Seed Diversity
A precious treasure of humanity is in danger
Our once abundant seed diversity, a precious gift of nature, was painstakingly created by ancient farmers and gardeners over countless millennia. But today our seeds are in grave danger. In less than a century of industrial agriculture, our once abundant seed diversity has been drastically winnowed down to a handful of mass-produced varieties. Under the spell of industrial “progress” and a lust for profit, our quaint family farmsteads have given way to mechanized agribusinesses sowing genetically identical crops on a monstrous scale. This spells disaster for our globalised food system.
More than a cautionary tale of "man against nature", the remarkable story of seeds is an epic "good-versus-evil" saga playing out in our modern lives. For eons, cultures around the world have believed seeds to be our birthright: a covenant with the earth shared by all and passed down across generations. But today, our seeds are increasingly private property held in corporate hands. A cadre of ten agrichemical companies (including Syngenta, Bayer, and Monsanto) now controls more than two-thirds of the global seed market, reaping unprecedented profits. Genetically modified crops (GMOs) engineered in their sterile laboratories dominate farmers’ fields and dinner tables in the United States and countries around the world. Farmers from Minnesota to Madhya Pradesh, India, toil in economic thrall to the “Gene Giants,” paying hefty licensing fees to plant their patented crops. If they attempt to save their own seed at the end of a season, following a tradition practised by humans for over 12,000 years, they face ruthless prosecution. Suffering under this indentured servitude, over 250,000 farmers in India have committed suicide in the last 20 years.
People everywhere are waking up to the vital importance of seeds for our future. In recent years, March Against Monsanto protests have rallied millions in more than 400 cities and 50 countries to the cause of seed freedom. Seed libraries, community gardens, and a new generation of passionate young farmers are cropping up to shift the balance toward a more sustainable and sovereign seed paradigm.
The story of our seeds is a defining story of our time. Caught between the runaway juggernaut of industrial agriculture and the ecological, cultural, and spiritual destruction in its wake, seeds offer us a profound chance to restore mutual harmony between people and planet. They are the eternal promise of an abundant new world waiting to be born. But the time for this redemption is running out. In telling this story, we aim to bring into clear focus the beauty, hope, and magic that seeds represent for humanity at this critical juncture.
»We need to protect the diversity and freedom of life. Give seed its own freedom, so that we as humans can have our freedom.« Vandana Shiva
»Should we ever actually manage to save the world, we will one day shake our heads and ask, how did we ever get the idea of producing food by drowning it in poison?« Jane Goodall