South Valley Academy, Albuquerque, New Mexico

Students from the South Valley Academy, check out the drivers seat of the Seed Story Broadcasting Station van.

The day after the Machine Wilderness atmosphere of ISEA2012, Seed Broadcast slowly made its way down Isleta Boulevard, to the South Valley. This is the traditional agricultural area of Albuqueque, situated in the fertile bosque of the Rio Grande. We had been invited to the local high school, South Valley Academy. This Charter High School is a series of cream-colored porta-cabins, nestled in between huge, ancient cottonwoods, with a population of students from local New Mexican families and new immigrants from south of the border. Five years ago, Richard Brandt, a South Valley local, initiated Dragon Farms, on a piece of land adjacent to the school; to educate the students in local growing practices and healthy eating. Check out this wonderful community/school project at: http://www.southvalleyacademy.org/dragonfarm/

Garden beds at the South Valley Academy, Dragon Farms

 
The principal, Kata Sandoval had arranged for the science teachers to bring their students over to the mobile unti, although at one point a class of students arrived reading books, it was the reading class! We engaged the students in a dialogue around the importance of seed saving and guided them in numerous experiences, which included wheat pasting printed seeds on the outside of the mobile unit, accessing audio and video information via the technology set up inside the unit and sorting, packaging, and labeling seeds. Many of the students asked to take some of the seeds with them, as they had gardens at home. They loved the blue corn and creeping onions from Fodder Farm. We were told that their families, often grandparents, grew corn and squash and some had apple and peach trees. Many of the students talked of ranches that were left behind in Mexico.

Students check out the interior of the Broadcast Station, listen to seed stories, and note their own on the seed story board.

One of the teachers suggested that they take some of the seeds and plant them at the Dragon Farm site to record and keep track of how they grow. They also talked about starting their own seed library. We asked that they keep us updated on the progress. We hope to be able to visit again. Thank you to all the teachers, Kata Sandoval, and Richard Brandt for making this visit so informative.

ISEA 2012 Block Party - Seed Broadcast

SeedBroadcast Mobile Seed Story Broadcasting Station spent an evening sharing seed stories on Central Avenue, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, during the International Symposium on Electronic Art, ISEA2012 Block Party, on September 26, 2012.

Albuquerque area residents, along with ISEA visitors, explored the Broadcast Station, listening to seed stories from around the country and watching videos like Seeds of Freedom, by The Gaia Foundation and the African Biodiversity Network, and our very own video, Letter From a Seed Broadcaster.

Drawing and writing on the Seed Broadcast "Germination Board," many people answered the questions, WHY IS SEED SAVING IMPORTANT? WHY DO YOU SAVE SEEDS? citing needs for survival, grassroots control over resources, and the poetry implicit in each act of planting and saving seeds.

Folks also participated in the SeedBroadcast event by filling out questionnaires and voicing their thoughts about the importance of seed saving, favorite seeds, sharing seeds, and concerns about seed saving. This fall, as we wrap up the 2012 tour, we will be including these textual thoughts in the blog. So stay posted for the publication of these digests and if you are interested in contributing your own questionnaire, these are available online for you to fill out and submit. Check it out at: SeedBroadast Online Questionnaire.

Several passerby's asked for seed saving information and used the SeedBroadcast Bulletin Board to copy and take references home, to further pursue their own seed saving experiments. One document that we have, from the Garden Organic's Heritage Seed Library, was of particular interest: Seed Saving Guidelines.  You can find other downloadable information from seed saving organizations around the world at our Online Bulletin Board. And, if you have a reference source you would like to share, email us, and let us know about it, so we can include it in the Online Bulletin Board.

Many local gardeners were also interested in locating or forming an Albuquerque Seed Swap. There were rumors of one being organized in the South Valley, and one last year at the Hubbell House, and in Old Town. If anyone knows of a local seed swap in Albuquerque, let us know, so we can pass on the information. Also, you can contact the Gardeners Guild of Albuquerque and check out their website to find out about more organizations across the city, who are supporting local food and gardening interests. These may be excellent places to start forming seed swaps. Also, ask you neighbors if they have seeds to share. You might be surprised how many people save seeds and grow gardens. It is simply incredible.

Best and in Seed Solidarity,
the seedbroadcasters

SeedBroadcasting in Albuquerque, New Mexico

Join us for an afternoon of Seed Broadcasting!

SeedBroadcast Mobile Seed Story Broadcasting Station, in partnership with Dragon Farms and Valle Encantado, will be at the ISEA2012 Block Party, on Sunday, September 23, from 4pm - 9pm, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. We will be interviewing local folks and broadcasting seed stories. The broadcasting station will also be open for everyone to check out: to copy seed resources, to listen to stories from across the country, and to help wheat paste pictures of seeds all over the van.

