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  • From: Keith Johnson <keithdj@mindspring.com>
  • To: David Buitenveld <sarcasticboy@thechicken.coop>, Permaculture ibiblio <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>, openpermaculture <permaculture@openpermaculture.org>
  • Subject: [permaculture] A Resolution in Support of a "Declaration of Seed Sovereignty
  • Date: Wed, 21 Feb 2007 20:17:32 -0500

Thanks David,

I scanned it and did a little bit more editing and I think I caught most
of the OCR errors.
I'll include the list in this reply.
When you read it, it's easier if you just leave the WHEREASs out.
Keith

SANTA FE COUNTY
Resolution No. 2007 - 9

A Resolution in Support of a "Declaration of Seed Sovereignty: A
Living Document for New Mexico"

WHEREAS, our ability to grow food is the culmination of countless
generations of sowing and harvesting seeds and those seeds are the continuation of an
unbroken line from our ancestors to us and to our children and grandchildren.
WHEREAS, our ancestors developed a relationship with plants that
allowed their cultivation for food and medicine and this has been a central element
of our culture and our survival for millennia in regions throughout the world.
WHEREAS, the concurrent development of cultures of Eurasia, Africa,
and the Americas resulted in a plethora of food and crop types including
grains such as maize and wheat; legumes such as beans and lentils; fruits such as squash and
chile; vegetables such as spinach and those of the cabbage family; and roots such as potatoes
and turnips.
WHEREAS, these foods and crops, though developed independently of each
other, came together in New Mexico with the meeting of Spanish, Mexican, and
Native American cultures to create a unique and diverse indigenous agricultural system
and land-based culture.
WHEREAS, just as our families are attached to our homes, our seeds learn to thrive in
their place of cultivation by developing a relationship with the soil, water, agricultural·
practices, ceremonies, and prayers; thereby giving seeds a sacred place in our families
and communities.
WHEREAS, the way in which seeds become attached to a place makes them native
seeds, also known as landraces, also makes them an important element of the
generational memory of our communities.
WHEREAS, the continued nurturing of native seeds or landraces has provided the basis
for the community coming together for communal work such as Cleaning acequias and
preparing fields as well as in ceremony, prayers, and blessings thereby binding our
communities, traditions, and cultures together.
WHEREAS, the practices embodied in working the land and water and caring for seeds
provides the basis for our respectful connection to the Earth and with each other.
WHEREAS, our practices in eating for native seeds (Iandraces) and growing crops
provide for much of our traditional diet and results in our ability to feed ourselves with
healthy food that is culturally and spiritually significant.
WHEREAS, clean air, soil, water, and landscapes have been essential elements in the
development and nurturing of seeds as well as the harvesting of wild plants; and that
these elements of air, land, and water have been contaminated to certain degrees.
WHEREAS, corporate seed industries have created a technology that takes the genetic
material from a foreign species and inserts it into a landrace and is known as Genetically
Engineered (GE) or transgenic crops.
WHEREAS, seed corporations patent the seeds, genetics, and/or the processes used in
the manipulation of landraces, and have gone so far as to patent other wild plants or the
properties contained in the plants.
WHEREAS, GE crops have escaped into the environment with maize in Oaxaca, Mexico
and canola in Canada and crossed into native seeds and wild plants.
WHEREAS, organic farmers have been sued by seed corporations when these patented
genetic strains have been identified in the farmers' crops, even though the farmers were
unable to see or stop pollen from genetically engineered crops from blowing over the
landscape and into their fields, thus contaminating the farmers' crops.
WHEREAS, the effect of this technology on the environment or human health when
consumed is not fully understood.
WHEREAS, the seed industry refuses to label GE seeds and food products containing
GE ingredients.
WHEREAS, the pervasiveness of GE crops in our area cannot then be fully known due
to the lack of labeling and therefore carries the potential for genetic pollution on our
landraces.
WHEREAS, countries such as Japan, England, and countries in Africa have refused
genetically modified foods and prohibit the introduction of GE crops on their lands
because of their unknown health effects.
WHEREAS, indigenous cultures around the world are the originators, developers, and
owners of the original genetic material used in the genetic engineering of crops by
corporations today.
WHEREAS, this declaration must be a living, adaptable document that can be amended
as needed in response to rapidly changing GE technology that brings about other
potential assaults to seeds and our culture.

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the Board of County Commissioners of
Santa Fe County supports the following:
• The traditional farmers of Indo-Hispano and Native American ancestry of current day
northern New Mexico collectively and intentionally seek to continue the seed-saving traditions
of our ancestors and maintain the land races that are indigenous to the region of northern New Mexico;
• Seek to engage youth in the continuation of the traditions of growing traditional
foods, sharing scarce water resources, sharing seeds, and celebrating our harvests.
• Reject the validity of corporations' ownership claims to crops and wild plants that
belong to our cultural history and identity.
• Object to the seed industry's refusal to label seeds or products containing GE
technology and ingredients and demand all genetically modified seeds and foods
containing GE ingredients in the State of New Mexico to be labeled as such.
• Object to the cultivation of GE seeds in general but especially within range of our
traditional agricultural systems that can lead to the contamination of our seeds,
wild plants, traditional foods, and cultural property.
• We will work with each other, local, tribal, and state governments to create zones
that will be free of genetically engineered and transgenic organisms.
• We will also work together to address other environmental abuses that
contaminate our air, soil, and water quality that certainly affects our health, the
health of our seeds and agriculture, and the health of future generations.
• We will work together with the traditional farmers representing various acequia,
Pueblo, tribal, and surrounding communities to create, support, and collaborate
toward projects and programs focused on revitalization of food traditions,
agriculture, and seed saving and sharing.

PASSED, APPROVED and ADOPTED this 30th DAY OF JANUARY, 2007.
BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS

ATTEST:
Valerie Espinoza, Santa Fe County Clerk
APPROVED AS TO FORM:
Attorney
BCC RESOLUTIONS
Hand And Seal Of Office
Valerie Espinoza
Clerk, Santa Fe, NM
COUNTY OF SANTA FE
STATE OF NEW MEXICO
I Hereby Certify That This Instrument Was Filed for
record On The 31ST Day Of January A.D., 2007 at 11:14
And Was Duly Recorded as document # 1469051
of The Records Of Santa Fe County

--
Keith Johnson
"Be fruitful and mulch apply."
Permaculture Activist Magazine
PO Box 5516, Bloomington, IN 47408
(812) 335-0383
http://www.permacultureactivist.net
Switch to Solar Power the Easy Way
http://www.jointhesolution.com/KeithJ-SunPower
http://www.PowUr.com/KeithJ-SunPower
Blog: http://kjpermaculture.blogspot.com/
also Patterns for Abundance Design & Consulting
http://www.permacultureactivist.net/design/Designconsult.html
also Association for Regenerative Culture
also APPLE-Bloomington (Alliance for a Post-Petroleum Local Economy) It's a small world after oil.
http://www.relocalize.net/groups/applebloomington
also Bloomington Permaculture Guild





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