Here are some of the seed stories that were shared with us from Tri-County Farmers' Market in Las Vegas, New Mexico!
Jude Romero shares his story about saving New Mexican chile seeds.
Ella Bleu Jimenez shares her seed story about why seeds are important
Francine Lujan talks about the culture of seeds, keeping traditions alive, and gardening
Julia Fuchs tells her seed story about broadcasting life through wildflower seeds
Damien Maestas talks about the importance of saving seeds to save culture
Thank you Jude, Francine, Julia, Damian, and Ella Bleu for sharing your seed stories!
Saturday, June 8, 2013
Friday, June 7, 2013
SeedBroadcasting at the Tri-County Farmers' Market in Las Vegas, New Mexico
Join us in Las Vegas, New Mexico for a celebration of Local Seeds = Local Food!
Bring your seeds to swap, and join us for seed story shout-outs, seeds and local food
June 8, 2013
8am - Noon
Local Seeds // Local Food
Tri-County Farmers' Market
6th and University
Las Vegas, NM
This event is hosted by the Tri-County Farmers' Market!
Global March Against Monsanto, Santa Fe, New Mexico!
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| March against Monsanto, Santa Fe, New Mexico. May 25th 2013 |
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| Mobile Seed Story Broadcasting Station at the Santa Fe Farmers Market |
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| March against Monsanto from the Santa Fe Farmers Market to the New Mexico State Capital as seen from the Mobile Seed Story Broadcasting Station. |
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| Some of the signs displayed at the New Mexico State Capital |
Chalo Wells, who had driven non stop from Los Angeles to get to the rally in Santa Fe, took time out to share his thoughts about seed saving as a cultural practice. This was one powerful day but one day is not enough. Many wonderful connections were made but we need to continue the discourse, we need to continue to find ways to speak out, to be heard and to keep this movement growing. Lets keep ourselves informed at a local level, help out in the community gardens, form a neighborhood garden by removing fences and walls, share resources and continue to save and share your open pollinated seeds. Perhaps inspire others by sharing your seed story at http://seedbroadcast.wufoo.com/forms/z7x3x5/ or create a circle of seeds http://seedfreedom.in/.
CIRCLES OF SEEDS
A Circle of Seeds is a very simple idea:
It is to gather a group of friends or neighbours,
each of whom commits to grow and save seeds from one or more crops.
Each member selects a crop variety
and takes on to sow, tend, harvest, clean, dry and store its seeds.
At the meetings everyone shares their seeds
and the information they have on the variety chosen.
Just imagine…
If the Circle has 12 people
and each person chooses a variety,
after one year, the Circle’s seed bank will contain seeds from 12 varieties.
The following year, each person chooses another variety
and now there are 24 varieties.
After 5 years…
AIM OF THIS PROJECT
To create a network of Circles of Seeds throughout the country to
Rediscover, Gather and Share
our national heritage of ancient and traditional seed varieties.
In solidarity!
In solidarity!
Sunday, May 5, 2013
SeedBroadcasting at SEEDS: A Collective Voice
Seedbroadcast partnered up with SEEDS: A Collective Voice during their opening festivities on May 4th, at the Downtown Contemporary Gallery in Albuquerque, New Mexico to share seedy resources, network local seed actions, and shout out seed stories from around the country. These stories echoed up and down 4th Street, while passers-by stopped in to check out the Broadcasting Station and share their stories.
The exhibition festivities celebrated the work of many artists, poets, writers, performers, farmers, gardeners, activists and most importantly the seeds that have brought us all together. The gallery was packed with people, art, conversation, and performance. While milkweed seed floated through the air, presentations were underway to share information and rouse the creative compassion and agency in everyone.
Local farmer and activist Isaura Andaluz discussed the growing concern over chile in New Mexico and the political and corporate pressures to homogenize, industrialize, and genetically modify historic land races, threatening the deep rooted agricultural practices and culture of these lands. Bubble maps documenting the relationships between multinational corporations and seeds were distributed sharing a sad truth, that almost all seed, agriculture, and food is not controlled by the 99%. Instead, it is controlled through the patent, power and greed of a handful of corporations. Read Seed Freedom, Who Own's the Seed? for more information.
Albuquerque farmers Mimi and Sean Ludden of Nepantla Farms were also busy talking to visitors about organizing a local seed cooperative and conversations emerged about joining forces to organize a living seed library. If you or any one you know is interested in this, contact Sean and Mimi and join Albuquerque seed solidarity: nepantlafarms@yahoo.com
A gourd rattles, rattles, rattles.....signally another live performance of voices and words, of the poetic story-tellers transforming critical compassion, anger, and beauty in all present. What does this listening build? Are these the stories of the seeds we try so hard to hear? Listen...
Artist and farmer, Amanda Rich from Erda Gardens performs "Amaranth (everlasting), while accompanied by semillaista friends.