Event details
September 23, 2012
Time: 4pm - 9pm
We will be parked on the south side of Central Ave between 5th & 6th Streets
Albuquerque, New Mexico 
For more information:
Email: SeedBroadcast@gmail.com
Call: 1-575-718-4511

Download event pdf

Occupy the Seed!

Permaculturalist, Gerald Anderson, from Conway, Arkansas, just sent this link to an amazing event, which we can all participate in. OCCUPY THE SEED! Thanks Gerald for sharing!

Go to: Seed Freedom Fortnight of Action for more information....note I just copied over the following information from International Permaculture Day....please visit Seed Freedom Fortnight of Action for live links....

Seed Freedom Fortnight of Action – how to participate:

• Join the Seed Freedom Movement: Sign the Declaration on Seed Freedom
• Organise an action and add it to the Fortnight of Action Calendar - email: info[at]seedfreedom.in
• Example actions for the Fortnight of Action
• Become a Seed Saver / Start a Seed Bank
• Become a Seed Defender
• Download the Seed Freedom Action Kit (more items to be added)
• Subscribe to the Seed Freedom blog
• Follow Seed Freedom on Facebook
• Follow Seed Freedom on Twitter
• Subscribe to Seed Freedom on YouTube – link to follow
• Share a link to this page link with others
• Download the Fortnight of Action Promo Button for your website or blog. Link it to the Fortnight of Action page
• Share and embed Dr Shiva’s Seed Freedom video on your website or blog:

• Share and embed the Manifestos on the Future of Food and Seeds on your website or blog
• Share your own ideas and actions
• Offer to translate Seed Freedom information and the Manifestos on the Future of Food and Seeds (see below) into other languages – email: info[at]seedfreedom.in
• Donate to the Campaign - click on the “Donate Now” button

There will be updates and additions to the bullet points above. Check this page for those updates.

Vandana’s Message to Permaculturists

Dear Permaculturists,
There can be no permanent agriculture without the permanence, diversity and renewability of seed. Unlike industrial monocultures, permaculture depends on the co-operation between different species – plant and animals, perennial and annual.
The seeds of this diversity are at the heart of an agriculture of permanence. This is why you have an extremely important role to play in the Global Campaign for Seed Freedom both to save the diversity of seeds as well as our freedom to save and exchange seeds. Everywhere new laws are being imposed that make seed diversity, seed freedom and seed exchange illegal.
That is why I invite you to play a leading role in the Fortnight for Seed Freedom from 2^nd October (Gandhi’s Birth Anniversary) to 16^th October 2012 (World Food Day). In the spirit of Gandhi’s satyagraha, we plan to focus especially on the 2nd October (Gandhi’s birth anniversary) as a call for civil disobedience against unjust seed laws, to declare our Seed Freedom.
I enclose some ideas for actions for the Seed Freedom Fortnight [above] and look forward to planning common strategies and receiving from you a calendar of actions for the Fortnight so that together we can reclaim our Seed Freedom. — Vandana Shiva, 17th August 2012

Invitation to join the Global Citizens Alliance for Seed Freedom

Dear Seed keepers and Seed warriors,
On behalf of Navdanya, I write to invite you to become part of a Global Citizens Alliance for Seed Freedom – the start of a global campaign to alert citizens and governments around the world on how precarious our seed supply has become – and as a consequence how precarious our food security has become.
We started Navdanya 25 years ago to protect our seed diversity and farmers’ rights to save, breed, and exchange seed freely, in the context of the emerging threats of the TRIPS Agreement (Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights Agreement) of the World Trade Organization (WTO) which opened the door to the introduction of GMOs, patents on seed and the collection of royalties. A Monsanto representative later stated “In drafting these agreements we were the patient, diagnostician, physician all in one”.Corporations defined a problem – and for them the problem was farmers saving seed. They offered a solution, and the solution was the introduction of patents and intellectual property rights on seed, making it illegal for farmers to save their seed. Seed as a common good became a commodity of private seed companies, traded on the open market.
Today, the threat is greater. Consider the following:

