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  • From: David <david@h4c.org>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] A Solution to the GMO Problem
  • Date: Wed, 14 Apr 2010 13:14:00 -0700


At some risk....

On 4/14/2010 12:16 PM, Jacque Greenleaf wrote:
...something I haven't heard - maybe I'm just out of the loop - is how most
contributors to the exchange feel about the hostile takeover. Can you shed
any light?

Having looked over information pertaining to this, it presently seems to me that evidence for "a takeover" is simply non-existent. Accusations have been made, no question. Yet where is the supporting evidence? As well, it's very clear that what happened at Seed Savers caused personal anguish to Mr. Wheatly. But it's far from clear to what degree he himself was the proximate cause of his own defenestration. People get angry all the time. Sometimes it's because there is a good reason, and sometimes it's because of what's projected on the internal screen. Which is this?

The only connection between Monsanto and Seed Savers of which I am aware-- and if anyone has better information I'm ready to be educated-- is that both the company and the non-profit have decided to use the Svalbard Global Seed Vault <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svalbard_Global_Seed_Vault>. (Mr. Wheatly or whoever posted his open letter has misspelled the name as "Svalgard".)

Some have leveled the charge that as a result of the fact that both use the Vault, Monsanto now has access to all of Seed Savers seeds. This is not the case, as the referenced link, from a source independent of Seed Savers, mentions. Depositors only have access to their own seeds, as would be sensible in any such project, or else who would participate? All depositors pay fees, naturally, and in this sense, certainly it is true to say that the Vault was "funded by Monsanto". That of course would be true even if Monsanto only gave a dollar to the Vault. It is, therefore, pretty important to figure out who the /major /donors are, and Monsanto is simply not on that list. The project is managed by the Norwegian government. Why would the Norwegian government become a lackey of Monsanto?

I say all this with some trepidation and no axe to grind. Trepidation because I don't want to get involved in a shouting match about this, so I don't plant to post again. No axe because I don't use products or seeds from Seed Savers (or seeds from Monsanto for that matter), I don't know Mr. Wheatly, and I've never donated anything to Seed Savers. I'm a bystander. I'm simply posting because it seems to me that we ought to be careful about things we assert as fact-- and indeed about the things we accept as fact simply because they are mentioned-- where it has to do with the reputation of organizations and people.



'Nuff said.


d.




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