Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Since the crackdown on seed libraries by some U.S. states last year, organizers (including Shareable) around the country have been working to protect seed sharing. In both Minnesota and Nebraska, bills that specifically exempt non-commercial seed sharing from commercial seed laws were recently signed into law.
In January, Shareable, the Sustainable Economies Law Center (SELC), and the Richmond Grows Seed Library launched the U.S.-based Save Seed Sharing campaign.
Seeds are the forgotten heroes of food—and of life itself.
Want to start a campaign to save seed sharing in your town? We’ve put together the following guide to help you do just that.
Have you ever saved seeds, joined a local seed swap or contributed to a seed library?
The campaign is designed to educate people about seed sharing issues, support seed sharing communities, and reform overzealous seed laws.
In 2004, Ken Greene was working as a librarian in Gardiner, New York when he decided to go beyond the bounds of his own personal garden and take his passion for seed saving into a more public, community-based arena.
Seed activists can put a mark in the win column. Recently, the city council in Duluth, Minnesota passed a resolution supporting seed saving and sharing in the city (see video below of the council meeting).
Now in its fifth year, SELC is a driving force for the new economy, doing pioneering work around worker cooperatives, home-based food businesses, alternative currencies, legal guides for sharing, legal apprenticeships, accessible legal cafes, renewable energy, the commons, seed libraries and more.
The goal now is to direct that energy toward protecting seed libraries, which are a cornerstone in efforts to foster the genetic diversity of food and strengthen food security.
After the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture cracked down on a community seed library, hundreds of seed libraries in the U.S. are suddenly wondering if they are breaking the law.
County Commissioner Barbara Cross said about the potential risk, “Agri-terrorism is a very, very real scenario,” she said. “Protecting and maintaining the food sources of America is an overwhelming challenge…so you’ve got agri-tourism on one side and agri-terrorism on the other.”
