I found this in a post at the Permaculture Research Institute, USA. The video is rather good, I reckon, although there were a couple of parts where I disagreed with the subtitling. More worrying, I think, is the sub-text. Do the Indians need a foreigner to teach them to save seeds? To get them access to traditional varieties from all over, that they can then trial in their own systems. Why no mention of the fact that what Stephan Fayon is doing in India, he could not do legally in France? Kokopelli India is an offshoot of Kokopelli Seed Foundation, which is a US vehicle to support the aims of Association Kokopelli in France. Amazingly, Association Kokopelli has had nothing new to say about its euros 35,000 fine for “unfair trading” since the fine was levied. It’s all very odd.
French man saves seeds in India
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pQBfwF0TVQ
Perhaps your comments have been noted, as when I tried to view this video, it was no longer available. I am astonished by what you say about Kokopelli, and it serves to alert all of us who are involved in Permaculture, not to accept ‘eco’ work at face value, but to apply the same level of discrimination that we would when viewing conventional environmental activities.
Aspen Edge
http://www.holisticdecisions.com
How very strange, Aspen. I just clicked on the video above and it played fine.
I’m not sure I understand your astonishment. Perhaps you misunderstand the European legislation. Distributing seeds of home-saved varieties is legal in India, but it is not legal in France, or anywhere else in the European Union.
I’ve written at length on this, here and elsewhere. Try starting with this brief piece.
Jeremy,
Kokopelli is an interesting group. We are looking for partners in Europe to engage in direct farmer to farmer exchanges of experience in maintaining crop genetic diversity and how it could contribute to the maintenance of rural communities in marginal areas. The exchange is between farmers in Europe and farmers in West Africa that grow traditional cultivars and crop mixes. We are also looking to get farmers’ perspectives on the way they can help to guide collaboration with scientific institutions that work on agricultural biodiversity. The aim would be to better inform the biodiversity researches and produce scientific results that could be of more immediate benefit to the rural poor in West Africa, as well as recognising the importance of biodiversity for small scale European farmers.
An interesting idea, though it’s a little difficult to imagine what West African farmers would gain from such an exchange of experiences. I guess one thing might be that it’s a bad idea to use the law to limit exchange of varieties to the ones listed on a centrally-maintained catalogue.