she observed that these men went to their fields to kill themselves, symbolic of their love of the land; these were good farmers who had the capital to venture into the promise of the new technology of GMOs.  When this new, untried technology failed them, they were ashamed and the shame of not providing for their families sent them on a final, fatal journey into their fields to die with the land they loved.

Modern agriculture, as practiced today, destroys not only the environment in which it is practiced and the lives and culture of those who adopt it, but is a recipe for the failure of our food supply.  King cautioned that the current agricultural model will, sooner or later, result in severe shortages of food and city dwellers must begin to learn to grow some of their own food today, the future could be as bleak for Americans of all professions as today has been for many Indian farmers.

From left to right:  Melanie Winter, panel moderator, Water LA, Dr.
Vandana Shiva, Navdanya, David King, SLOLA and Christyne
Imhoff, Treepeople speaking after the film, Dirt.