permaculture

["Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lflj@intrex.net>]

This shows that Rob Johnson of Johnny's Seeds was involved in the power grab 
at SSE,
also Cary Fowler, formerly of RAFI:

http://www.seedsavers.org/
Public Statements:
Letter from SSE Board
http://www.seedsavers.org/pdf/BoardLetter.pdf
Letter from Diane Ott Whealy
Letter from SSE Advisors

Dear Members and Friends of Seed Savers Exchange:
By now some of you have probably received or heard about Kent Whealy’s 
unfortunate
and lengthy letter about the end of his employment with Seed Savers Exchange.
<speech deleted>
Sincerely,
Amy Goldman, Director and Chair of the Board
Neil Hamilton, Director and Vice Chair of the Board
Rob Johnston, Director and Treasurer of the Board
Deborah Madison, Director and Secretary of the Board
Cary Fowler, Director

> Re: Power grab at Seed Savers Exchange -[Fwd: [permaculture] changes at 
> seed saver's exchange]
>  See this URL for a digitized photocopy of Kent's letter:
>
>  http://www.mustangmods.com/ims/u/1016/1377/217012.pdf
>
> > The following are on the current SSE board:
> >
> > > Amy Goldman
> > > Neil Hamilton
> > > Deborah Madison
> > > Rob Johnson (Johnny's Seeds)
> > > Cary Fowler (Global Crop Diversity Trust)
> >
> >
> >
> > NOTE that SeedSavers took a huge grant from the FDA, aka Monsanto 
> > Enforcement Division. Huge mistake.
> >
> > NOTE that Amy Goldman was the keynote speaker and celebrity of a 
> > conference featured "biotechnology solutions"
> > http://conference.ifas.ufl.edu/cucurbits/#biotech
> >
> > NOTE That Kent regretted ever sanctioning a Board of Directors not of 
> > members
>
>
> > > Many of you may be familiar with the work, buy garden seeds from or even
> > > be members of Seed Saver's Exchange in Decorah Iowa.  You may have heard
> > > Kent Whealy give one of his inspiring talks.  Here is a letter that Kent
> > > sent out after he was fired.  It sounds pretty apalling.  It sounds like
> > > this massive and amazing  seed bank may have fallen into the wrong
> > > hands.....one of the many perils of centralization.    The link to the
> > > letter is below.   Dan'l B
> > >
> > > http://www.mustangmods.com/ims/u/1016/1377/217012.pdf
> > > <http://www.mustangmods.com/ims/u/1016/1377/217012.pdf>
>
>
> « Last Edit: Jan 16, 2008, 1:59am by paquebot »
> Re: Kent Whealy's Letter to SSE Members
> « Reply #6 on Jan 16, 2008, 1:55am »   
> Yes, there's a major problem in Decorah, IA. The man who founded SSE has 
> been totally removed from the organization. He was even offered close to 
> a quarter million dollars to just leave and be quiet about it. As the 
> letter is evident, he chose neither to take the money nor remain quiet. 
> I'd prefer everyone get a copy of that letter rather than comment 
> further on its contents.
>
> For a copy of the letter, write to: Kent Whealy, PO Box 653, Charlevoix. 
> MI 49720
>
> Or e-mail him at: kentwhealy@gmail.com
>
> He's made the above information public for SSE members and concerned 
> friends since his only access to SSE is a copy of the Yearbook.
>
> The letter was quite an eye-opener despite my having been closer to the 
> SSE organization than most others here. The only SSE store outside of 
> Decorah, IA was in Madison, WI and about 12-13 miles from me as the crow 
> flies. I was in there often beginning in the 1990s and the final time 
> was a week before Christmas 2004. I knew many of the staff. Aaron Whaley 
> was the manager although seldom there. Any question asked about SSE was 
> answered except the final one. Why was the store vacated when I returned 
> in mid-January 2005? As suspected, the reasons were confirmed when I 
> last talked with Aaron this past May and we discussed that and other SSE 
> problems. Location and profit margin were the reasons given for closing 
> that beautiful store. And now they find a spare $240,000+ of non-profit 
> money to tell a man to sit on his hands and keep his mouth shut?