the seed pods

Seed & Food Sovereignty

You can destroy everything

You can take away our books and our writing

And destroy our culture.

You can kill every tree

Til no bird, no insect can find a place to hide.

You can do that and more.

I don’t fear your tyranny

I do not despair ever, because I saved one seed,

Which I will sow and plant again.

– Vandana Shiva (Physicist, Environmentalist)¹

DECLARATION OF SEED SOVEREIGNTY

  • We believe, our ability to grow food is the culmination of countless generations of sowing and harvesting seeds and those seeds are the continuation of an unbroken line from our ancestors to us and to our children and grandchildren.
  • We believe, our ancestors developed a relationship with plants that allowed their cultivation for food and medicine and this has been a central element of human culture and survival for millennia in regions throughout the world.
  • We believe, the practices embodied in thoughtfully working with and preserving clean and healthy land and water, and in caring for seeds provides the basis for our respectful connection to the Earth and with each other.
  • We believe, that it is an inherent human right and responsibility to save, preserve, steward and keep our seeds, and that the seeds belong to no one, and further, we reject the validity of any corporations’ or person’s claim to ownership of traditional foods, crops, as well as wild plants.
  • We believe, if given the opportunity, that seeds will adapt and flourish in specific environments, creating landraces, which in turn will support the health and biodiversity of the earth, and will enable the survival of us all in our changing climate.
  • We believe, that seeds hold wisdom gained over the ages, which predates humans, and without which we and the rest of life on earth would now not exist, therefore, we reject any genetic modification of seeds or plants.
  • We believe, that it is our responsibility to continue sowing and harvesting seeds, and to care for the Earth, in order that we may pass these gifts on to countless future generations to come.²

FOOD SOVEREIGNTY

We support this definition of food sovereignty:

“Food sovereignty is the right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to define their own food and agriculture systems.” 

– Declaration of the Forum for Food Sovereignty, Nyéléni 2007

¹Quote used by permission of Dr. Vandana Shiva

² With great gratitude to the Traditional Native American Farmers’ Association (TNAFA) for allowing us to use some of the content of the TNAFA Declaration of Seed Sovereignty.