Albuquerque poet Mary Oishi reads her poem "When I sing of seeds"
Santa Fe based writer and activist, Christian Leahy performs her story poem, "A Seed Cycle" in five parts
Albuquerque Poet Laureate, Hakim Bellamy performs his new work "Food Sovereignty" and also shared the text for everyone to read.
Food Sovereignty – by hakim bellamy
She said
What if the scientist stuck to science
And let the farmers stick to farming
It’s not rocket science
Global agriculture has changed more in our lifetime
Than the previous 10,000 years
Went from
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it
To if it works
Whip it into working harder
When the sun
Doesn’t rise fast enough for us
Will we tinker with that?
Will we surrender our Eden
To the machine
Look God in the eye
Point to the third day and say
“Not good enough”
Will we piss in the same pond
We’ve evolved from
Will we turn our back
On the mud in our veins
It’s not rocket science
The chemist are covering the spread
bruising silos with fruit sky high
You think the pesticides are expensive?
Imagine the plane
Gotta push a hell of a lot more acres
To cover the gas bill that gets that thing in the sky
It’s not rocket science
Even the fairy tales prosthelytized
Jack and the Beanstalk was so obviously
Corporate, that they didn’t try to hide it
In the beginning of the story he put three seeds in his pocket
And by the end he turns a profit
It’s surprisingly not surprising
That there is no problem with how he got it
In a country founded on deception and robbery
And there’s NO WAY
A beanstalk gets THAT big without GMO coursing through its body
That’s like watching Major League Baseball
And pretending there is no difference between 1999
And 2005 Jason Giambi
But the script gets flipped
To mess with our conscious
Of course, Jack is hungry and poor
So he’s just like us
Stole the tall man’s gold
And tricked his wife into liking him
Made Jack the bad guy
Even though the beans were free
And the stalk was on his property
But Jack still wins a happy ever after
Though we all know fairy tales aren’t reality
In the end,
The corporation is still giant
And Jack can’t have no beenstalk without’em
It’s not rocket science
They say money doesn’t grow on trees
But there are plenty of companies pumping it into the ground
“Food chain” will get a whole new meaning
As soon as they figure that out
Chemicals invented for world wars
Have no business in our bodies
Fertilizing killing fields with bullshit
Will only yield a barren garden
I suppose it makes perfect sense
If the idea is to wage war on our biology
Monocrop all biodiversity
Til every seed is eugenically perfect
And leave the farming to the Nazis
It’s not rocket science
Putting dope into the soil
Makes the land an addict
Now Mother Earth can’t function without it
While just a few years ago
She used to make miracles out of scratch for our parents.
Years ago our country abolished the ability of rich people to own farmers
But they didn’t want to share crops
So they pulled all the stops
Traded slave for patent holding, full well knowing
That they will always “own” farmers
As long as they can own their seeds
It’s not rocket science
We cannot eat coffee,
Super Insects or Super Weeds
Our crops have become a courtroom
And the lawyers are woefully overdressed
For this kind of work
It’s not rocket science
If your coat is a dirtless shade of white
You are not allowed in this field
Here, brown is holy
Here, life is NOT
An experiment
It is reality
Here, is not simply playing God
Here, is tampering with blessings
Here, is not 20,000 feet
Here, is ground
Zero
Here, is both feet
Both knees
Both hands
Both lips
Kiss
It’s not
Rocket
Science.
© Hakim Bellamy May 4th, 2013
Thank you to artist, Jade Leyva and Tom Frouge with Avakado Artists who organized SEEDS: A Collective Voice and to Sharon Berman who volunteered to help SeedBroadcast during this event.
Marijke de Vries visited us outside the gallery and shared her seed story.
 |
| Street-side SeedBroadcasting with SEEDS: A Collective Voice, visitors and performers. |
 |
| Local seed saver and forager Peter Callen brought native seeds to the exhibition and had this wisdom to share, [Why do you share seeds?] "It's part of life to share life and give it away, because that is what the plants do." |
 |
| Inside the Mobile Seed Story Broadcasting Station |
The exhibition festivities celebrated the work of many artists, poets, writers, performers, farmers, gardeners, activists and most importantly the seeds that have brought us all together. The gallery was packed with people, art, conversation, and performance. While milkweed seed floated through the air, presentations were underway to share information and rouse the creative compassion and agency in everyone.
 |
| Man's Research?, by artist Gene McClain, acrylic, wood carving. |
Local farmer and activist Isaura Andaluz discussed the growing concern over chile in New Mexico and the political and corporate pressures to homogenize, industrialize, and genetically modify historic land races, threatening the deep rooted agricultural practices and culture of these lands. Bubble maps documenting the relationships between multinational corporations and seeds were distributed sharing a sad truth, that almost all seed, agriculture, and food is not controlled by the 99%. Instead, it is controlled through the patent, power and greed of a handful of corporations. Read Seed Freedom, Who Own's the Seed? for more information.
 |
| Who Own's the Seed? |
Albuquerque farmers Mimi and Sean Ludden of Nepantla Farms were also busy talking to visitors about organizing a local seed cooperative and conversations emerged about joining forces to organize a living seed library. If you or any one you know is interested in this, contact Sean and Mimi and join Albuquerque seed solidarity: nepantlafarms@yahoo.com
 |
| Christian Leahy reading "A Seed Cycle" |
A gourd rattles, rattles, rattles.....signally another live performance of voices and words, of the poetic story-tellers transforming critical compassion, anger, and beauty in all present. What does this listening build? Are these the stories of the seeds we try so hard to hear? Listen...
