Why Saving Seed and Growing Organic Food is a Powerful Weapon Against Corporate Tyranny

For 12,000 years, since the advent of agriculture itself, saving seed and exchanging seed with other growers for biodiversity purposes was the way folks maintained their farms and gardens.. Now this traditional practice has become illegal for the many plant varieties that are patented or otherwise owned by a corporation. The fact that these fictitious beings can and do now legally own and control our access to the stuff and staff of life proves that the laws, the governments who create them, the police and courts who enforce them are owned and operated by and for the corporations, not us.

Back in George Washington's day not only were seeds routinely saved and traded but folks were in a position to stand up to authority, to rebel, to overthrow the royal tyrants, to form a more perfect union. Today the corporate tyrants are far more powerful, their security and police state apparatus make almost all types of physical rebellion instant suicide. Almost all, but the corporations and security state aren't totally invulnerable. Their is one powerful weapon 'we the people' still have that the corporate forces darkness are vulnerable to. We can ignore them!

It's obvious now that real change can't come from the top down as it could it Washington's day. Any meaningful change must come from the bottom up. And nothing is more bottom up than the soil and the food we grow from it. Open pollination, non-hybrid seed, is an important aspect of intentionally ignoring the corporate tyrants Open pollinated seeds grow plants that reproduce through natural means, adapt to local conditions over time, and evolve as reliable performers, particularly in their localities, these are the 'folk' varieties that Washington traded. These are  the seeds of our non-corporate future, the seeds of our revolution.

Looking back at the all the years of bountiful gardens we had and all the wonderful meals we had back when we lived on our little farm just outside Roberts Creek, BC makes me realize what a lucky and wonderful life we've had. Makes me realize that the process was as magical as the product. At times i've wondered if the magic was only in the eye of this sweat-stained beholder. Turns out it isn't, turns out there is a valid objective, measurable, scientific rationale at play not just our subjective feelings about the magic of my present garden's produce or that of gardens past. It's named the Brix scale after its German mathematician and engineer inventor, Adolf Brix, who figured out how to easily measure the nutrient and sugar contents of produce way back in Washington's time.

This is my second year working in the soil of my new hideout's garden a bit further north along BC's left coast in Black Point. This year there's open pollinated bush and pole beans, peas, corn, potatoes and herbs growing out there plus there's the long established raspberries, cherries and hazel nut trees that were already on the property thanks to the past owners. Luckily the 'Mother Nature' garden store in Powell River recently brought in many other open pollinated seed types from 'Aimers', a certified organic farm in Ontario. By next year everything in the garden will be open pollinated.

The single greatest service each of us can provide to our planet, our families and ourselves is to grow our own organic food from non-hybrid seeds. To save our own seed in turn, and in so doing be part of the future solution to the present day destruction being sown by GMO's, agri-business and the bio-technology giants.