Decorah Seed Savers Exchange Spring SWAP

Last month we took a beautiful day trip to Decorah Iowa to swap seeds and stories at the Seed Savers Exchange Spring Garden School & Seed Swap. 

More pictures here by Seedbroadcast Iowa.

Greeted by a host of amazingly welcoming seed workers, we quickly came to find that SSE is not only filling gardens with great seeds, but also cultivating an incredible crop of bright young agri-Culture workers- new and experienced growers eager to get involved in seed production, and to examine more deeply the relationships between food and social customs, cultural histories, anthropological developments, and throguh these various lenses, create new ways to build networks among seed savers.
With backgrounds ranging from market growing to grad school, horticulture to anthropology, studio arts to literary studies, from a lab full of Chinese medicinal herbs, to Appalachia- the number of perspectives on the importance of seed diversity at Seed Savers was exceeded only by the actual diversity of seeds in their commercial and preservation collections.
Throughout the day conversations returned to an appreciation for the aesthetic beauty of heirloom vegetables, their being "food for the soul", and to the important role interested amateurs continue to play in preserving plant biodiversity.

Stories from Ely, IA

Ely Iowa is a rural farm town on the outskirts of Cedar Rapids. Like other small farming communities, its landscape and surrounding architecture are a testament to the current paradigm of corporate agricultural monopoly.

Krob Feed Mill - Ely IA - Becca Kacanda 2014

But Even in the midst of factories like that of Dupont, and Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) with its giant post-apolcolyptic sci-fi looking facility capable of processing 3,000 acres of corn into high-fructose corn syrup daily, not to mention International Paper and a coal burning plant, all within a 10 mile radius of the town, Ely, with a population of 1,776, is not without empowered individuals reviving both recreational interest and entrepreneurial opportunity in food production and who are cultivating new enthusiasm for the natural world. 

Ali Eggenberg Alldredge - Seed Starting Demonstration @ Ely Public Library 2014

The Takes family, for example, who have raised 6 kids on their Ely dairy, milking two times a day and marketing milk through Swiss Valley recently purchased, and are in the process of transforming a defunct lumberyard into a local creamery in order to market their milk directly to locals, and in Iowa City and Cedar Rapids grocery stores. They also have plans to churn their own ice cream- which is sure to be a hit, especially for bikers taking the new Cedar River Bike Trail through town.

Ely SWAP

Earlier this month we met up with community members at the the Ely Public Library,  home to one of the first Seed Libraries in the country-initiated in 2011 by Ali Eggenberg Alldredge.

Melissa Sharapova replenishing Ely Seed Library with new seed - 2014

SeedBroadcast Soundcloud

Cheri Frank's Pale Cone Flower Seeds - 2014

Corn and Beans Minus the Monopoly: Iowa's Open-Pollinated Corn and Edible Bean Producers

Last week in Iowa we met with two major players in local food: Farmer Laura Krause and Food System Planner and Farmer Jason Grimm to talk about their role in building a more resilient food system in Iowa with non-GMO staple crops. 
 
Here, where the landscape now consists of over 60% GMO herbicide-resistant corn and beans, Jason and Laura's farming practices represent an important kind of negotiation: growing crops at a scale that benefits from the efficiency of conventional machinery, but doing so using sustainable practices. On the farm, they select and save seed, and maintain soil health with green manure and diversified crop rotations. Off the farm, instead of doing what most of their neighbors do by depending on agrochemical companies to provide them with both inputs and markets for their crops, they pay attention to the needs of local buyers, market locally, and grow through the support of neighbors, families, and supportive peer-to-peer networks with whom they obtain and share information and resources. 

Neil's Yellow Dent Corn

Laura Krouse @ Abbe Hills Farm, Mt. Vernon, IA

Laura Krouse at Pesticide Action Network's
Driftcatcher Training Session. Grinnell, IA (2013)

I first met Laura at a Pesticide Action Network Training session where we were learning how to operate Driftcatchers; devices that collects air samples to be analyzed for pesticides. Laura, who has been farming in Mt. Vernon since 1988, was interested in documenting the otherwise invisible chemical exposure that occurs on her 150-acre organic farm, now located in the midst of thousands of acres of GMOs. As a provider of vegetables to over 150 area families, and in anticipation of the release of 24D resistant soybeans in 2015, she wanted to know exactly where she, her crops, and her customers were in relationship to the risks of genetic and chemical contamination.