Artist and farmer, Amanda Rich from Erda Gardens performs "Amaranth (everlasting), while accompanied by semillaista friends.
Albuquerque poet Mary Oishi reads her poem "When I sing of seeds"
Santa Fe based writer and activist, Christian Leahy performs her story poem, "A Seed Cycle" in five parts
Albuquerque Poet Laureate, Hakim Bellamy performs his new work "Food Sovereignty" and also shared the text for everyone to read.
Food Sovereignty – by hakim bellamy
She said
What if the scientist stuck to science
And let the farmers stick to farming
It’s not rocket science
Global agriculture has changed more in our lifetime
Than the previous 10,000 years
Went from
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it
To if it works
Whip it into working harder
When the sun
Doesn’t rise fast enough for us
Will we tinker with that?
Will we surrender our Eden
To the machine
Look God in the eye
Point to the third day and say
“Not good enough”
Will we piss in the same pond
We’ve evolved from
Will we turn our back
On the mud in our veins
It’s not rocket science
The chemist are covering the spread
bruising silos with fruit sky high
You think the pesticides are expensive?
Imagine the plane
Gotta push a hell of a lot more acres
To cover the gas bill that gets that thing in the sky
It’s not rocket science
Even the fairy tales prosthelytized
Jack and the Beanstalk was so obviously
Corporate, that they didn’t try to hide it
In the beginning of the story he put three seeds in his pocket
And by the end he turns a profit
It’s surprisingly not surprising
That there is no problem with how he got it
In a country founded on deception and robbery
And there’s NO WAY
A beanstalk gets THAT big without GMO coursing through its body
That’s like watching Major League Baseball
And pretending there is no difference between 1999
And 2005 Jason Giambi
But the script gets flipped
To mess with our conscious
Of course, Jack is hungry and poor
So he’s just like us
Stole the tall man’s gold
And tricked his wife into liking him
Made Jack the bad guy
Even though the beans were free
And the stalk was on his property
But Jack still wins a happy ever after
Though we all know fairy tales aren’t reality
In the end,
The corporation is still giant
And Jack can’t have no beenstalk without’em
It’s not rocket science
They say money doesn’t grow on trees
But there are plenty of companies pumping it into the ground
“Food chain” will get a whole new meaning
As soon as they figure that out
Chemicals invented for world wars
Have no business in our bodies
Fertilizing killing fields with bullshit
Will only yield a barren garden
I suppose it makes perfect sense
If the idea is to wage war on our biology
Monocrop all biodiversity
Til every seed is eugenically perfect
And leave the farming to the Nazis
It’s not rocket science
Putting dope into the soil
Makes the land an addict
Now Mother Earth can’t function without it
While just a few years ago
She used to make miracles out of scratch for our parents.
Years ago our country abolished the ability of rich people to own farmers
But they didn’t want to share crops
So they pulled all the stops
Traded slave for patent holding, full well knowing
That they will always “own” farmers
As long as they can own their seeds
It’s not rocket science
We cannot eat coffee,
Super Insects or Super Weeds
Our crops have become a courtroom
And the lawyers are woefully overdressed
For this kind of work
It’s not rocket science
If your coat is a dirtless shade of white
You are not allowed in this field
Here, brown is holy
Here, life is NOT
An experiment
It is reality
Here, is not simply playing God
Here, is tampering with blessings
Here, is not 20,000 feet
Here, is ground
Zero
Here, is both feet
Both knees
Both hands
Both lips
Kiss
It’s not
Rocket
Science.
© Hakim Bellamy May 4th, 2013
Thank you to artist, Jade Leyva and Tom Frouge with Avakado Artists who organized SEEDS: A Collective Voice and to Sharon Berman who volunteered to help SeedBroadcast during this event.
Monday, April 29, 2013
SeedBroadcast and SEEDS: A Collective Voice
Join us at SEEDS: A Collective Voice! an exhibition of artists, activists, performers, gardeners, and farmers celebrating and interrogating the current state of seeds as a life force for change.
Listen to the Seed Story shout out from exhibition organizer and seed lover, Jade Levya, who talks more about her inspiration for this gathering of seeds, creativity, and sovereignty.
Listen to the Seed Story shout out from exhibition organizer and seed lover, Jade Levya, who talks more about her inspiration for this gathering of seeds, creativity, and sovereignty.
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