Seed Keepers

["Elise Lutrick" <seedsaverslist@gmail.com>]

Hi, Morgan,

I am with you on most every point. Except the "I can't do anything
about it" issue. Now I do realize that this is an international list,
and so these comments will not apply to everybody.

But here in the US, for the moment anyway, we have a government that
is supposed to be "of the people, by the people, and for the people."
Now granted, increasingly it seems that it isn't working like that too
very well. But it's likely that is so because because of the apathy of
the populace.

Nevertheless, grassroots America, when it chooses to become well
informed and then to take action by letting their congressmen and
senators and president, etc., know how they feel about specific issues
have been able to make changes in intended policies and turn things
around. At least for a time.

We have a choice here in this country. We can stick our heads in the
sand while muttering "whatever", or we can choose to be informed,
unite, and make our collective voices heard. Hopefully in a civilized
manner. Part of the becoming informed and uniting is conversing with
each other in a civilized manner and finding common ground on which to
establish an effective platform from which to act. Such conversations
here do not have to be the source of adversity, nor of offense. Rather
they can be a positive, constructive, instructive thing, a preparation
for effecting change in modern culture.

Agreed, it seems that folks on this list are fairly quick to take
offense. Please remember that the written word sans body language,
facial expression and vocal inflection is very easy to misinterpret.
Perhaps it would be best to assume that the author of the offensive
message did not intend to be offensive, at least until he/she makes it
very clear that he/she did indeed mean it that way.

Everyone here is presumably here because we all value the genetic
diversity with which we have been gifted. That in itself should be
enough to inspire us to communicate--particularly about things that
will have a profound effecton our way of life, and thus, to cooperate.
These conversations should be a call to constructive action.

Elise



On Sat, Mar 1, 2008 at 4:28 PM, Pumpkin Lady <pumpkin@xanadoo.com> wrote:
> oowonbs@netscape.net wrote:
> > Hey guys... Having read and reread this, whoa...
> > There's not even smoke here...
>
> I think there's a whole sub-something-or-another going on here. I know
> that I am finding comments that I thought were fairly innocuous get
> reacted to and that I, myself, am reacting to things on here in an
> angrier fashion than I normally do.  I wonder if we've got a not very
> far below the threshold "grumpy" going on with this whole list.
>
> Toni bugged me with the "write me off list" thing and I called her on
> it...and I made her mad(and she made me mad with the posting to the list
> "you have private email").
>
> Oh well, I stand by it. I found this list because others shared the
> address and instructions on how to join on other lists. If that hadn't
> happened, how many of you would be here?  I think I meant more that it's
> "not fair" not to return that courtesy about other places when asked.
> Maybe that's just as bad, I guess it's all in personal preference. I
> don't think offering information about other places should make people
> bail, unless they weren't getting what they needed here in the first place.
>
> I really do think this list has a whole lot of potential, but I also
> think something is going on to keep hamstringing efforts to get us all
> pulling together. Maybe it is that it was started in anger. I don't know.
>
> Let me address my anger some.
>
> I am angry about GMOs. I am, but there is nothing I can "do" about it.
> There's nothing I can vote for to get anything done about them. It's a
> total non-issue as far as platforms go for government. The only thing I
> can "do" is I can(and will) grow more and more of my own food. I don't
> pick out things I know are likely to have GMOs in them when I buy food,
> with the exception of meat, which I don't grow for myself (yet).
>
> I would like to see, rather than "GMOs are bad, we should yell about
> this", some discussion of how we can help our crops not be contaminated
> with GMO pollen and such. GMOs are not going to go away any time soon.
> Until there is something constructive we can do about getting rid of
> them, we should focus on how we are going to keep them from
> contaminating our good seed.
>
> I feel bad that Kent was kicked out of the SSE. I don't know the whole
> story. I do feel bad for him, no matter what - but I don't know enough
> to have an opinion as to whether or not it was warranted. Since I don't,
> yelling about it doesn't do anything for me except increase my
> irritation level.
>
> This whole seed vault thing...again, it's a non-issue for me. They are
> going to do what they are going to do. So what? Did them getting seeds
> keep you from getting seeds somehow? If it pisses you off enough and you
> have the money, make your own vault. I thought we were supposed to be
> here to swap seeds and share knowledge about how to grow stuff. Let them
> play in their sandbox. We'll make our own. That's the best thing to DO
> about something like that. If you are angry go dig some dirt or remodel
> a room or something.
>
> Bio-diesel, is a Bad Idea in my book. You can feed a person for a year
> on what it costs to make just a little bio-diesel, taking stuff out of
> the ground and burning it in your car puts nothing back in the ground. I
> rarely hear on the gardening lists that we are losing topsoil at a scary
> rate, but the small(organic) farming lists seem to be aware of it.
> Bio-diesel will just increase that IMO. But that's just my opinion.
> Other people are allowed to have theirs.
>
> GMOs were originally touted as going to make super healthy food without
> all the time required to breed up a new variety. They rarely use it for
> that. They did use it to save the papaya, but that now puts papaya on
> the GMO list...and I don't know enough about exactly what they did to
> know if I want to eat it or not. Despite my anti-GMO stance, I might
> soften on that particular one if I knew more. That's basically the
> problem. We don't know more...and what we do know seems to indicate it's
> all bad, but we never get all the evidence to weigh on way or another.
>
> Ok, I guess I've really lost focus here. I'll shut up now.
>
> Morgan
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