You may know of a Community Based Organisation or indigenous group needing
the kind of Community Seed bank we work on.
Our next Seed Saving, Banking and Networking Course is here in Byron Bay at
the Arts Factory on April 22nd, 23rd and 24th. For details, contact us
below.
Best regards,
Michel and Jude Fanton, Directors
Seed Savers' Network, Box 975, Byron Bay, NSW 2481, Australia.
Tel/ fax: Int: 61-66-856-624.
Email: seedsave@om.com.au
homepage: http://www.om.com.au/seedsave
WHO WE ARE
The Seed Savers' Network is an Australian non-profit organisation. It is
the public component of The Seed Savers' Trust for Australia and the Seed
Aid Trust for overseas work and was founded by educators and authors Jude
and Michel Fanton in 1986. The principle aim of the Seed Savers is to
preserve agricultural biodiversity along with individual farmers, gardeners
and community groups. In this way Seed Savers has helped put the
conservation of original useful plants including fruits, vegetables,
medicinals and fibres on the public agenda. Over recent years, The Seed Aid
Trust has fostered similar networks in the Solomon Islands, Tonga, the
Caribbean islands, and is presently negotiating with other developing
countries.
Seed Savers' major activities include:
* Establishing community-based seed networks of useful plants in Australia
and developing countries - national, regional and local
* Establishing seed banks and field banks for non-hybrid locally-adapted
varieties
* Gathering and recording data on the varieties in the networks and seed
banks for easy public access, for research and for exchange between parties
* Education and training in all aspects of seed saving, banking and
networking for community development projects - domestic and overseas
* Promoting and publicising the need to conserve useful plants through the
printed and electronic media, addressing and conducting public meetings and
conferences
* Dissemination of information through publication of newsletters, two
versions of The Seed Savers' Handbook, in Australia and the UK, an Internet
page and regular media contributions
* Providing technical assistance to community development projects
Seed Savers exchanges seeds and shares information with:
Schools
Museums
Botanic gardens
Departments of Agriculture
Community and service groups
Family non-hybrid seed companies
Garden clubs and organic growers groups
Seed specialists from around the world
Scientific, research and education institutions
International, intergovernmental, national biodiversity, humanitarian
organisations and development agencies
WHAT WE BELIEVE IN
* Conservation of agricultural biodiversity achieved through the active
involvement of farmers and gardeners
* Local seed production using local knowledge and varieties
* Access to a wide range of useful plants for small sustainable
agricultural systems including urban food production leading to domestic
food sovereignty
* Environmentally sensitive small-scale community development based on the
sustainable management of local resources.
WHAT WE HAVE BEEN DOING
The growth of national seed networks is the basis of much of our activity
over the last eleven years. In Australia over 10 000 farmers and gardeners
have been involved in the network, exchanging seeds through the newsletter.
In other countries we have conducted Community Seed Bank Training,
resulting in seed networks being established, for example in Cuba, la Red
de Semillas is currently administered by the chief extensionist and the
Director of Projects at the Department of Urban Agriculture, Havana.
COMMUNITY SEED BANK TRAINING
Australia:
Community Seed Bank Training (CSBT) has been provided to keen gardeners,
Seed Saver volunteers, garden club members and overseas NGO seed bankers.
Seed Savers has brought a strong seed saving component to over fifty
Permaculture Design Courses which Jude and Michel have lectured at or
taught.
Other countries:
The Seed Savers' Trust has been invited to train community based
organisations and department of agriculture extensionists, teachers,
nutritionists and women's groups to establish planting material seed
networks.
CSBT courses have been conducted with partner agencies and funding bodies
in these countries:
* Solomon Islands in October 1995 (with an organic farmers' network, Kastom
Garden Project, funded by AusAID through Appropriate Technology for
Community and Environment, Sydney),
* Cuba in January 1996 (with Fundacion por la Naturaleza y Hombre, funded
by AusAID through Permaculture Global Assistance Network),
* Tonga July 1996 (with an indigenous NGO, the Tonga Trust, a peak Tongan
women's group and the Education Department, funded by the Tudor Trust and
the Commonweath Foundation).
Seed Savers is providing ongoing technical assistance to these groups and
plans to provide training in other countries in 1997.
