What is the shape of a post-political world? This morn, Joseph Postman, curator of the USDAs pear repository in Corvallis and a longtime friend and supporter of the Lane County Propagation Fair, forwarded me the following, saying (as perraps a polite Ahem, ol chap.): ...you may be interested in the article linked below that was circulated by our National Program Leader for plant germplasm. This may relate to scion as well as seed exchanges. There have already been tussles between state regulators and grassroots seed exchanges and, given that the Lane County Prop Fair is, we are confident, now the largest seed-and-scion exchange in the country, there is most definitely the possibility of a hiccup ahead. Perhaps it is time to begin more fully acknowledging this modest little event, and other such exchanges, as the revolutionary eco-cultural phenomena they are, more fully grokking their immense bioregional, eco-political significance and, yes, supporting them accordingly. On that note, heres part of a segment on Seed swaps for cultural evolution I wrote for Heather Coburns text Food Not Lawns (Chelsea Green, 2006): Deep gardeners know that you can walk out of a seed swap with a form of authentic power in your pocket with the literal potential to transform the politics of an entire bioregion. And, of course, the cosmic irony is that this form of power transcends all political differences. As the Sages say, conscious evolution is not about gaining power, but becoming power. Perhaps thats why our experience around seed swaps consistently demonstrates that they dont simply attract the finest seed in any locale, but some of the finest people, too. Local seed swaps are where the deepest indigenous wisdom of land and people become most potentized, shared and enlivened; they stand at the arrowpoint of the evolutionary impulse in any bioregion.
Posted on: Wed, 31 Dec 2014 20:39:47 +0000