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Calling All Activists: Occupy For Seed Freedom (Oct. 2-16)

By Mickey Z.

27 September, 2012
Worldnewstrust.com

Photo credit: Mickey Z.

It all begins with a seed.

Civilizations come and go; nations rise and fall; cultures flourish and vanish, but seeds remain... because seeds must remain.

“Without seed,” explains Winnie Wong, activist and organizer for Occupy Wall Street (OWS), “we would not be able to stand up, never mind be able to attend protests and use our bodies to resist those that oppress the very seed that they too depend on for survival.”

Two groupings of humans (for diametrically opposed reasons) have never forgotten the fundamental significance of seeds: the indigenous and the 1%.

Mic Check: It’s time to rally everyone else.

Occupy the Seed
“To see things in the seed, that is genius.” - Lao Tzu

When buried under debt and living in daily fear of losing income/employment -- wondering if you can “afford” to get sick or if your pension will even exist come pay-off time -- it’s difficult for the 99% to maintain a big picture/long-term view. And the 1% is counting on us being afraid, distracted, alienated, and misinformed.

The 1% is also very much counting on us being out of touch with realities like these, as expressed by activist, author, and eco-feminist, Vandana Shiva:

“Seed is the source of life and the first link in the food chain. Control over seed means a control over our lives, our food, and our freedom. Corporations like Monsanto have created a seed emergency -- an emergency through patents on seeds, seed monopolies, biopiracy, genetic engineering, and creation of non-renewable sterile seeds.”

While the problem runs much deeper than just a single corporation, Monsanto’s role in in subverting the seed has helped it earn its reputation for global malevolence, e.g. seed monopolies have pushed 250,000 farmers to commit suicide in India alone.

In 2010, I spoke about this situation with Marie-Monique Robin, author of The World According to Monsanto: Pollution, Corruption, and the Control of Our Food Supply and creator of a film by the same name.

“Monsanto is the world leader in biotechnology and the first seed company,” Robin told me. “Ninety percent of the GMOs grown in the world belong to it. During the last decade, the firm bought dozens of seed companies all over the world, pushing its transgenic seeds, which are patented. A patented seed means that the farmers who grow it may not keep a part of his crops to re-sow it the next year, as farmers used to do everywhere in the world. In the United States and Canada, farmers who grow transgenic crops must sign a ‘technology agreement,’ the no-sowing requirement is clearly expressed. Clearly transgenic crops are just a tool to control the seeds supply, which is the first link in the food chain, by forcing farmers to buy seeds each year.”

A problem, explains Robin, is that corporations are “manipulating information, studies, press, and the experts of the regulatory agencies.” In her research, she found businesses selling “harmful products” with “complete impunity,” using methods like: “concealing scientific data, lies, manipulating regulations, corruption, pressuring scientists and journalists, as well as threats.”

All these machinations have placed the control of seeds into the hands of the 1% -- and have presented us with the now-or-never activist scenario.

“There is growing consciousness among people,” states Wong. “We're waking up and acknowledge that the global corporatization of our food systems is slowly killing us. This is just one of the many examples of 'profit over people', and it has got to stop.”

What can we do? Here’s a list of suggestions from the Seed Freedom Campaign:

Ideas for Actions for the Seed Freedom Fortnight: October 2-16, 2012.

>> Join the Global Alliance for Seed Freedom - sign the Declaration on Seed Freedom (English - other languages to follow).
>> Invite others to join and sign the Declaration.
>> Start a seed bank - save your own non GMO/patented seeds.
>> Organize local swaps of non GMO/patented seeds.
>> Organize a seed bombing event.
>> Become a seed defender.
>> Declare a Seed Freedom Zone within your home, institution, village, or municipality, which does not recognize patent on seed.
>> Organize a screening of the Seeds of Freedom film (available in English, Spanish, French, and Portuguese. Please email [email protected] if you can offer to translate it into your own language).
>> Start or join a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) initiative.
>> Commit to buying fresh, local, organic non-GMO/processed food from farmers’ markets.
>> Commit to growing your own organic non GMO/patented food and encourage others to do the same.
>> Organize a dinner, lunch, or picnic with your family, friends, community, or institution sourcing ingredients from farmers who are saving and using organic seeds (non GMO/patented) creating awareness and understanding on the links between seed, food, and health.
>> Organize a workshop/conference to create awareness about the links between Seed Freedom and food freedom.
>> Organize protests, marches, and gatherings at offices of seed multinationals, patent offices, and local government bodies.
>> Write letters and submit petitions to local institutions, local communities and local municipalities to make them aware of the importance of Seed Freedom for the future of their people and their environment. Get their support to declare "Seed Freedom Zones.”
>> Send a petition to your regional and national parliament to undo laws that violate seed freedom.
>> Write to Patent Offices insisting that they stop granting patents on seed.
>> Write to WTO insisting the completion of the mandatory review of the TRIPS article 27.3b, which forces patents on life forms. Ask them to revoke Intellectual Property Rights on seeds.
>> Contribute your art and your voice -- post seed related photos, videos, artwork, articles and blogs to the Seed Freedom Facebook page.

(As you plan your own events and actions, please add them to the Fortnight of Action Calendar.)

During a recent interviewed with Alex Ikonomidis for his forthcoming film, A Seed for Change, Vandana Shiva summed up as such:

“The old economy is crashing for people. It’s doing very well for the banks but we have to build other economies and in these other economies, the currency is life. After all, our health is real wealth. Our freedom is real wealth. Our communities are real wealth. Our seeds are real wealth.”

Note to my fellow Occupiers: If you wanna turn the “Fuck Monsanto” chant into reality, this is the opportunity you’ve been waiting for.

Occupy Monsanto and many other food justice affinity groups, which were borne out of OWS, are working tirelessly day in and day out,” Winnie Wong adds. “The end goal is to educate as many people as possible to the numerous dangers that GMOs present to the health of all species.”

We can occupy for seed freedom... or not. The choice, of course, is ours. But rest assured, our collective future depends on the decisions we make today.

I’ll see you at the barricades...

Mickey Z. is the author of 11 books, most recently the novel Darker Shade of Green. Until the laws are changed or the power runs out, he can be found on an obscure website called Facebook.

© WorldNewsTrust.com




 

 


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