Creating Awareness for Seed Freedom
The campaign is symbolically set to begin on Mahatma Ghandi's birth date on October 2, through to October 16th. It will seek to improve awareness of the growing threat that patented seeds pose on both our crop diversity and personal freedoms. It will also act to improve our relationship with a universal food supply that humanity has grown to take for granted.
In a video entitled Seed Freedom, Vandana Shiva states that while "farmers [continue to] have their seeds in their hands, there will never be poverty, never be hunger." However, large corporations such as Monsanto have created what she refers to as a "seed emergency", preventing farmers from accessing and controlling their own supply of seeds, by genetically modifying, patenting and then circulating 'sterile' seeds. Farmers who continue to grow seeds traditionally often suffer from cross contamination and run the risk of being sued by Monsanto, under the pretence that they have stolen 'modified genes.'