February 15, 2009

Guerilla Gardeners

With the paving over of American, sale of public lands to resource extrating companies, and the ownership of much of the commercial garden products by one or two chemical companies (that of course have a vested interest in plants that require chemical fertilizers and insecticides to survive) --- some people are fighting back. They are adding food production to the land in unlikely pieces of land, mostly public spaces that are underused.
Take a look at the guerilla gardening site called "Primal Seeds."
An urban adventure at the threshold of nature and culture, taking back our own time and space, transforming the urban desert, into a provider of food and a space where people meet face to face to discuss and participate directly in the remaking of their own towns and cities.

Victory Seed Co. ++

Are you planning your own victory garden to produce food for your family?

This morning I came upon the Victory Seed Company website which sells seeds that are worth having.
Their mission statement - and they like a few other companies, ARE on a mission not just maximizing profits -- explains:
The primary reason for our existence as an organization is to help protect open-pollinated and heirloom seed varieties during a time when the diversity of plant life on our planet is quickly shrinking.

Regions of the planet that provided much of the genetic material for our domesticated crop plants is rapidly being destroyed or irreversibly damaged. Additionally, in the past few years there has been a growing trend of mergers and consolidations among the seed industry. With responsibility to shareholders as a motive, less profitable and similar seed varieties are being dropped from the seed lines of the combined companies. In many cases, these plants are forever lost to us all.

As we witness the elimination of old varieties from other company's offerings, the emphasis of commercial unstable hybrids, and the proliferation of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), we feel an urgency in our mission.


Among other useful treasures, their website has an excellent glossary of terms I keep seeing in seed catalogs and have only a rough idea of what they mean, and the distinctions between words that are similar or overlapping. I looked up "open-pollinated" plants, because I was unsure what that entailed.

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