Environmental for Food Justice

Seeds. Jyoti Thomas. Source: absolutearts.com Moderator’s Note: The Seed Savers Exchange has actively served the nation’s farmers, gardeners, plant breeders, and seed librarians since 1975 as a reliable source of non-GMO heirloom seed. The Seed Savers released a statement in support of seed libraries last week. I am reposting their eloquent declaration in defense of seed libraries; for the original, please visit the Seed Savers home page . The statement makes a strong declaration of support for the principle tenet that seed saving is part of our deepest cultural heritage and people have been saving and sharing seeds for millennia.   Moreover, “Despite what some institutions have suggested, seeds can be valuable, safe and healthy without laboratory germination tests or government licenses.” I would like to remind our readers that seed libraries still face the real challenge to come up with a collective policy response that includes the ability to verify the non-GMO quality of our s...

Free market fundamentalism versus food democracy I-522 SIGNALS THE NEED FOR A NEW SOCIAL ECOLOGICAL COVENANT Devon G. Peña | Seattle, WA | October 6, 2013 The seed is the memory of the plant of how to live well in this place. - Margarita K. Peña People frequently ask me why I save seeds. I reply, “Because I want my corn to dance.” When I am not teaching at the University of Washington, I work on a 200-acre flood-irrigated farm that also serves as the home for my family’s foundation, The Acequia Institute. We run the farm as an almunyah , which is essentially a private, non-profit “agricultural experiment station”. We serve acequia farmers who are among the oldest family farms in the United States, dating back to well before the arrival of the Spaniards in 1598. As an experiment station we take our business of preserving and protecting plant genetic resources very seriously. Without the diversity of seeds developed by native farmers, the traditions of sustainable agriculture as we know...