Further courses are now taught by some of the trainees to villagers in the
Solomons, school children in Tonga, and farmers and market gardeners in
Cuba.
MAINTAINING SEED BANKS AND DATABASES
Australian National Seed Savers Seed Bank, Byron Bay:
Over 4 000 samples of seed of useful plants have come through Seed Savers'
Seed Bank - all are catalogued, germination tested, repackaged and sent to
experienced growers. Each year 20 000 seed packets are filled and labelled
by volunteers and distributed free of charge to individual members of the
public, community groups, schools, development projects and small scale
seed companies.
Seed Savers Spring Newsletter has a list of planting material available
from subscribers which represents an in situ seed bank in several thousand
gardens curated by our network of seed savers.
The central database records a number for every seed lot donated to the
network. The database became computerised in July 1995 and now holds a
wealth of information about variety performance suitable for conducting
research programmes.
Other countries:
Seed networks have been set up and seed banks and databases have been
established in three other countries following our Community Seed Bank
Training. Databases of the seeds, and other propagules discovered,
collected and made available to the community have begun in these
countries.
In the Solomon Islands, the fourth newsletter/plant listing was published
in December 1996 and there is the Central Link Seed Bank and Gardens at
Burns Creek and a plant and seed bank at the Provincial Hospital on
Choiseul.
A seed network, la Red de Semillas, is currently administered by the chief
extensionist and the Director of Projects at the Department of Urban
Agriculture, Havana.
In Tonga a seed bank has been developed by the Tonga Trust with a special
emphasis on distribution of open pollinated rare local corn, locally proven
vegetables and leguminous soil improvers. The first newsletter of the Save
Our Seeds seed network on local seed production and distribution was issued
in November 1996.
PERMACULTURE COURSES
Australia:
Seed Savers have taught eighteen two week Permaculture Design Courses and
several Introduction to Permaculture Courses. It has been a useful vehicle
to introduce seed saving to people with a wide spectrum of interests and to
bring it to the heart of sustainable systems.
Other countries:
Seed Savers has adapted the basic Permaculture Design Course and other
Permaculture courses to suit the conditions of several countries. Jude and
Michel have taught in a variety of situations including in the Republic of
Palau, South Africa, UK and Fiji.
PUBLISHING ANNUAL NEWSLETTERS
* The newsletter which has a 28 page format is sent to Seed Savers
subscribers, media and to many sister groups
* The current issue No. 21, Spring 1996 has a vast annotated list of 1100
varieties grown by gardeners and farmers across Australia. It is an
exciting representation of the diversity of vegetables, fruits, nuts and
other useful plants available.
* Autumn newsletter has articles about plant diversity, techniques of seed
production and storage, global and national issues including intellectual
property rights, food production and marketing systems and bio-engineering
such as labelling of genetically modified food stuff.
WRITING AND PUBLISHING THE SEED SAVERS' HANDBOOK
To produce the Handbook, Michel and Jude drew on their experience of their
many years of gardening where seed selection and correct storage were
fundamental components. Following the in-house publication, in early 1993,
demand is ensuring the ongoing publishing and distribution of The Handbook.
In the first four years 16 000 copies were sold, over 300 of which were
purchased by libraries.
A cool climate version of the Handbook was also published in UK by Grover
Books in 1996 and is now available throughout Europe.
INTERNET
Seed Savers' published a Homepage, in construction, with a database of 1100
seed entries, none of which are available through commercial channels. It
is supplied by and available to members: http//www.om.com.au/seedsave
CONDUCTING ANNUAL CONFERENCES
Every year since 1988 during the last weekend in October, Seed Savers has
convened an Annual Conference. Information is shared on the theme of
community conservation of plant genetic resources and Permaculture-related
subjects. Speakers include prominent authors and scientists, practitioners,
media personalities and sustainable agriculture strategists. There are also
workshops, a small trade fair, and a brisk seed exchange.
PARTICIPATING IN CONFERENCES
Seed Savers' Directors, Michel and Jude Fanton have delivered papers and
talks on a number of subjects related to the community conservation of crop
germplasm and Intellectual Property issues.