• The last twenty years have seen a very rapid erosion of seed diversity and seed sovereignty, and the rapid concentration of control over seed by a very small number of giant corporations
• Acreage under GM corn, soya, canola, cotton has increased dramatically.
• Besides displacing and destroying diversity, patented GMO seeds are also undermining seed sovereignty, the rights of farmers to grow their own seeds and to save and exchange seed.
• In countries across the world, including in India, new seed laws are being introduced which enforce compulsory registration of seed, thus making it impossible for small farmers to grow their own diversity, and forcing them into dependency on giant seed corporations.
• Genetic contamination is spreading – India has lost the cotton seeds because of contamination from Bt. Cotton and Mexico, the historical cradle of corn, has lost eighty percent of its corn varieties and these are but two instances of loss of local and national seed heritage.
• After contamination, Biotech Seed Corporations sue farmers with patent infringement cases. More than 80 groups came together recently in the US and filed a case to prevent Monsanto from suing farmers whose seed had been contaminated.
• As farmer’s seed supply is eroded, and farmers become dependent on patented GMO seed, the result is indebtedness. Debt created by Bt. Cotton in India has pushed farmers to suicide.
• India has signed a U.S. /India knowledge Initiative in Agriculture, with a representative of Monsanto on the Board. States are being pressurized to sign agreements with Monsanto. An example is the Monsanto Rajasthan memorandum of understanding (MOU) under which Monsanto would obtain intellectual property rights (IPRs) on all genetic resources as well as research on seed carried out under the MOU. It was only after a campaign led by Navdanya and a “Monsanto Quit India” Bija Yatra that the government of Rajasthan cancelled the MOU.
• Pressure by Monsanto on the US Government and the joint pressure of both on governments across the world is a major threat to the future of seed and the future of food.
• Wikileaks exposed the US government’s intentions to proliferate the use of GMOs in Africa and Pakistan. Pressure to use GMOs imposed by US government representatives is a direct effort to support giant biotech business and to expand their markets.

These trends demonstrate a total control over the seed supply and a destruction of the very foundation of agriculture. We are witnessing a seed emergency at a global level.
The disappearance of our biodiversity and of our seed sovereignty is creating a major crisis for agriculture and food security around the world. We must act before it is too late.
Seeds are the first link in the food chain and the repository of life’s future evolution. As such, it is our inherent duty and responsibility to protect them and to pass them on to future generations. The growing of seed and the free exchange of seed among farmers has been the basis to maintaining biodiversity and our food security.
I am sure you will sense the emergency as deeply as I do, and feel the need to join forces to reclaim our seed and to protect our Seed Diversity and Seed Freedom.
Let us collectively make 2012 the year to “Save our Seeds” and “Reclaim our Seeds as a Commons” – from privatization through patents, from compulsory registration laws, from seed monopolies, from genetic erosion and contamination.
Let us plan common strategies and common actions so that the voices of the 99% in issues related to seed become louder than the bullying by Monsanto and the other four Agricultural Seed- Biotech Giants, who are determined to control the world’s food systems by stealing our seed and our freedoms.
Please send your ideas, your hopes, your dreams so we build a strong movement to “Occupy the Seed”.
I look forward to joining forces with you to make 2012 the year of the Liberation of the Seed and to help ensure a sustainable and just future for generations to come.
In Solidarity,
Vandana Shiva

To get involved, contact:

Global Movement to Defend Seed Freedom
info (at) seedfreedom.in
www.seedfreedom.in
www.navdanya.org

Two documents that provide an in-depth understanding of the seed issue are:

1. The Manifesto on the Future of Seeds (2004), available in several languages. Its principles were the basis to the Regional Law of Tuscany on Seed heritage that same year.
2. The GMO Emperor has no Clothes: false promises, failed technologies – published by Navdanya International last year together with an alliance of citizens movements (see below). The report made evident the severe threat to seed from erosion, pollution and privatization.

Seed freedom is food freedom: Act Now!

Seed Story Broadcasts from Conway, Arkansas

The following seed stories were shared during the Seed Broadcast event at Conserving Arkansas's Agricultural Heritage (CAAH!) Seed Lab at the University of Central Arkansas, in Conway, Arkansas. This Seed Broadcast event was also co-hosted by several other local, Arkansas organizations working hard to promote local food and seed sovereignty.


Nancy Duke shares a seed story about a 60 year old jar of butter beans, she found in an abandoned family garage.  These beans came from her husband's, great aunt Zena Alexander's pea patch from around the 1965.


Angela Gardner, shares seed stories from her community garden and Central Arkansas New Agrarian Society (CANAS).


William McClintock shares a seed story about his garden located in Cabot, Arkansas and shares his joy to plant anywhere and eat the best food ever, from his garden.


Dr. Brian Campbell, faculty at Central Arkansas University, in Conway, Arkansas, shares seed stories from his garden and from the Conserving Arkansas Agricultural Heritage! (CAAH!).


Gerald Anderson shares a seed story from Conway, Arkansas about his permaculture dreams at his Summer Berry Farm in Tilly, Arkansas and a story about his family millet.


Lynita Langley-Ware shares a seed story about the Grow Garden and their seed saving efforts at the Faulkner County Museum, in Conway, Arkansas. She also recalls the memory her grandmother's seed saving efforts and the way we are now relearning how to do this once again.


Bryan Mader, McKenzie Earnest, and Michael McHalffey share a seed story about working with the Russellville Community Market, their work at seed swaps, and building a gardening and seed saving community among the local college students.


Michael McHaffley shares a seed story about his family's farming efforts and his desire to create an experimental educational farming opportunity for other people to learn from.

Thank you everyone for sharing your seed stories!
You can also find these seed stories and more from around the country by checking out the Seed Story Broadcast page.