Laura's seed story emphasizes the urgency to protect seeds and germplasm from appropriation by monopoly interests. She also discusses her ideas about empowering creative, smart people to enter into the world of plant breeding.  

Laura's Seed Story: Part I

"The seeds belong to people... The genetics simply cannot belong to a company. They must belong to humans. "

Part II

Meeting New Demand for Local Legumes : Black Turtle Beans

Jason Grimm @ Grimm Family Farm, North English, IA

I met Jason throguh the Practical Farmer's of Iowa Beginning Farmers Network and soon found out that if there was any regional food business development on the table- Jason was behind it. 

Raised on a farm and trained as a landscape architect, Jason became interested in working in regional food systems after studying walkable urban communities and imagining how the principles of new urbanism could be applied to decentralized rural communities.

Jason is currently the local food system planner for the Iowa Valley RC&D, the manager of the Iowa Valley Food Co-Op as well as a grower. The thing I most respect most about him is his responsiveness to the needs voiced at local summits and regional conferences. When he hears "we need an online resource to buy and sell local goods" he doesn't waste time gathering collaborators, and turning the idea into The Iowa Valley Food Co-Op. He hears "we need a local producer of legumes" and he's off researching Nebraska edible bean farming, negotiating a spot on the family farm, and and filling the bulk bins at the local New-Pi Food Co-Op with his own black beans.

Jason's practice also includes a serious commitment to social mobilization, by participating in pragmatic collaborative community building, especially among young and beginning farmers.

Stay tuned for Jason's Seed Story! 

"That's why I love design too. You're given a problem and then you have to come up with a solution, and knowing that there's multiple avenues to get to the solution... that's kind of how I've looked at the beans. I've never grown them the same way in the last three years that I've grown beans, and this year it's gonna be another different way."

Today in the New Bohemia District: Cedar Rapids, IA

We'll be swapping seed stories and hanging out with the Mobile Seed SWAP Station from 10:00-2:00 today at the New Bo City Market, located in the New Bohemia District in Cedar Rapids Iowa.

After being ravaged by the flood of 2008, the New Bo Market building sat neglected, a blight on the neighborhood, until a handful of creative locals came together to create what is now NewBo City Market. A small business incubator, New Bo provides commercial space to dozens of small business start ups. Stop by for breakfast or lunch and say hello!

In like a Lion

We're on the move::

Three Counties in Two Days!

Exuberant Politics 

We've installed the SWAP station alongside videos, computer games, prints, sculptures, paintings, and murals culled from nearly 400 entries received from every continent except Antarctica in a celebration of art, activism and political feeling from around the world. The show will be up all month at Legion Arts CSPS (open 10:00-6:00) and PS1 (Gallery Hours TBA) with opening events this weekend!

Post by Seedbroadcast Iowa.

Opening Receptions 

Thursday March 6 Legion Arts Center Cedar Rapids 5:00-7:00 

 & Friday March 7 Public Space One Iowa City 6:00-8:00

We'll be doubling up on Friday night, moving our second station out to West Branch for

Library...After Hours: WB Grows! 

Friday March 7th West Branch Public Library 7:00-9:00

West Branch is kicking off their first seed lending library! I'll be joining in with a short presentation on what it means on a political level to save seeds in Iowa. Refreshments will be provided by New Pioneer Co-Op. Apparently, this event is for ages 21+. Sorry kids  :(

Ely Seed Library Farmer's Market + Seed Starting Demos

Saturday March 8th Ely Public Library 9:00-12:00

Post by Homegrown.

Sunday Recap: Food Production & Public Assembly

Last weekend, over 30 community members gathered at the Public Library to take part in an open forum organized by Iowa City non-profit Backyard Abundance. Through collective inquiry and participatory design, the process of planning and implementing a food forest in one of Iowa City's public parks continued.
 

Having spent the majority of my month wrist-to-elbow deep in lamb placenta at the farm, or at the back of Farm Records 101, peering over a sea of camouflage Dupont baseball caps, or doing some other equally glamorous but largely solitary task, I was giddy to be a part of this empowered assembly, and within that context, to introduce SeedBroadcast’s upcoming project with Exuberant Politics: SWAP. 

Both SWAP, with its emphasis on celebrating local seed wisdom and bottom-up food sovereignty action, and Backyard Abundance, in it’s resolve to hear community voices at the expense, perhaps, of more efficient implementation of design, hint at what the notion of a civic, or politically engaged agricultural practice looks like in action.

