Looking for some new books or authors to get inspired? Then check out these amazing women who are making a difference around the world in the fields of agriculture, human health, and government!
Vandana Shiva
Dr. Vandana Shiva is trained as a Physicist and received her Ph.D. on the subject “Hidden Variables and Non-locality in Quantum Theory” from the University of Western Ontario in Canada. She later shifted to inter-disciplinary research in science, technology and environmental policy, which she carried out at the Indian Institute of Science and the Indian Institute of Management in Bangalore, India. Dr. Shiva has contributed in fundamental ways to changing the practice and paradigms of agriculture and food.
She’s written many titles, including Food, Farming & Health, Create Civil Disobedience, and Oneness vs. the 1%. Her books, The Violence of Green Revolution and Monocultures of the Mind have become basic challenges to the dominant paradigm of non-sustainable, reductionist Green Revolution Agriculture. Through her books Biopiracy, Stolen Harvest, Water Wars, Dr. Shiva has made visible the social, economic and ecological costs of corporate led globalization.
Dr. Shiva chairs the Commission on the Future of Food set up by the Region of Tuscany in Italy. She is a board member of the International Forum on Globalization and a member of the steering committee of the Indian People’s Campaign against WTO. She also serves on Government of India committees on organic farming.
Dr. Nasha Winters
Dr. Nasha Winters is a sought-after luminary and a global healthcare authority in integrative cancer research and consults with physicians around the world. She bridges ancient therapies with advancements in modern medicine in the digital era. Dr. Nasha consults with some of the most prestigious cancer centers in the US and has created robust educational programs for both healthcare institutions and the public on incorporating vetted integrative therapies in cancer care to enhance outcomes.
Dr. Nasha is bestselling co-author of The Metabolic Approach to Cancer which has received many accolades. She is also completing a 2nd forthcoming book on therapeutic diets for cancer with her co-author Jess Higgins Kelley, MNT and is a contributor and curator of a book on mistletoe highlighting clinical applications around the world.
A personal journey with cancer, overseeing care of tens of thousands of patients worldwide, training practitioners in her methodology, presenting at medical conferences globally, Dr. Nasha is on a mission to educate and empower the nearly fifty percent of the population expected to have cancer in their lifetime. Prevention is the only cure.
Leah Penniman
Leah Penniman is a Black Kreyol farmer who has been tending the soil for 20 years and organizing for an anti-racist food system for 15 years. She began with the Food Project in Boston, Massachusetts, and went on to work at Farm School in Athol, Massachusetts, and Many Hands Organic Farm in Barre, Massachusetts. She cofounded Youth Grow urban farm in Worcester, Massachusetts.
Leah currently serves as founding co-executive director of Soul Fire Farm in Grafton, New York, a people-of-color led project that works to dismantle racism in the food system through a low cost fresh food delivery service for people living under food apartheid, training programs for Black, Latinx, and Indigenous aspiring farmer-activists, Uprooting Racism training for food justice leaders, and regional-national-international coalition building between farmers of color advocating for policy shifts and reparations.
She has dedicated her life’s work to racial justice in the food system and has been recognized by the Soros Equality Fellowship, NYSHealth Emerging Innovator Awards, The Andrew Goodman Foundation Hidden Heroes Award, Fulbright Distinguished Awards in Teaching Program, New Tech Network National Teaching Award, Presidential Award for Excellence in Teaching (New York finalist), among others. She wrote Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farm’s Practical Guide to Liberation on the Land, has contributed to two published volumes, authored numerous online articles, and given dozens of public talks on the subject.
Anne Biklé
Anne Biklé is an author, biologist, and gardener whose wide-ranging interests have led her into salmon restoration, environmental planning, and public health. She uses her broad background and endless fascination with the natural world to investigate and write about connections between people, plants, food, health, and the environment. She finds the botanical world particularly enthralling whether coaxing plants into rambunctious growth or nursing them back from the edge of death. She particularly likes sharing the inner workings of plants and the human body with audiences.
Her work has appeared in magazines, newspapers, and radio and her soil-building practices have been featured in independent and documentary films. Anne holds Bachelors’ degrees in Biology and Natural History from the University of California, Santa Cruz and a Masters Degree in Landscape Architecture from the University of California, Berkeley. She partnered with her husband and co-author, David Montgomery, to write The Hidden Half of Nature.
Nicole Masters
Nicole Masters is an independent agroecologist, systems thinker, author and educator. She has a formal background in ecology, soil science and organizational learning. She has been providing agricultural consulting and extension services since 2003. Nicole is recognized as a knowledgeable and dynamic speaker on the topic of soil health.
Her team of soil coaches at Integrity Soils work alongside producers in the U.S., Canada and across Australia. Supporting producers who work with over 1.1 million acres to take their operations to the next level in nutrient density, profitability and environmental outcomes. She is one of a growing number of people who are facilitating a rapidly expanding world of quality food production and biological economies.
Her book titled For the Love of Soil showcases examples of the tools and principles producers are using to regenerate their soils. Describing a step-by-step triage of actions, so that you too can regenerate your land. www.integritysoils.co.nz
Bonus! Carrie Eastman
Carrie Eastman was drawn to animals and healing at a young age. As a fan of rare breed conservation, she became involved in breeding myotonic goats, commonly called fainting goats. She adapted her equine methods to her goats, culminating in her first book, The Energetic Goat. Her latest book, The Healing of Horses, was published by Acres U.S.A. in 2020.
She continues to study health and healing, soils, crops, and nutrition, as well as conscious horsemanship and balanced hoof trimming as well as work in rare horse breeding, through the Jilfan Sitam al Bulad Malabar Preservation Program. She shares her home with ten horses, donkeys, goats, chickens and ducks, a dog, cat and turtle, and her husband-business partner.
