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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@gilanet.com>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] 10 000 Seed Handbooks sold in Japan
  • Date: Thu, 26 Jun 2003 05:21:05 -0600


25 June 2003

10 000 Seed Handbooks sold in Japan

With the current Potter-mania frenzy, Japan's leading national
newspaper "The Asahi Shimbun" reported in an article on Friday June 6th
2003, that the Japanese translation of The Seed Savers Handbook a
social realism piece, had sold 10 000 copies in Japan (that incudes 900
ordered by libraries) unfortunately not in the tens of millions as in
the Harry Potter welcomed fantasy. The 180 pages handbook was written
by the Seed Savers in Australia, it sold just 23 000 copies to
can-do-people, the home gardeners the farmers, the balcony growers, the
rooftop food producers, the green fingered people.

Ichiro Motono is the dynamic director of Hyogo Prefectural Organic
Agriculture Society who travelled in 2001 from Japan for five days
holidays to visit the Seed Savers and their gardens, the famous seed
bank and to see for himself the seed action. Back in Japan him and his
team were the motivators behind the translation. Jude and Michel
travelled twice to Japan to give talks and workshops to all sorts of
groups with the help of Masami Sakaban and her tribe, and Meg Ogata and
Mariko and lots of wonderful helpers. Now the Japanese are going on
step further and are updating the Japanese version by adding a culinary
section: how to enhance the flavour and nutrition of Japanese
vegetables. The new version will be released in 2005.

The news about the success of the handbook in Japan was part of an
article about the renewal of the home gardening movement and seed
saving in Japan. Producing seeds in home gardens have been on a very
steep upward trend. Japanese home gardeners are now a lot more aware of
their duties to take care of what is left of their delicious and
colourful vegetable heritage that makes real japanese home cuisine. The
article mentionned our ex interns and friends such as Mrs Kamibayashi
organising seed exchanges and seed action. A small but significant
portion of gardeners in Japan are sowing once again local varieties and
saving them for next year planting instead of just keep on consuming
hybrids seeds that come in colourful seed packets, bred by the seed
industry for the "over the top" toxic horticulture lifestylers. It is
clear that hybrid modern vegetables, fruit and grains are bred with an
ability to absorb more irrigation water and petro-chemical fertilisers,
stand yet more fungicides...and they grow size XXL. They become
overweight full of water, acrid flavourless and they have abysimally
less nutrition then the original gorgeous varieties that millions of
seed savers and indigenous subsistence farmers caretake worldwide. The
fat hybrids are also less likely to content the antioxidants,
anti-inflammatories, and detoxifing enzymes (plus other therapeutic
plant nutriments (or phyto-nutriments) all of us need to keep vital.
Generally the brighter the colour of vegetables, fruit or cereals ( as
in blue corn, red rice) the more loaded they are with healing
phyto-nutrients. At seed savers we see numerous traditional vegetables
growing into all shades, shapes and colours.

The Handbook has been in fair demand overseas. In 1997 it was adapted
for UK conditions (with co-author Jeremy Cherfas at the time a BBC
radio rural presenter). The handbook is now distributed in UK by
Eco-logic books
http://www.eco-logicbooks.com/index.cfm?fa=books_main&category_id=13

A french version is being translated this year, Italian, Tamil started
last year, and a fully translated version is done in Spanish ready for
publication. Shorter versions have been and are currently been
translated in other Indian languages, and also in Khmer and also
published in Basque, and Catalan a Spanish dialect. We are easy on
copyrights.

Jude Fanton in July will be running a workshop on self publishing at
the Byron Bay Writers Festival. www.byronbaywritersfestival.com

Have a look at our site http://www.seedsavers.net if you have not done
so for a while. You too can add content to the website just ask for a
password. It is easier than registering a Hotmail address. if you are a
friend of organisation add your name and story in PEOPLE.


This article can be found on the Web at:

http://www.genevar.com.au//seedsavers/news/91.html




  • [Livingontheland] 10 000 Seed Handbooks sold in Japan, Tradingpost, 06/26/2003

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