Friday, February 3, 2012

Launching Seed-Sharing Stations

Eating in Public has launched a new initiative.
We have set up SEED-SHARING STATIONS at several O'ahu locations so far and a non-working model will be included in the exhibition Hawaii Art Now at the Honolulu Museum of Art (formerly Honolulu Academy of Art).

Why?

Seed-sharing is an ancient practice throughout the world. It is currently under threat by big industrial seed corporations (e.g. Monsanto). They want to patent seeds and prevent us from sharing them so we will always be forced to buy from them. Seed saving and sharing is crucial to our freedom, autonomy from capitalism and crucial for our collective survival.

And?

Eating in Public continues to seek prospective organizations/entities to adopt seed-sharing-stations, particularly locations with lots of traffic and used by people of diverse populations - e.g. community centers, libraries, churches, coffee shops, senior service centers, etc.

We will provide a seed-sharing-station without charge. They are built individually to fit the specificity of each context and entirely from scrap and/or repurposed wood. Each comes with a stapler, rubber stamp/pad, pencils, a starter kit of recycled envelops and approximately 50 seed packets.

The station needs no monitoring and is self-explanatory. Anyone is welcome to take seeds and provides a place for planters and foragers to share seeds. Ideally, adoption is forever or at least a year. Adoptive organizations also agree to periodically ink the stamp pad, sharpen the pencils, restock the stapler and recycled envelops, and send EIP photos of the stations in action.