How can we survive perhaps the greatest danger we now face - climate change? Global Warming may be a contentious issue for many but there’s no argument – some areas of our planet that were once ‘food bowls’, abundant, fertile and productive land, are now dust bowls where people scratch a living from the dry soil and hope for rain.

What: Film Screening of SEED HUNTER & Local, Vegetarian Potluck

When: Sunday, August 23  (6:00 PM - 9:50 PM)

Where: 626 Cypress Ave, Pasadena CA (see map)

Cost: $10 (children under 12 are free) A small entrance fee is required to help pay for facility rental, dvd screening fee, sound system, and purchase of eco friendly compostable dinnerware

Space is limited so please RSVP by calling 626.844.4586 or filling out the online reservation form

Event Schedule  (entire event will be held outdoors so please note time change)

6:00 PM - event starts / Freedom Gardens Swap N Meet

6:30 PM - 7:45 PM - local food potluck

8:00 PM - SEED HUNTER (50 minutes)

9:00 PM - discussion / pop quiz and win prizes!

9:30 PM - event ends

Film Details

Our planet is heating up and one of the first casualties will be the crops that supply our food. Scientists are working overtime to find solutions including going back to the ancestral origins of our staple foods.

Seed Hunter will take you on a remarkable journey from the drought ravaged farms of Australia, to the heart of the Middle East, to the mountains of Tajikistan where charismatic Australian scientist Dr Ken Street – a real life version of Indiana Jones - and his team of ‘gene detectives’ hunt for plant genes that will help our food withstand the impact of 21st century global warming.

Along the way we meet farmers around the world who are struggling to grow crops in a climate that’s gone haywire, as well as scientists working at the front line of gene technology to save tomorrow’s food. At journey’s end, deep in the Arctic Circle, Ken deposits his bounty of seed in the newly constructed seed bank known as the ‘doomsday vault.’

Potluck

Bring something (preferably vegetarian) to contribute to the potluck - bring enough food for yourself/family and a bit to share. The primary focus of the ‘Locavore’ potluck is to promote eating whole foods, in their nature-made state, focusing on fresh food from local sources (or as local as possible)

If not FROM BACKYARD then locally produced.
If not LOCALLY PRODUCED, then Organic.
If not ORGANIC, then Family farm.
If not FAMILY FARM, then Local business.
If not a LOCAL BUSINESS, then Fair Trade.

Freedom Garden Swap N Meet

Join local homegrown revolutionaries - swap crops, seeds, expertise and more.

Growing for 21st century food security, FreedomGardens.org is a free interactive, online social community of gardening enthusiasts who are fed up with foreign oil, frequent food miles and high food prices.

To reserve space for this event fill out this easy regisration form or contact 626.844.4586

MONSANTO'S DESTRUCTION OF SEED CLEANERS AND THE IMMENSE THREAT TO HUMAN ACCESS TO SEEDS

Read full article

Fight back!  GYO (Grow Your Own) or SOS (Save our Seeds)

Join the modern food security movement and hook up with fellow freedom food fighters at Freedom Gardens.org

This is serious stuff folks -- take back your food, take back your life.

Or keep tabs on Monsanto at OCA's Millions Against Monsanto

Monsanto Takeover Targets Fruits & Vegetables

Fact: 40% of seed varieties sold in the United States are owned by Monsanto.

Noted for its aggressive advocacy of genetically modified crops and its dominance in biotechnology, Monsanto will now have a major presence in the vegetable seed business for the first time.

We aren't talking genetically modified seeds here were are talking about who is supplying the seeds.  Even if you purchase non gmo seeds from a seed company who touts a 'Safe Seed Pledge' that variety may still be OWNED by Monsanto.  Sorry to break the bad news to you, but that's the facts folks.  We, yes even PTF, is supporting the big M by purchasing seeds from our favorite seed companies and you probably are too.

