A slow raid is raging across the United States, and its targets are not what you’d expect. They’re often tucked into local libraries, stocked in vintage card catalogs, and wear handwritten labels scrawled with names like green zebra tomato, brown speckled tepary, and purple tomatillo. They are locally-adapted seed varieties shared between backyard gardeners and organic farmers in communities from Boston, Massachusetts, to Oakland, California. According to recent rulings in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Minnesota, Nebraska, and Illinois, the seed libraries that facilitate the free exchange of these rare legumes, vegetables, and fruits are “ illegal seed distribution centers ” under state law. In some communities, the libraries have been uprooted before even getting in the ground. Read the rest of Why are state governments shutting down community seed libraries? Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg Post tags: clif bar , community agriculture , community food , community seed libraries , department of agriculture , Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations , Monsanto , Neil Thapar , seed banks , seed exchanges , Seed Matters , seed sharing , seed swaps , seed-saving , Sustainable Economies Law Center , US seed industry
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Why are state governments shutting down community seed libraries?