* Diggers Seed Club Campout Convention, Melbourne, March 1997
* International Workshop on Improving Seed Supply Strategies to Pacific
Island Countries, Nadi, Fiji, November 1996,
* Sixth International Permaculture Conference, Perth, October 1996,
* Traditional healers at the Pacific Festival of Arts, Apia, September 1996,
* National Student Conference on the Environment, Lismore, June 1996
* FAO Commission, NGO Summit on Plant Genetic Resources, Rome, April 1996,
* Fourth International Botanic Gardens Conservation Congress, Perth,
September 1995,
* Australian Council of Tree and Nut Crops, Lismore, August 1995,
* Australian Council for Overseas Aid, Canberra, August 1995,
* First International Women in Agriculture Conference, Melbourne, July 1994,
* Gardenesque, Vaucluse House, Sydney, March 1992.
We have not been able to respond to a number of invitations for lack of funding.
RESEARCH
Seed Savers Library holds over 800 ethnobotanical books, old seed
catalogues, a wide variety of national and international journals and a
databank of thousands of letters which have accompanied seed donations. It
is continually updated with donations of materials. This information source
is accessed by staff and volunteers to compile articles and conference
papers.
WHERE WE ARE GOING
We are currently negotiating the following projects:
Australia:
We are actively moving towards establishing regional and local networks
* with the national and regional garden club associations,
* with community garden groups, schools, organic growers clubs, regional
seed exchanges and permaculture associations.
Other Countries:
* Establishment of networks after Community Seed Bank Training in Vietnam,
Cambodia, India, Western Samoa, Kiribati, Philippines, Vanuatu, Fiji and
American Samoa.
* Scholarships for overseas students to study seed saving in Australia,
* Training of overseas volunteers who will work in agriculture programmes.
Globally:
* Seed Savers inaugurated The Global Permaculture Plant and Seed Exchange
at the Sixth International Permaculture Conference in Perth October 1996,
to facilitate movement of planting material for projects working with
peoples who have been marginalised by logging, ranching, export agriculture
and mining.
* Publication of the first Global Directory in 1997. If a sub or tropical
group wants to offer a seed listing please send one hundred words about it
now!
WHERE WE WANT TO GO
UPGRADING SEED SAVERS' PRESERVATION GARDENS
The Seed Savers Office and Seed Bank presently occupy four rooms of the
rented home of the Directors, Jude and Michel Fanton, in suburban Byron
Bay. Easier public access and greater efficiency will be achieved by
separating the base from this domestic situation. Storage facilities in the
Seed Bank need upgrading and a dehumidified cool room for mid to long term
storage of posterity samples.
ESTABLISHING SEED SAVERS' PRESERVATION GARDENS
Preservation gardens where varietal diversity of useful plants is gathered,
trialled, demonstrated, propagated and disseminated; for open-pollinated
plant varieties. The gardens would surround Seed Savers' headquarters near
Byron Bay where it would serve as an education facility and as a living
central repository.
ESTABLISHING A TRAINING CENTRE FOR CSB COURSES AND INTERNS
Within the gardens there should be a facility for conducting talks,
lectures, and courses. We plan to have interns and trainees from overseas
for both short and extended periods of time.
EXTENDING COMMUNITY SEED BANK TRAINING INTO OTHER REGIONS
It is intended that seed networks be established in developing countries in
these regions: the Pacific, then South East Asia, South Asia, Africa and
South America; enquiries and invitations have already been received from
these parts of the world.
EDUCATION PROGRAMMES IN AUSTRALIAN SCHOOLS
These include: input on Environmental Education Curricula in NSW, with
trials in Northern Rivers region, through environmental and agriculture
teachers; a programme of Local Original Fruit and Nut Trees in Schools and
an education kit containing teacher notes, slides and student workbooks.
TRAINING VIDEOS
These would provide a graphic display of seed saving techniques suitable
for schools, further education and general promotion.
Applied research and information gathering
As part of the Preservation Gardens, trials would be made on comparative
varietal performance. We also need to retrieve information that has been
sent to us over the years, and carry out a formal survey of our
subscribers, on varietal performance.
FURTHER PUBLICATIONS
To continue on from The Seed Savers' handbook we plan to produce a series
of handbooks on beverages, fibres, fodder crops, perfumes, spices and other
groups of useful plants. We also intend to write booklets on seed saving
and usage of plants for third world countries in collaboration with Dutch
and British aid agencies.
