How Seed Saving Can Save America
Brad Knudsen, Major: Hospitality Management, Hometown: Eden Prairie, MN
Local and seasonal fare is no new phenomenon, but until recently, it has been lost, similar to our original agricultural practices involving seed saving. I love my life and I love our Earth, and I am here to explain how seed saving can save this beautiful place we call home.
Where Has Our Food Gone?
As the final component to this magnificent blog, I am delving into the grave issue of food security here in America, and how seed saving can combat this pressing issue. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, food security is, “when all people at all times have physical and economic access to sufficient food to meet their dietary needs for a productive and healthy life,” and in 2008, roughly 15% of Americans had been food insecure at one point or another (Watson). This was a 31% increase from the 2007 numbers, marking the worst year since the USDA began tracking food security in 1995.
Even more disturbing, only 55% of those food insecure individuals received food stamps or other government nutritional assistance (Watson). These haunting statistics reveal the severity of food insecurity here in America.
Along with food prices soaring, the supply pit is falling. The USDA predicted a drop in the U.S. corn reserves by the end of 2011, representing a 15 year low, with the price doubling, as well. The current food crisis is becoming worse, and from an individual to a national level, we all need to implement change.
Why is the crisis occurring? You may ask. The problem stems from the nation’s flawed seed industry led by Juggernaut Corporations like Monsanto. The multinational corporation has put patents on and genetically modified seeds, stripping famers of their seed sovereignty, and ultimately their food sovereignty.
The seed is the most valuable component in the food chain, for it gives birth to our crops. The “modern” varieties of seeds are strictly monocultures, which do not allow farmers to save, improve, or exchange their seeds; thus, eliminating diversity and contaminating our food with genetically modified organisms (Shiva). A patent, according to Dr. Vandana Shiva, a seed freedom activist, is “an exclusive right granted to an inventor to make and sell the patented product.” A seed is by no means an invention; therefore, a corporation’s patent on a seed, giving it ownership, is illegal on many levels (Shiva). The corrupt system has eroded the farming industry resulting in our depleting food supply. Although, this fight against Monsanto is an uphill battle, there are ways to take action against the injustice.
Even while the dissolution of seed sovereignty and biodiversity is creating a major catastrophe for agriculture and food security, corporations are pressuring government to continue using public money to eliminate the public seed supply with the malicious goal to then replace it entirely with unreliable, patented seeds, which must be repurchased year after year. Necessary action, on the national level, must come from political and legal restructuring. There needs to be a stronger influence from the people on government to challenge the illegal and unethical patents on seeds. The overwhelming influence from corporations on government has tainted the integrity of the agriculture sector, and Monsanto claims royalties based on farmer debt, suicide, and the corrosion of the food supply here in the U.S. and worldwide.
Does This Affect Me?
This is not the American Dream that we all imagined, whether or not you are currently feeling the effects of the turmoil. Your neighbors, colleagues, and people just like you who you have never met are suffering because of the spike in food prices and decline in supply. The 50.1 million Americans that lived in food insecure households in 2011 need freedom from these chains, and you can help.
Even as a well off individual living in this wonderful city of Denver, you have fellow citizens living in food deserts. These areas without access to fresh, quality foods surround you and the rest of the city. And once again, it all stems back to the legal inability of farmers to save seeds. With small farms being forced out of business, local food supply is erased, and the crops that are growing face the imminent demise of being contaminated by GM organisms. Thus, the majority of the food that is available to poverty stricken areas carries the risk of harming the human body.
Do you think you are safe since you do not live in poverty? Do not think you are out of harm’s way; even the produce at grocery stores like Whole Foods Market or Sprouts are still threatened by GM organisms.
Daunting, yes. The truth can be disconcerting, but it can also inspire change. And change is exactly what needs to take place, in order to save America.
Take Action. Take Back Our Seeds.
The current food security crisis in America has become tragic and it is continuing to worsen, but it does not have to. There are many avenues we can take to combat the impending terror. Already, there are groups and individuals taking a stand against the corruption, fighting for seed freedom. Non-profit Greenpeace and Dr. Vandana Shiva are two great examples of peaceful demonstration against Monsanto’s reign over the world’s seeds.
The time is now to recognize that these patents on seeds are killing our nation’s food supply and putting people to bed, hungry. In order to save our great country, we must take action, and save out great seeds. Complacency will allow this problem to augment, confining our nation’s citizens in a state of affliction barring them from a basic civil right - the right to food.
Seed saving is a simple concept dating back to the origins of agriculture. It is time to revive this practice, and grow food as nature intended. Unfortunately, our current system has made implementing this simple solution a difficult task. So what can we do? We can pair other strategies with saving our seeds, and take the step towards a new, yet old America. Let’s not kid ourselves but, you know, retro is in nowadays anyway.
- Take legal action to challenge seed patents that are killing biodiversity.
- Take political to require GMO labeling on foods, in order to notify our nation about the health implications
- Support established organizations that are currently contesting the food security issue
- Make a shift towards organic farming, and provide regulations, so as to prevent contamination from GMO’s
- Organize community farms to build awareness for urban farming
- Create education programs teaching gardening and basic farming skills to people of all ages
- Develop a community seed bank, providing a network of seed saving and exchange. This will also spread word about the importance of seed saving to surrounding communities
- Hold community food banks to gather donations
- Be conscious about the food you purchase, striving to eat locally and seasonally
- Compost to reduce food waste
- Try to move away from the obsession for aesthetically pleasing, for this could save a plethora of food
- Grow what food you can. Build a garden, and grow your own produce. Save the seeds and repeat to become self-sustainable. A decent sized garden has the capability of providing produce for an entire family of four.
As we conclude this final installment on seed saving, we thank you for sticking with us on our crusade. We hope that we’ve introduced you to some new ideas and a different way of thinking about the world around us to which are so intricately linked in so many different ways. With this new (or renewed) information, we hope that we’ve piqued your interest and left you with some concrete take away points to apply to your every day lives. Now that you’re with us, we challenge you to share this knowledge with others so that together we can continue to save the world one seed at a time.
Shiva, Vandana. " The seed emergency: The threat to food and democracy." Aljazeera. n. page. Print.
Watson, Bruce. "The Growing Threat of Food Insecurity in America." Daily Finance. n. page. Print.