At a time of severe climatic event and the worst forest fires in Russia’s history, it is unfathomable that the government may allow Real Estate Developers to do what the Nazis couldn’t — bulldoze the Pavlovsk Experimental Station that holds thousands of varieties of apples, strawberries, cherries, raspberries, currants and other crops, 90 percent of which are not found anywhere else in the world. During the siege of Leningrad in WWII, the scientists at the station starved to death rather than eat the valuable seeds contained in the collection.

The Global Crop Diversity Trust has organized a petition which can be signed here.

The way forward to sustainable agriculture lies in sticking to traditional methods, writes Baba Mayaram

Daily Pioneer, May 12, 2010

At a recent agricultural festival in Indore, Uttarakhand was represented by a stall displaying traditional seeds. Fascinated by their texture, colours and sizes, I was tempted to pick them up. The stall stocked small plastic bags containing seeds of dhan, rajma, mundwa (kodo), marsa (ram dana), jhangora, wheat, lobia and bhatt. I later learnt that the credit for this display and the “seed movement” that has ensured that these seeds remain in circulation amidst an environment of aggressive biotech altered varieties goes to conservationist Vijay Jaddhari. He comes from the land of the Chipko Movement which practised the Gandhian methods of satyagraha and non-violent resistance, through the act of hugging trees to protect them from being felled.

Mr Jaddhari has actively been protecting the biodiversity of the region through the “seeds movement”. He started to revive traditional agricultural practices once he sensed the damage chemical fertilisers and new technologies could wreak on farming practices. This was the motivation behind the movement and at the core of this lay urgency to protect local varieties of seeds. [more]