Always I have been fascinated by seeds--their vivid shapes and colors,
their power and mystery. When I joined the Seed Savers Exchange (http://www.seedsavers.org/)
in 1982, I fell in love with the stories attached to seeds gifted to
me. Most of our culture at the time had not yet awakened to the
"heirloom phenomenon" we see today. Matter of fact, most gardeners and
farmers had come to believe as they were told by seed companies and
university breeding programs that modern hybrids were far superior.
These beautiful seeds that I had requested would arrive at my door
accompanied by wonderful handwritten stories about the seeds like these:
"My family lost almost everything during the Great Depression, but these beans kept us alive."
"This was the only corn to make ears during the great drought of '34."
"My people carried these beans on the Trail of Tears."
I added my own stories when I sent seeds in return: "Midnight, late
July, Aunt Mary's Sweet Corn in full tassel and silk--strong stalks and
setting two ears--I feel such powerful ecstatic energy."
Seeds and culture intertwined. There is more encoded in seeds than their
DNA. Seeds have stories to tell and they are still waiting for us to
listen.
So, yes! I do think seeds have agency. They are my sisters, brothers,
and teachers. Since it appears that climate change may encourage us to
rethink agriculture, what kinds of questions should we consider that
connote a relationship between us of mutuality and reciprocity? Here are
a few that I have been pondering:
Have we misinterpreted our ancient ancestors' true motivations for
selection of seeds for food crops? What about the seeds/species we did
not select (such as perennials) and those we have chosen to leave
behind?
How might a nurturing/stewarding seed culture emerge in our Great Lakes Bioregion?
What critical consciousness skills will we need to bring to the table when we consider genetically modified organisms?
What about all the seeds that sit in cold storage in seed vaults? Where
are the gardeners to find out if these seeds could have a new
"homeland"?
How might we re-vision our educational ethics so that seeds and our
healthy relationship to the biotic community mean more than power and
money?
This talk at a Bioneers conference by John Mohawk talks about the role
that the human relationship with "domesticated" plants has played in
allowing humans to adapt to many different environments and how that
relationship will be important as we adapt to the coming climatic
changes. Take a listen:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6kOA-KtPxw.
In the comments section, write about your reactions to the film "Seed: The Untold Story" and John Mohawk's talk. Do any of the ideas in the film and the talk challenge your ideas about your relationship to food and
plants? If so, how so? Do parts of the film and talk resonate with your experiences and beliefs? If how, tell us how! Do any of my questions above resonate with your own ponderings? What other questions arise for you as you contemplate your relationship with the plants that sustain your life?
Looking forward to exploring these ideas with you in person!
I think that it was an alarming and sobering experience to hear about the drastic loss of variety among crop species, and that lack of scientific concern over this issue is amazing. Monotyping is generally regarded as problematic in ecology and ecology-related fields, and yet appears to have been wholeheartedly embraced in corporate agriculture. However, I am cautious about railing against all GMOs. Certainly companies like Monsanto are engaging in shady and corrupt business practices (such as prosecuting farmers whose crop contains genetic markers due ecosystem services), and the idea of patenting a seed is ridiculous. However, crops such as golden rice can be used to cure nutrient deficiency and prevent human suffering in areas that suffer from malnutrition. While I think this should be a temporary measure, as we hopefully will move away from a system where food and nutrition are so unevenly distributed, I think it is unrealistic to expect this change to happen too rapidly. If GMO crops such as Golden Rice have the potential to be used responsibly, and in a way that prevents human suffering, I think there is an obligation to make this crop available in areas that stand to benefit.
ReplyDeleteI have always been really interested in documentaries regarding the agriculture industry, so I have been aware of the impact of Monsanto and the development of corporate agriculture. However, I was rather ignorant to the direct impact Monsanto and its farming and pesticide practices has upon the lives of innocent people. In order to produce cheaper food in mass quantities, companies have resorted to using large amounts of chemicals, so they don't have to spend the time or money into making natural, organic, safe produce. However, because they are solely focused on making a profit, they have a total disregard for human lives and the rights of innocent people. Although the stories about seeds and the science behind them fascinated me, I am always more drawn to the stories of the people involved. Therefore, I am much more concerned with the inadvertent effects these chemicals have on people’s health not only through the food they are consuming, but also through circumstances beyond their control.
