I’m trying to find enough people interested in getting together and starting a Dutch Seed Saving organization. At the moment, nothing exists like this. If you’re in the Netherlands (or maybe Belgium), and would like to help with this, please get in touch as soon as possible. I think it’s nice to get as many diverse people as possible, so I’m really interested in talking with anyone and everyone.
Vision
It depends a lot on the group of people who come together, and their interests, but in principle it would be an organization that charges a yearly amount, about €25, compiles a trading list of seeds each year, and organizes an annual meeting and members events.
In principle, in order to form an organization, at the very least we need a chairman (voorzitter), treasurer (penningmeester), secretary — and a name! Finding these is the highest priority, but for example a web designer or other IT specialists would be great, and gardeners, seed savers and others generally interested in seed saving are all welcome to volunteer.
I’m assuming board positions will initially be just for a year or two, until we can hold proper elections to elect longer term replacements, but how this is exactly structured depends on the group who come together.
I’m in Amsterdam, and it might be convenient if you live within travel distance, but it can also be good to get people from different parts of the country. If necessary we can work over the phone and Internet, and get together once a year in a central place like Utrecht.
If a number of people in Belgium or Luxembourg come forward, then we can form a Benelux organization.
Whatever happened to Het Hof van Eden?
Hi, this may help.
You can ask “Otherwise” in Wageningen http://www.st-otherwise.org/ for free hands.
https://www.facebook.com/otherwise.wageningen?ref=profile
Also: http://www.reclaimtheseeds.nl/
And: René Groenen at Bingenheimer Saatgut (http://www.bingenheimersaatgut.de/index.php), Kultursaat (http://www.kultursaat.org/)
I don’t know what happened to Het Hof van Eden. I’ve seen the name mentioned on the Internet, but never knew the people behind it or anything about it.
There have been lots of one or two people initiatives over the years, or perhaps a sort of closed club like de oerakker, which was an effort to save a specific collection of seeds. I’m pretty sure Het Hof van Eden was just a one person initiative.
As far as I’m aware, there’s never been an open organization that anyone could join for a small fee. I’ve only been active with biodiversity in the Netherlands for a little over 10 years. If something happened before then, I probably don’t know about it.
Cédric — thanks. I’ve already been in contact with some of those people, but you’ve also given me some more ideas.