We enjoyed a very beautiful film on 17 November as well as learning a great deal.

The wonderful imagery of seeds sprouting, of fields and forests, backgrounded the story of seeds, the importance of having many varieti

es of each food crop for resilience to disease, natural disasters and changes caused by climate change. We learned about the seed savers, collecting heritage species, and seed banks created around the world to protect them.

And we learned about the growth of giant agricultural and chemical companies, taking ownership of seeds, modifying them, preventing farmers from being able to grow next year’s crop from saved seed but instead having to buy anew each year – and the debt and desperation arising from this.

Our wonderful panel -Randa Toko from the Seed Saving Network, Sophie Verhagen from Growing Communities and Vicki Hird, author and Strategic Lead on Agriculture at The Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts - answered questions about how we can each play out part, saving seed ourselves, buying carefully and supporting organic growers, open-pollinated seeds and small food businesses rather than becoming part of the cycle of destruction of our heritage: the amazing world of seeds.

To learn more about what others are doing and what you can do visit the following:

Seed Saving Network: https://seedsaving.network/ and email info@seedsaving.network

Growing Communities: growcomm@growingcommunities.org

Vicki’s book website: www.rebuggingtheplanet.org

And the action pages 

for SEED to sign up for a newsletter, download the discussion guide https://www.seedthemovie.com/takeaction 

Photo:
Courtesy of Collective Eye Films