RECOGNITION OF OUR WORK
Seed Savers positive approach to the community conservation of plants has
attracted significant on-going media attention not only in Australia but
also in USA, France, Holland, South Africa and other places where Founding
Directors, Michel and Jude Fanton, have represented Seed Savers.
TV
A Big Country 1987
Country Wide 1988
Hinch at Seven 1990
Channel Seven Regional News 1991
Gardening Australia 1992
A Current Affair 1993
TF1 (France) current affairs 1993
News on RFO (Tahiti) 1993
The Today Show 1994
Burke's Backyard 1994
Totally Wild 1995
Link TV 1995
Gardening Australia 1996
RADIO
Australia:
Contributions to on-air panels of experts on national and state-wide radio
programmes.
Regular morning programme for twelve months on food and gardens (1994) and
regular interviews on state wide ABC programme on Permaculture (1994).
In depth interviews with Terry Lane (national ABC) and Andrew Ollie
(national ABC).
Guest appearances on talkback gardening shows with Jon Lamb (Adelaide ABC),
Shirley Stackhouse (Sydney commercial), Sandra and Graham Ross (Sydney
commercial), Colin Campbell (Brisbane ABC) and Lucy Broad (country NSW
ABC).
Interviewed on Green and Practical and other ABC environmental programmes.
Telephone interviews with numerous country radio stations in all states of
Australia.
Local FM stations.
Overseas:
Several items on Radio Australia's "One World" and other programmes, in
French and English, with translation into several Pacific languages
broadcast across the Pacific 95 - 97
Radio Happy Isles Solomon Islands 96
Radio Tonga 96
Several Cuban programmes in Havana 96
In the UK: The BBC Food Programme with Derek Cooper, agricultural programme
on Radio 4 - 96.
MAGAZINES
Articles on Seed Savers have appeared in the following magazines and journals:
Australia:
Grass Roots (8 items) and regular articles 86 - 96
Earth Garden (numerous articles) 88 - 96
Simply Living (3 items)
Going Organic 86
Agricultural Readers Digest, 88
Green Leaf Garden Series 88
Time Magazine Australia 11/88
Lifestyle Gardening Series 89
Australian Organic News 89
Work Matters 89
Organic Growing several articles 86 - 89
Complete Gardener Buying Guide 91
Homegrown 92
Countryman
Women's Weekly (2 items, 10/93 and 6/96)
Women's Day 93, 96
Who Weekly 10/5/93
Australian Senior Citizen 93
New Idea, 94
Your Garden 85 &10/95
Gardening Australia magazines (3 items, 93, 94, 95)
The Australian Gardener (several items) 87/93
The Gourmet Traveller 1/94
Inflight magazines 94
The Australian Post, 12/8/95
Overseas:
Les Quatre Saisons du Jardinage (France) 89
Nature et Progres (France) 91
De Kleine Aarde (Holland) 91
Odyssey (South Africa) 7/92
The Furrow (USA) Issue 2, 93
Rustica (France) 94
The Avant Gardener (USA) 94
Growing Today (New Zealand) 94
Pacific Island News (Fiji) 95
Geneflow, FAO of United Nation Rome (Italy) 96
Common Path of the Commonwealth Foundation, (UK) 96
South Pacific Agricultural News of the Institute for Research, Education
and Training in Agriculture (monthly contributions) 96 - 97
Pacific Islands Forest and Trees (FAO and UNDP) Dec 96
Regular column in the Permaculture International Journal 95 - 97
DAILY AND WEEKLY NEWSPAPERS
Australia:
The Sydney Morning Herald (4 items) in Good Living Magazine, & Employment
Section,
The Sun Herald,
The Daily Telegraph Mirror,
The Australian (5 items) and its Weekend Australian Easter 93, and the
Weekend Review,
The Sunday Age,
The Adelaide Advertiser,
The Western Australian 2/10/95,
The Hobart Mercury
The Canberra Times (3 items),
Sunday Sun,
Courier Mail in its Monitor section and its Sunday Mail (two items) 19/2/89
& 95,
The Land 10/96
The local Northern Star (numerous articles over the years)
Acropolis Australian Greek newspaper