Global Seed Swap

“We are still eating the leftovers of World War II.”

Vandana Shiva, the activist and Indian Farmer.

Are we sowing the seeds of our own destruction? Agriculture and the food supply chain are in dire straits these days; we are facing ruinous crop failure in Europe and beyond, we have lavished our lands with destructive chemicals, we are destroying our wild-life and the bees, polluting our rivers, pouring chemicals into our water and fighting wars that are decimating the GMO wheat crops.

If I were an alien looking at our planet at the moment I would think that mankind is on a deliberate suicide mission. Parched, arid, dry, war torn, flooded, burning, the picture from outer space cannot be pretty.

We are fiddling whilst earth burns, tinkering our way to destruction, and sowing the seeds of our own destruction. Expensive climate change conferences are not going to alter anything, except possibly line the pockets of the rich even more.

What can we do? Stop using chemicals in our gardens. Save and exchange non-GMO seeds, buy locally, grow our own food, barter, save and prepare our own sustenance.

Local seed barter: to put my actions where my words are I propose the following: we can save seeds from our gardens and practice the good old fashioned art of swapping them with our neighbours and friends and family.

Here, I hope to establish a local seed exchange in the now disused out-dated form of exchange: the red telephone box. We can of course also share through the post. If we can store and trade our seeds we are exchanging one future for another, and taking control of our local economies without involving money. For surely food, water and shelter are the most basic forms of currency? The telephone boxes or other local public places can act as our (seed) banks — the symbol of our democracy and freedom. Additionally we would be improving biodiversity and the local biodynamics.

The idea is not new as discussed here in the Daily Mail.

If you are interested at all in this idea, which is still in its infancy and I gather there are similar groups around the world, please can you let me know here on Medium. Please note that the seeds should not GMO and not bought but grown by you or in your local area.

The idea is not new, but as old as nature! Let us harvest and share before Nature herself is patented.

The seeds could be placed in an envelope with a name, description and photo if possible on the outside. Like so:

Keep planting new seeds until your mind becomes the earth that gives birth to new worlds.

Curtis Tyrone Jones