[permaculture] changes at seed saver's exchange

Marimike6 at cs.com Marimike6 at cs.com
Sun Jan 20 14:37:56 EST 2008


Here's some more info on the controversy:

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/cornucop/msg0119143726856.html?12

In all fairness, note the macmec comment (above), where he offers that even 
if everything were above board, issues of liability intrude whenever some 
rancorous action necessitates lawyers. And if you've fired someone for cause, you 
can't tell anyone what that cause might be without courting the possibility of 
a wrongful action suit.

That's just the way things are done in this country. Still, I have my opinion 
in this. And the takeover sounds ominous. It would be hard to imagine a 
situation in which it was actually done for the good of the enterprise. Laughably 
easy of course, is imagining it was done with the clandestine purpose of 
killing off SSE.

IMO it would be a disaster for people discouraged by the putsch to just 
resign from SSE. Everyone who does this just makes it easier for some unopposed 
Board to decide it would be "in the best interest of the organization and the 
principles for which it stands" to turn the seed bank, the holdings and the 
operation over to some large corporation to manage, so they could then neglect it 
until it falls apart from disuse.

And there are certainly large agro-corps who would find the price of buying 
this gem to be a very affordable way of drowning the competition. I'm with the 
numerous posters connected to SSE--  the total lack of transparency gives more 
than an impression of skullduggery in the way this has come about.

Here's a good article, from a more pleasant time, about SSE and the seed 
saving movement generally:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48120-2004Aug30.html   


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