Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

marmar

(76,991 posts)
Mon Apr 8, 2013, 08:22 AM Apr 2013

Why the Most Powerful Thing in the World is a Seed


from YES! Magazine:


Why the Most Powerful Thing in the World is a Seed
“The Seed Underground” is a love letter to the quiet revolutionaries who are saving our food heritage.

by Abby Quillen
posted Apr 04, 2013




Janisse Ray celebrates the local, organic food movement but fears we’re forgetting something elemental: the seeds. According to Ray, what is happening with our seeds is not pretty. Ninety-four percent of vintage open-pollinated fruit and vegetable varieties have vanished over the last century.

Ray begins The Seed Underground: A Growing Revolution to Save Food by explaining how we lost our seeds. Feeding ourselves has always been a burden for humans, she explains. “So when somebody came along and said, ‘I’ll do that cultivating for you. I’ll save the seeds. You do something else,’ most of us jumped at the chance to be free.”

But, according to Ray, when the dwindling number of farmers who stayed on the land gave up on saving seeds and embraced hybridization, genetically modified organisms, and seed patents in order to make money, we became slaves to multinational corporations like Monsanto and Syngenta, which now control our food supply.

In 2007, 10 companies owned 67 percent of the seed market. These corporations control the playing field, because they influence the government regulators. They’ve been known to snatch up little-known varieties of seeds, patent them, and demand royalties from farmers whose ancestors have grown the crops for centuries. The result is that our seeds are disappearing, and we miss out on the exquisite tastes and smells of an enormous variety of fruits and vegetables. More alarmingly, “we strip our crops of the ability to adapt to change and we put the entire food supply at risk,” Ray writes. “The more varieties we lose, the closer we slide to the tipping point of disaster.” ................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/how-cooperatives-are-driving-the-new-economy/why-the-most-powerful-thing-in-the-world-is-a-seed



1 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Why the Most Powerful Thing in the World is a Seed (Original Post) marmar Apr 2013 OP
I agree. Save the heritage seed. In_The_Wind Apr 2013 #1
Latest Discussions»General Discussion»Why the Most Powerful Thi...