Out of the 2,500 varieties that Monsanto has acquired from the Seminis takeover, here are a few of the published veg varieties that we know that Monsanto owns:

Beans: EZ Gold, Eureka, Goldrush, Kentucky King, Lynx, Bush Blue Lake 94

Carrot: Nutri-Red, Sweet Sunshine, Karina, Chantenay #1, Chantilly, Lariat

Cucumber: Dasher II, Daytona, Turbo, Speedway, Sweet Slice, Yellow Submarine, Sweeter Yet

Lettuce: Esmeralda, Lolla Rossa (and derivatives), Red Sails, Red Tide, Blackjack, Summer time, Monet, Baby Star, Red Butterworth

Melons: Alaska, Bush Whopper, Casablanca, Dixie Jumbo, Early Crisp

Onion: Arsenal, Hamlet, Red Zeppelin, Mars, Superstar, Candy

Peppers: Valencia, Camelot, King Arthur, Red Knight, Aristotle, Northstar, Biscane, Caribbean Red, Serrano del Sol, Early Sunsation, Fat and Sassy

Spinach: Melody, Unipack 151Spinach, Bolero, Cypress

Squash: Autumn Delight, Bush Delicata (producer-vendor), Really Big Butternut, Early Butternut, Buckskin Pumpkin (AAS), Seneca Autumn, Table ace

Tomato: Big Beef, Beefmaster, First Lady I and II, Early Girl, Pink Girl, Golden Girl, Sunguard, Sun Chief Sweet, Baby Girl, Sweet Million

Watermelon: Royal Flush, Royal Star (pet), Stargazer, Starbright, Stars and Stripes, Yellow doll, Tiger

Zucchini/Summer Squash: Blackjack, Daisy, Fancycrook, Sunny Delight, Lolita, Sungreen

They aren't not done yet!  Recently Monsanto purchased one of the largest Internationa Eurpoean based Seed Company.

Monsanto is now the largest supplier of vegetables seeds.

So what to do?  Start saving fazing out listed Monsanto owned varieties, reach where your seeds come from and or save your own.

Taking Back Our Food Supply

Before agriculture became an industry, every gardener, farmer was responsible for the availability of seed for next years crop.  With this recent merger and marketing tactics that has allow a certain "M"-onopoly to take over over the majority of the seed population. Seed-saving is one among many tactics of reclaiming our power (and freedom) to grow our own food, and an indispensable step towards fully sustainable and secure future.

The shift from public to private seed systems

Monsanto Purchases World’s Largest Vegetable Seed Company

The seeds of vegetable diversity

How to Save (y)Our Seeds

Seed Save

S.O.S Campaign & use our sister site Freedom Gardens to connect, meetup and swap seeds with local homegrown revolutionaries

A "volunteer" sunflower blooms in the garden

The cult of uniformity that has enveloped agriculture and our culture as a whole, is sweeping the globe, laying earth bare and denying diversity. - primal seeds

This year we've launched a few homegrown campaigns here at PTF headquarters.  From encouraging our readers to grow closer to home, then preserving the bounty and now the next step in self reliant food production - saving seed diversity.

Not only is this challenge to raise awareness, the goal of this challenge will focus people become truly self-reliant in their own food and seed production. Instead of having to rely on  hybrid seeds which have to be purchased year after year we want to shift the focus and concentrate on finding and providing regionally adapted, open-pollinated seeds and supplying the tools and knowledge needed for food self-reliance and seed production.

As seasoned and newbie gardeners alike know, it's easy to buy new seed every year, but saving your own will not only save you money but hopefully provide some satisfaction as a minor act of empowerment against the corporate control over the world's seed supply.  Yep that's right.  You've probably heard of Big Oil - well, there's a new kid on the block.  Multi-nationals now own the rights to many of the world's food seed varieties, but any concerned gardener can short-circuit the system by saving seed.

While consumers struggle to fuel their cars and put food on the table, oil companies (like Exxon Mobil, BP and Conoco Phillips) and seed companies (like Monsanto, Cargill and ADM) are raking in record profits. - OCA

Take Control

Save Your Seeds - take back your food supply from corporate controls

There are many reasons to save seed; to save money, to preserve a non-commercially available variety, to observe varieties for adaptation to our difficult growing conditions, to share the bounty of our gardens with other seed savers and for the pleasure of becoming an observer and an active participant in our own food production.