The meeting drew community members from diverse backgrounds, growing experience, politics, and proximity to Wetherby Park. Master Gardeners and students, guys working on urban ag policy and girls interested in prairie plants. Folks who use comfrey to make healing salves, and folks who think comfrey is a too dangerous to be planted near children (don’t even mention rhubarb). While the majority of attendees were curious and excited about diverse food-bearing plants in public space, a multitude of concerns were brought up ranging from issues of aesthetics (a forest gardens is not an English garden), to the question of necessity (can’t you go to one of those other parks to experience nature?), to the big question of how to control the uncontrollable (What if one guy runs off with all the strawberries!?) 

 

While I didn’t get to record any audio seed stories, the Mobile SWAP Station did get a donation of Heirloom Lettuce seeds from New Pioneer Co-Op’s Earth source Gardens, and :: HOLY POST-MEETING CONVO’S:: some remarkable feedback from community members interested in delving deeper into action by effecting ordinance-making bodies, pushing for, and participating  in new pilot projects like free seed libraries and public gardens. 

*Photos courtesy of Backyard Abundance

HEADLINES : w/ Backyard Abundance

We had a great time with Backyard Abundance this weekend doing some Community Visioning.  Full report coming soon, but in the meantime, check out CBS's coverage of the event @ Iowa City: Edible Forest

 

  

"Be they large or small, the initial assemblies and the movement that seeks to foster them in civic elections remain the only real school for citizenship we have. There is no civic "curriculum" other than a living and creative political realm that can give rise to people who take management of public affairs seriously. What we must clearly do in an era of commodification, rivalry, anomie, and egoism is to consciously create a public sphere that will inculcate the values of humanism, cooperation, community, and public service in the everyday practice of civic life. Grassroots citizenship goes hand in hand with grassroots politics."

-Murray Bookchin: Libertarian Municipalism: The New Municipal Agenda

GROWING A PUBLIC PRACTICE: Community Visioning with Backyard Abundance

Hey SeedBroadcasters!

This is Carolyn in Ely, making my first post for SeedBroadcast IOWA & Exuberant Politics.

I'm pleased to announce our first organizational collaboration with Backyard Abundance this Sunday, February 23rd, from 2:00-4:00pm at The Iowa City Public Library.

Following up with their 40-person public brainstorm session on February 8th, local environmental educators and eco-viosionarys Backyard Abundance will be dropping their new design for a perennial-based agroforestry system for Iowa City's Wetherby Park and opening up the floor for public opinion and discussion.

We'll be joining in with a short presentation on upcoming opportunities to get involved with SWAP, recording audio Seed Stories, and collecting seeds to be shared through the Mobile SWAP Station (due to arrive from New Mexico next week).

Don't miss out on this visionary public assembly! Come share your localized seed wisdom and discuss the infinite possibilities that emerge when we take our agricultural practices from the realm of solitary production & commodification to a practice rooted in public assembly, listening & cooperation.

You ready Iowa?!
We'll see you Sunday.

SWAP

During 2014, SeedBroadcast will be implementing a project called SWAP, as a series of traveling Seed Story pollination pop-ups with multiple partners around the United States. These experimental “grow kits” will enable the cultivation of radical seed action where participating organizations and individuals are performative agents, growing and broadcasting seed stories in their local communities and through the SeedBroadcast media network.

We are pleased to announce our first partners in SWAP are The Exubernauts!

During their bi-city event called Exuberant Politics, in Iowa City and Cedar Rapids, Iowa, SWAP will be located in both cities for visitors to engage, exchanging seeds, posting local seed and food news, and sharing and listening to seed stories through an in-house audio feed.

And we would like to welcome Carolyn Scherf as an Iowa SeedBroadcaster! Carolyn is a farmer and creative worker cultivating a joyous flight from corporatized definitions of value and success in Iowa agriculture.

She will be mobilizing one of the SWAP kits and partnering up with local organizations, farmers, and gardeners to reach out to a broad network of seed resilience. Carolyn will be recording local seed stories and posting blogs from theses events here on the SeedBroadcast blogger.

Stop by and join in SWAP, bring seeds to share, take seeds home to plant, post events, activities, and how to’s on the SWAP bulletin board, and come by to listen to seed stories!

March 5 – April 6 2014
Legion Arts 1103 3rd St. SE, Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Public Space One 120 N. Dubuque St., Iowa City, Iowa

To follow SeedBroadcast IOWA and find local SWAP events: www.facebook.com/seedbroadcastIA

For more information about Exuberant Politics go to: http://exuberantpolitics.art.uiowa.edu