{"id":672,"date":"2026-06-05T13:43:54","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T20:43:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.kpu.ca\/green-criminology\/?p=672"},"modified":"2026-06-05T13:43:54","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T20:43:54","slug":"learning-about-green-criminology-through-the-lens-of-activism-and-gardening","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.kpu.ca\/green-criminology\/2026\/06\/05\/learning-about-green-criminology-through-the-lens-of-activism-and-gardening\/","title":{"rendered":"Learning about Green Criminology through the lens of Activism and Gardening"},"content":{"rendered":"

Green Criminology:<\/strong><\/h3>\n

When I first registered for this class, I had no idea what I would learn about or what green criminology exactly was. I thought it would include police, courts, legislation but I now understand that I was wrong. \u00a0Simmons et al., mention that, \u201cGreen criminology refers to the study of environmental crimes and harms affecting human and non\u2010human life, ecosystems and the biosphere\u201d (Simmons et al., 2023). Green criminology focuses on illegal and legal actions that are taken that not only harm us humans but also our environment and the ecosystem\u2019s around us. This class has allowed me to change my perspective that criminology is not just about the law and police but also about the environment and non-human species. Through hands on learning in the garden and observing activists, such as Vandana Shiva has helped me increase my knowledge about green criminology.<\/p>\n

My Gardening Experience:<\/strong><\/h3>\n

I have personally never planted or taken any part in gardening in the past. The most I have done is water the plants my parents grew. This new experience has been extremely educational and fun for me. From deciding the placement of seeds\/plants, to planting starters and seeds, seeing different types of insects that help our plants grow, getting dirt on our fingers, and being responsible for watering the plants helped me see how diverse our ecosystem is.<\/p>\n

\"Watering<\/p>\n

Vandana Shiva:\u00a0<\/h3>\n

Who is Vandana Shiva? Vandana Shiva is an environmental activist who fights to reduce the harm caused on our planet. After watching the documentary, The Seeds of Vandana Shiva, one main takeaway was the several ways how humans are ruining the biodiversity of our planet. She allowed me to understand that green criminology is not only about providing justice towards humans, but rather justice towards the environment and several other species that have habitats here as well.<\/p>\n

I gained more knowledge about the need for organic seeds and how corporations provide farmers wrong knowledge that in the future push them into extreme debt. Green criminology connects here due to the negative impact it has on the farmers, unfortunately many farmers tend to commit suicide as they know they won\u2019t be able to pay off the money\/loans that they take. This is a legal method used by corporations that put humans and organisms in harm. The documentary made me understand Vandana Shiva\u2019s concerns and idea especially when I go to my garden now (at school and home). Our garden helps me see how privileged I am and further see the importance of farming, biodiversity, and the protection of seeds.<\/p>\n

\"Vandana<\/p>\n

\u201c[T]he deployment of genetically- modified organisms (GMOs) as part of agribusiness completely changes existing ecologies\u201d (White, 2018, p. 122). This connects to Vandana Shiva\u2019s concerns about these big corporations selling GMO (Genetically Modified Organism) seeds to endanger the biodiversity of our environment. Vandana also mentions herbicides that are used for several of these plants which then endanger and are harmful to other organisms such as butterflies and other insects. Vandana Shiva\u2019s advocacy supporting the idea of green criminology and watching her documentary has helped my understanding of what green criminology may look in the outside world.<\/p>\n

To sum up, watching Vandana Shiva\u2019s documentary and growing our own garden has changed my understanding about criminology. Now I know that criminology is not a limited study area, rather it includes a lot more that we may not consider. Even though we aren\u2019t close to the final outcome, seeing the seeds sprout made me feel a sense of accomplishment. It has made me proud of the hard work and dedication that I put in. Vandana Shiva\u2019s advocacy towards the rights of farmers and protecting the environment has also made me develop a greater understanding about green criminology as well. This experience overall has helped me feel connected to the land, environment, and species that live in this world.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

*Grammarly was used to edit this blog post! <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sources:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n
\n

Simmons, G., Stevenson, R., & Vardy, M. (2023). “Chapter 13: Green criminology.” In S. Hassan & D. Lett (Eds.), Introduction to Criminology.” KPU Pressbooks.<\/p>\n

The seeds of Vandana Shiva. (2021). In Infobase.<\/em> Infobase. https:\/\/access.infobase.com\/video\/47887-seeds-vandana-shiva?aid=79191&rak=1<\/p>\n

White, R. (2018). Critical green criminology. In Routledge handbook of critical criminology (pp. 120-131). Routledge.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Green Criminology: When I first registered for this class, I had no idea what I would learn about or what green criminology exactly was. I thought it would include police, courts, legislation but I now understand that I was wrong. \u00a0Simmons et al., mention that, \u201cGreen criminology refers to the study of environmental crimes and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1513,"featured_media":678,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-published"],"splot_meta":{"author":"Simrit","license":"","footer":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.kpu.ca\/green-criminology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.kpu.ca\/green-criminology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.kpu.ca\/green-criminology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.kpu.ca\/green-criminology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1513"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.kpu.ca\/green-criminology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=672"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.kpu.ca\/green-criminology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":679,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.kpu.ca\/green-criminology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672\/revisions\/679"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.kpu.ca\/green-criminology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.kpu.ca\/green-criminology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.kpu.ca\/green-criminology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.kpu.ca\/green-criminology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}