Start A Community Seed Bank - connect with fellow gardeners in your area, ensuring seed security

A seed bank protects rare and useful local crops. It is also an emergency source of seed if crops fail due to disease, pests, or bad weather.

Buy OP or Heirloom - try to stay away from hybridized or gmo contaminated seeds

Open-pollinated vegetable varieties reproduce themselves in one of two ways: cross-pollination between two plants (via wind, insects or water) or self-pollination (between male and female flower parts contained within the same flower or separate flowers on the same plant). Beets, brassicas, carrots, corn and squash are cross-pollinating, and so require isolation in the field to keep varieties true. Beans, lettuce, peas and tomatoes are self-pollinating, do not require isolation and are the easiest for seed-saving home gardeners to sustain year to year.

S.O.S Pledge

I pledge to take back control over the most sacred form of plant life - seeds

I will strive to save my own seeds, encourage self pollination and self seeding "volunteers"

Refrain from purchasing seed varieties controlled by Monsanto

Support local seed banks

Purchase organic, heirloom or open pollinated from independent seed companies who's mission are to save seed diversity

Share your pledge with the world with this nifty icon - feel free to "save as" and use! Also join other homegrown revolutionaries at our sister site FreedomGardens.org

Diversity Lost

Seeds are critical to our success as gardeners and farmers. They are compact packages of genetic information and stored food reserves, just waiting for the conditions found in warm, moist soil in order to germinate and create tomatoes, carrots, beans and thousands of other delights out of sunshine, air, water and soil. For most of the last ten thousand years of human history, seed-saving was something nearly everyone practiced, because in order to eat and therefore to survive, it was necessary. The grains and beans which formed the basis of most diets were both seed and food. Grown in large quantities, the best were saved for planting and the rest were eaten. Our ancestors did this each year, generation after generation through the centuries. Variations in climate, soil and techniques from garden to garden and community to community, accumulated through the years, creating the incredible diversity which existed over much of our planet well into this century. These local seeds were integral to life and culture everywhere. Unfortunately, the vast majority of these varieties has disappeared."
From Bill Duesing - Living on the Earth 1999

According to FAO estimates 75% of the genetic diversity of crop plants were lost in the last century. A survey by RAFI found that approximately 97% of U.S. Department of Agriculture lists have been lost in the last 80 years.

Blacklist

Seeds companies are being bought up at an alarming rate by Monstanto. Their most recent purchase was Seminis.

It is estimated that Seminis controls 40 percent of the U.S. vegetable seed market and 20 percent of the world market—supplying the genetics for 55 percent of the lettuce on U.S. supermarket shelves, 75 percent of the tomatoes, and 85 percent of the peppers, with strong holdings in beans, cucumbers, squash, melons, broccoli, cabbage, spinach and peas. The company’s biggest revenue source comes from tomato and peppers seeds, followed by cucumbers and beans.

The brand-name companies under Seminis (such as Petoseed) have developed, released, produced and distributed varieties common to the market farmer and even home gardener. These include Big Beef, Sweet Baby Girl and Early Girl Tomatoes; Simpsons Elite and Red Sails Lettuces; Red Knight and King Arthur Peppers; Gold Rush and Blackjack Zucchinis; Stars & Stripes Melon; and Bush Delicata and Early Butternut squashes

Read complete article

:: Resources ::

Collecting and Storing Seeds from Your Garden

Monocult: Corporate control over our food supply

Grow open pollinated seeds for self-reliant gardening

How to start a community seed bank

Why and how to save seeds

Open Pollinated vs Hybrid

Seeds: hybrid vs. open pollinated

Heirlooms versus Hybrids: A Common-sense Approach

Genetically Engineered vs. Hybrid

Recommended Reading

Seeds of Deception

Saving Seeds