Ruchi Shroff

Navdanya International

Director of Navdanya International, based in Rome, Italy, which is the international arm of Navdanya, an organisation headquartered in India that has been working for over 30 year towards the conservation and rejuvenation of agro-biodiversity, traditional knowledge and a transition towards a food system that ensures ecological sustainability, climate resilience, health and nutrition, equity and social justice.

She co-ordinates the international programs and campaigns related to Seed Freedom, food sovereignty as well as resistance to GMOs, free trade agreements, seed monopolies and biopiracy. One of her interests lies in investigating the true costs of the industrial food system paradigm and its impacts on agro biodiversity, socio-economic and ecological sustainability. Trained in physics, economics and management, she has worked for over a decade with social movements in the defence and protection of the environment as well as democratic rights of minorities and indigenous communities.

Favourite quote: “Today's food is so toxic that when you sit down eating, rather than saying ‘Enjoy your meal’, it would be better to say ‘Good luck’” (Pierre Rabhi)

Last article

The age of fake food: a conversation with Satish Kumar and Vandana Shiva

The same tycoons who created factory farms are the ones investing in fake meat. But “real” food can’t be created in laboratories: regenerative agriculture is the only way.

All articles

COP26 and false solutions to climate change

In Glasgow, technological solutions to climate change have been cleared as “natural” but are in contrast with regenerative, biodiversity-centred solutions.

Climate emergency: an open letter to concerned global citizens

100 eminent people from all over the world, including Vandana Shiva, Naomi Klein and Noam Chomsky, have signed an open letter after the disappointing results of the COP24. A call-to-arms for climate against world leaders’ indifference.

Industrial agriculture isn’t feeding the world, only agroecology can

A transition towards agroecology is needed to beat the diktats of a production model that is poisoning our Planet and our lives. The op-ed by Navdanya International.

Mega-mergers between multinationals like Bayer and Monsanto threaten citizens’ rights

The only responsible decision the European Union can make is to stop the Bayer-Monsanto merger. However, the latest updates from the European Commission don’t seem promising. The deadline for the verdict of the merger between Monsanto and Bayer (which amounts to over 63 billion dollars) has been extended to the 5th April 2018. The European Competition

How agricultural chemicals are poisoning our world. And all the (false) myths about them

Corporations are putting our lives and our environment at risk through a growing and improper influence over institutions, whose responsibility should be, instead, protecting people and the planet. The visible consequences have made it imperative to expose their devious tactics and their steadfast and corrupt lobbying, recently revealed in the Poison Papers (a compilation of over

The fight against GM mustard in India is crucial for the global war on GMOs

Amidst the determined push by biotech lobbies to impose genetically modified (GM) mustard in India, civil society movements and farmers’ organisations are once again doing battle to oppose this new product of genetic engineering. If approved, this would become India’s first GM food crop, which poses grave health and environmental risks. The release of GM mustard would threaten farmers’