Worldwide March Against Monsanto

This march may be over, but the march goes on in your garden, in your kitchen, at the grocery store, on your plates, and in your stomachs. Vote with your fork and your trowel! Every time you make a food choice you have an opportunity to make sure your seed and food dollars aren't supporting biotech corporations selling agricultural chemicals and genetically engineering seeds. That's why we carefully research all of our off-farm seed purchases to make sure none of your seed dollars can be traced back to biotech corporations like Monsanto, DuPont, and others. Thank for supporting our work preserving, developing, and celebrating open-pollinated, non-gmo seeds!

We get asked, more and more, if any of our seeds are GMOs. The answer is emphatically no! One of the major reasons I became a seed saver, started the Seed Library, and turned it into my full time passion and business was to protect the diversity and independence of gardeners and farmers by making sure there are locally adapted, non-GMO seeds to plant for generations to come. Unfortunately, as of right now, any seed company selling to home gardeners can truthfully answer the same question with an deceptively simple no. However, in many cases your seed dollars that you spend with well known seed companies are supporting the biotech corporations forcing GMOs on farmers and into the food system. I was honored to recently give an interview about this with Kerry Trueman for the Huffington Post in her post Seeds for the People, By the People.

Knowing what your seed and food dollars are supporting, and avoiding seeds and food products that contain or support GMO corporations is the best and most important ways to make a difference day to day. Signing petitions, like this one asking Congress not to let Monsanto be able to override state GMO labeling laws,  as well as attending major rallies, helps make our voices heard. On May 25, tens of thousands of activists around the world will “March Against Monsanto.”

Currently, marches are being planned on six continents, in 36 countries, totaling events in over 250 cities, and in the US, events are slated to occur simultaneously at 11 a.m. Pacific in 47 states.

Here at the Seed Library we are concerned and frustrated by the consolidation of seed resources by multinational biotech corporations (not just Monsanto), the massive global loss of genetic diversity, the cross-pollination of GE plants with neighboring organic farms and wild plants, and the loss of independence in our farms and gardens and GE seeds, which are illegal to save, represent.

You can find your nearest march location here.

We're proud that many of our gardeners will be joining rallies in their neck of the woods and that one of our Seed Library gardeners has taken on organizing our local march in New Paltz, NY. We'll be donating free non-GMO, open-pollinated, and locally adapted seeds at our local march. You can join our local march here.

Wherever you go to join in and let our politicians know that you care about GMO labeling and protecting non-GE seeds, we hope you'll continue your seedy activism all season long by learning how to Sow Smart and support our work preserving, developing, protecting and celebrating heirloom seeds.