Heirloom Gardening, Food and Other Thoughts
Were you at the seed swap and demonstration? I didn’t have a video camera with me, and of course I couldn’t be everywhere at the same time. If you have any pictures or videos you’d like to share with me for publishing on the Internet, please send me an email! You can find my email address in the Contact tab on the front page of this blog, or leave a comment here and be sure to give a valid email address.
Of particular interest would be pictures or videos of the workshops.
The conclusion of the events was the planting of a mock GMO garden in the center traffic circle of the EU Parliament complex. They grew square tomatoes and lime green pears. They sprayed everything with chemicals.
Everything was carefully managed by their foreman.
shown here with his assistant at his side.
At the end they appropriately decorated the statue. The blue-green flag belongs to Via Campesina, the organization who called on this and other demonstrations around the world on the same days.
In what’s an obvious first step to clear the way for patents and GMOs, the European Union is preparing a new seed law to replace the existing one. Several months ago the EU considered what to do with the current legislation and discussed 3 possibilities; maintain current legislation unchanged, modify current legislation, or drop current legislation. In their wisdom, they decided seed legislation was necessary, but should be changed. With this as a foregone conclusion, they have opened a period of public consultation on how best to change the current seed laws.
In their published documents they offer a number of scenarios, and while some are worse than others, none are completely acceptable.
There’s honestly little hope they’ll actually take public opinion into account, but it’s still very important to give them a run for their money. Maybe, if they get a large response, and they can see people are very upset about their plans, it may have some impact. Please try to submit a response if you can. If you’re unable to read through all of their documents and submit a response using their form, please just send them an email stating your objections to seed laws in general and the registration of varieties.
I’ll try to put together as much information as I can together with arguments, before the deadline for submission. If you have any ideas or suggestions, please give them here! I’ll also post my response, so if nothing else, please consider replacing my name with your own and submitting it yourself.
The European seed laws affect everyone everywhere on the planet, and everyone everywhere should respond to this public consultation. The EU is the largest economy in the world, and rules that become established here will be pushed onto other countries as well. Above all else it’s vital to protect our rights to save and regrow our own seeds, no matter where in the world we live.
On the second day, the demonstration wasn’t until the end of the day, so we spent the morning and early afternoon talking and planning. At lunch time we were entertained by some clowns.
They performed and told their story in at least 3 different languages, maybe more, so no one was left.
They juggled…
and grew genetically modified plants…
Various organizations across Europe organized and participated in a mass seed swap, demonstration and other activities. I was there, and this is the first in a series of posts on the event. I posted about this before, and the official website of the event is here.
I hosted a table at the seed swap together with the Danish Seed Savers. In the picture below is Søren of In the Toad’s Garden on the left, Lila Towle head of the Danish Seed Savers on the right, and me in the middle.
Neil Munro of the UK Heritage Seed Library was there together with
Maria Scholten, a freelance researcher working with the Scottish Crofting
Federation:
Not to be outdone of course was Kokopelli of France and Belgium:
Tom Wagner’s potatoes were prominently featured. Those below were offered by Lieven of De Lusthof.
there were bags:
spuds:
seeds in little compartments:
seeds on the cob and in the pumpkin:
heads of grain:
seeds in test tubes and jars:
seeds laid out nicely on the table:
and more bags of seeds:
and much more…