ReplyDeleteAfter watching "Seed: The Untold Story" and listening to John Mohawk's talk, I have learned how important seeds and seed diversity are, and how our protection and conservation of seeds is absolutely essential in order for different seed varieties to survive. The movie depicts how we are currently going through the largest seed shortage in history, how chemical companies have almost entirely overtaken the seed industry, and how these companies have increasingly produced crops using seed hybrids and have even been able to patent certain seeds. Before this class, I honestly did not know the extent of the control that chemical corporations had over seeds and how their decisions to use hybrids and chemicals has directly caused the seed shortage mentioned earlier. It actually baffles me that these companies, after causing this much damage, are able to patent seeds. While I have always kind of known that some genetic modification took place in most food production due to food industries being run by big corporations, I did not know that they could actually patent a seed. Seeds are essential for food production and we rely on them to live; they should not be patentable.
ReplyDeleteAlso, one thing that hit home was the environmental racism that was demonstrated throughout the movie. In my hometown, we have large factories emitting pollution that have had detrimental effects on the city and those living near them. While this is not the same experience as those effected by pesticide spraying in the movie, this really resonated with me as corporate wealth is favored over human health in both cases, and, specifically, communities of color are also the one's most effected and harmed by corporate greed.
Lastly, a line in Mohawk's talk that I found interesting is when he stated that the relationship between a plant and human society has to be reciprocal and that each needs to benefit from the relationship. This stood out as an important statement to me because I feel like our current relationship is the exact opposite of this and that corporate interests are what is most considered in today's food industries. I just think that this was an important point that he made and it has made me think differently about my relationship with food and food production. Both the movie and talk were informing and eye opening.
John Mohawk speaks to how our relationship to plants, our collective human heritage, is a seed of thought and practice that travels between people, generation to generation. In the face of growing climate change, he argues, it is important to maintain this inter-species relationship by continuing to replant it in the consciousness of our youth so that it can grow and adapt with a shifting human culture. I resonate with this message, but do not have faith in its wide-spread adoption. The pull of joining the modern human ease of life is too great for the majority of people to forsake it in favor of a lifestyle that revolves around plants and passing on cultural knowledge about plants. While the United States National Gardening Association has seen an increase in people who keep a garden over the past five years, the percentage of people in America who farm continues to dwindle. Instead of wide-spread cultural change I see small strongholds being made around the world of people who want to keep the lineage of relationship with plants alive. Oftentimes these communities ground themselves with spiritual belief around the interconnectedness of living beings. While these ideologies protect the alternative communities from the pervasive influence of functionalism, they also seem to oftentimes be tenuous cultural productions, lost after one generation as the particular belief remains unsupported by the surrounding culture that people interact with in school and work.
ReplyDeleteI really appreciated John Mohawk's discussion of the motivation of plants (acting in the plants' best interest) and acknowledgment that some plants seem to have colonized humans, rather than the other way around. Corn especially interests me in this way; it is so frequently grown in monocultures, with gallons of chemicals sprayed to protect it from the blights and insects that could wipe those monocultures out with ease. At the same time, there are numerous cultural connections to corn, as shown in "Seed: The Untold Story." These cultural connections develop corn beyond what it is to corporations, showing that the Green Revolution did not strip communities of their knowledge about seeds but rather refused to acknowledge that they still held this knowledge. I love the idea of seed saving and seed swapping. However, holding so many seeds in one place seems to be useful mostly if we embody a fairly apocalyptic mindset; the 'Noah and the Ark' references in the film reflect this. Seed banks also seem fairly vulnerable; the seeds contain different genetics that can help protect them from being destroyed by a single pest or blight (unlike monocrops), but they are still subject to intentional sabotage. This shows that governments know the power of seeds; targeting seed banks in order to weaken another country reveals belief that seed banks contribute to the longevity and health of communities. It seems to me that actively swapping seeds might be more effective than keeping them stored until we 'have need' of them. Climate change is happening and will continue happening for a long while.
