Essay Sustainable Leader Analysis Assessment Answers

Subject Name : Sustainable Leadership

Essay Sustainable Leader Analysis

Introduction

Norman Borlaug, the father of green revolution received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 for his contribution to changes in the farming methods with the help of distribution of synthetic fertilizers, hybrid seeds, high yielding variety cereal grains, and expansion of irrigation infrastructure and management in order to make agriculture, an industrial practice. In 2016, Dr. Vandana Shiva derided the Green Revolution as just a political and technological achievement that was not actually green. The so-called Green Revolution used harmful chemical interventions in traditional farming techniques in order to increase the yield, making soil dead and poisoning the rivers (Shiva, 2016). Shiva is a recognized Environmental Hero by Time magazine in 2003, a recipient of the Right Livelihood Award (honor known as Alternative Nobel Prize) in 1993, a leader and ecologist, a scholar and physicist, globally renowned author of more than 20 books on concerns related to the environment. Born in the Indian town named Dehradun (located in the foothills of the Himalayan Mountain Range), Shiva is the daughter to a farmer and a forestry official. She earned her doctorate from the department of philosophy at the University of Western Ontario in 1978 and got a masters degree in the philosophy of science from Guelph University, Ontario (Pallardy, 2018). She became an environmentalist during a home visit, where she noticed that all her favorite forests have been cleared in order to replace those forests by industrial farming. After completing her doctorate, she worked for Indian government for some time but soon became a critic of Asias green revolution and in 1982 became the founder of Research Foundation for Science, Technology, and Natural Resource Policy (RFSTN), an organization solely devoted for developing methods for sustainable agriculture. She launched Navdanya with a mission to protect nature and peoples right to knowledge, biodiversity, water and food (Navdanya, 2019). Since then, Shiva has globally epitomized environmentalism by defending and celebrating biodiversity.

Navdanya, the organization launched by Shiva in 1991, meaning New Gift or Nine Seeds in Hindi, is an endeavour to counter monoculture (the agricultural practice of growing or producing a single plant, crop or livestock variety, species, or farming system or breed in a field at a time) tendency growing with the support of large corporations. This organization is seriously devoted to the service of nature and is openly opposing the industrialization of agriculture by chemical intervention or genetic engineering promoted by giant American or German pharmaceutical, chemical or biotechnology companies like Bayer or Monsanto. Large scale or industrial agriculture feeds the world is a piece of sad fake news spread by the profiting organizations and the governments which promote these organizations for political benefits (Shiva, 1993). These organizations for their own business benefits have created boundaries in the brains of people which compels people to think that they are different from nature. These organizations use plants as machines to fill their own pockets and disturbing their genetic design to provide them better profits (Mies amp Shiva, 1993). These multi national companies and organizations which are operating throughout the world are poisoning the most essential components of nature like soil with excess phosphorus which make it dead, plants with deadly fertilizers and pesticides which makes the food obtained from them carcinogenic, inflicting people with non communicable chronic diseases like autism, dementia, diabetes and other such serious problems (Shiva, 2016). Therefore, Shiva has been protesting against monoculture since 1993. The global statistics suggest that there has been a growth in food cultivated per acre land, but the nutrition per acre land has decreased (Shiva, 2016). There has been an increase in the yield per acre land throughout the world, but the health per acre land has diminished exponentially low (Shiva, 2016). The use of chemicals in agriculture is increasing the yield. In return it increases the profits of the organizations producing these chemical, lowering the price of food for the farmers using these chemical interventions for their crops but ultimately inreasing the price of food for the hungry, as the profits gained using these chemicals only fill the pockets of owners of these organizations and helping the ones who actually need it. Hence, it creats a huge divide between the businessmen owning the stakes of these chemical companies and the needy who really depend on the food produced. Humans are one species, our animalness is what unites us even after variations in race or color. Chemical interventions in the genes of any other organism (plant and animals) can be equally fatal as it can be for the humans (Shiva, 1993). Every other species on earth are equally important as human beings and any such chemical or genetic interventions in any other organism can be equally devastating as it can be for humans. Therefore, being a social animal its our duty to respect and protect every other species on earth, in order to maintain the balance of life on earth (Shiva, 1993). Promoting organic farming at every cost and rejecting industrial or commercial farming is the motto of Navdanya. Small farms grow health as well as real wealth (Pallardy, 2018). In 2016, Shiva openly and clearly criticised Companies like Monsanto which applied big data sciences to agriculture and advertised for farming without farmers with the use of modern technology like artificial intelligence and drones. The very idea of life as described by Shiva in 2018 is about celebrating life, biodiversity, and freedom in every possible way. Every cell, every organism, every human is important on this earth. Shiva has guided us about how we can bring a significant positive change on this earth. Inspiring millions to bring a change at an individual level by teaching the importance of small individual steps, Shiva is a real sustainable leader who has always put forward the lead by example. She has in-depth knowledge about the technicalities of agriculture and biotechnology, a tremendous level of experience in the field of organic farming, illuminating oratory skills with an intense level of confidence. The combination of qualities like persistence, patience and her gratitude towards mother nature makes her a true sustainable leader.

Every time we think small lets remember Gandhi, small when multiplied by millions, ultimately becomes huge (Shiva, 2018). There are a good number of leadership qualities within Dr. Vandana Shiva. Her oratory skills, self-confidence, sociable and empathetic nature, intelligence, the flexibility of thought process and her positive emotional intelligence makes her real-life sustainable leader who is inspiring millions to come forward for the protection of nature. The leadership classification theories are not applicable to this sustainable leader as no theory is clearly relatable to our leader. The leader has a sound ethical commitment with the earth and its organisms. I am inspired by the level of self-confidence and selflessness of the leader, which is regarding the steps needed to reach her objective (sustainable objectives). The oratory skills of this sustainable leader are also inspiring along with her deep concerns regarding the existence and importance of every organism on our planet. The distinctive oratory and presentation style of our leader makes our subject a real hero and thus behavioral leadership theory applies to our sustainable leader. Therefore, Shiva inspires us to celebrate life, biodiversity and our planet, in every possible way and make necessary contributions for its proper functioning.

References

Mies, M. and Shiva, V.(1993). Ecofeminism. Nova Scotia, Canada Fernwood Publications.
Navdanya. (n.d.). Retrieved from http//www.navdanya.org/site/component/content/articleid619
Pallardy, R. (2018). Vandana Shiva Indian scientist and activist. Retrieved February 2, 2019 from https//www.britannica.com/biography/Vandana-Shiva
Shiva, K and Shiva, V. (2018). Oneness verses the one percent shattering illusions, seeding freedom. Mission Beach, QLD Spinifex Press.
Shiva, V. (2016). The Violence of the Green Revolution Ecological degradation and political conflict in Punjab. Kentucky The University Press of Kentucky.
Shiva, V. (2002). Water Wars Privatization, Pollution, and Profit, South End Press, Cambridge Massachusetts.
Shiva, V. (1993). Monocultures of the Mind Biodiversity, Biotechnology and Agriculture. New Delhi Zed Press.