ReplyDeleteAs John Mohawk states, humans' continued survival, in the face of climate change, relies on our ability to adapt to places and conditions where we have not yet lived. This adaptation, he argues, is not based on what machines we can build or our ability to alter a plant, but rather on our ability to create a culture that puts us in symbiotic relationship with other species, so that they relate to us in a reciprocal relationship, as species rather than as corporations. I think this mindset would be difficult to expand to all of the US, since a 'corporate' mindset is so pervasive, but continuing to point out what 'they already have evidence about in their libraries' might help reach some compromises such as working out more beneficial genetic modifications (rather than using GMOs as a monopoly and punishing farmers who accidentally 'adopt' a patented seed).
I feel like the film mentioned a lot of new information that I did not think about. For example, the seed store was very fascinating and how everyone is trying to conserve and protect seeds so that further generations can use them. Often times, when environmentalist set laws of conservations, we often think of national park reserves or endangered species. However, people (such as myself) do not take the time to learn how seeds are the foundation to living specimens. Seeds are the origins of life. John Mohwak brings up how the domestication of plants are done by human beings, and “are not the perfect food for humans.” The perfect food for humans are the ones that we onced gather and harvest, and are the “survival food.” I do believe on what he says about human beings were able to adapt to our new environments because we were inhabiting new information about the edible plants and nature around us. There is a reciprocal relationship in which human beings need plants to survive and plants need humans to grow. However, there are lots of anthropocentric thoughts that human beings are the importance to every essential form of life, which should not be the case. The film made me what to appreciate more on what is left of the variety of seeds and visit these seed storage to learn about the seed’s stories.
ReplyDeleteI was captivated by the film Seed: The Untold Story because of the focus on seeds’ cultural history and value. It’s hard for me to get engaged or excited about agriculture when it is presented in technical terms (ex. garden design, mechanical tools, microbiology/chemistry), but when it is framed in terms of the consequences on human communities, I am all ears. Each of the stories of the indigenous communities—from Hawaiian, Indian, and Mexican people/famers— being manipulated by large corporations like Monsanto are crushing. I knew that land and food are precious to many native communities; however, I never realized how valued and valuable the seed itself is—it is one of our life sources. Seed: The Untold Story made me reevaluate my attitude towards land and especially food. Unlike Western cultures where land and plants have been colonized by humans, in these types of communities the land, food, and wellbeing/spirituality are very much connected. I see a great need to learn from these communities in our society by reestablishing a reciprocal, non-abusive relationship with the land and food. I found this same theme of returning to our roots in John Mohawk’s talk. John observes that the modern climate crisis relates to human evolution; particularly, a loss of our intimate knowledge of the natural world. Part of the solution is reviving our kinship with the land and plant world. Unfortunately we have negatively, profoundly altered nature since Native Americans’ agricultural strategies, so this makes me wonder how Native and non-Native Americans can recreate systems that feed people while respecting/preserving nature.
ReplyDeleteMy initial thoughts on seeds were just that they housed potential life and were a good way to start a farm. After watching the film "seed: the untold story" I gain a new perspective in seeds and their true value. The section of the film that resonated with me the most was the part about the value that seeds hold for indigenous people in certain areas of the country/world. There is a spiritual connection that these people have with the land and plants that I really could not relate to, but I find it very interesting. Corn was the seed that really hit home with me. After seeing how important each individual corn see was to the native people, I began to think about a few things. The first thing that crossed my mind was what if everyone on the planet treated seeds the way these people did? My answer to this, while quite simple, was we would have so much more plant variety across the globe which could lead to new break troughs in the medical field or any for that matter. This film taught me the importance that each seed carries and how beneficial it can be to take care of all the seeds you get from harvesting crops.
ReplyDelete