Articles/Letters
Planting the seeds of wisdom around the globe will take care of itself,’ says Michel. The couple are not entirely free of concerns: Jude worries about farmers. ‘We are losing the people with knowledge,’ she says. And Michel worries most about our tastebuds, citing the example of ‘Zeesweet’, which are highly bred stonefruits developed in California and available in Australia. They are high in sugar, low on taste.
Simeon Michaels
Michel and Jude Fanton are in perpetual motion, a twoperson NGO (non-government organisation) on a global odyssey for seed freedom. The couple formed Seedsavers in 1986 after concerns that corporate seed production would lead to the loss of varieties cultivated over centuries for their taste, nutrition and robustness. Their concern was shared; after decentralising their operation, 120 seed networks sprouted across Australia. Members meet in each other’s gardens to swap seeds and gardening lore. Byron Hinterland Seed Savers is active in Byron Shire. ‘We received 8,700 strains from gardeners around Australia,’ says Jude of when the duo began to take off. ‘Our typical provider was ageing, sometimes antisocial, and fanatical. They didn’t want to pass away without passing on their favourite breeds.’
Food shortage And then they went global. ‘We now specialise in helping war-torn and newly modernised nations,’ says Jude, who was among the first foreigners to reach Cuba following the Soviet collapse and the near starvation of the population. East Timor, Cambodia and Afghanistan also received the ‘seedsaver’ treatment. In their travels, they encounter aid groups who respond to food shortage by distributing hybrid seeds, pesticides and fertiliser. It’s unclear if using poten-
Flavour-bomb
Michel Fanton (second from right) with women farmers showing their ancient swamp rice varieties in Sankuya village, The Gambia, July 2013. Photo Jude Fanton
tially genetically modified (GM) seeds and chemical poisons is simply ignorance, or the vacuum left by war and corporate opportunism to open up new markets. But Jude and Michel’s alternative is to educate on permaculture methods and link locals with seed and knowledge. They don’t have a five year plan. ‘We have a five-minute plan and a 5,000-year plan,’ says Michel. The five-minute plan was to eat wild almonds. ‘The 5,000-year plan is to bring more local traditional varieties into the global diet. The foods we eat now used to grow in the wild. In 5,000 years we should be growing an even greater variety of nutritious food and natural medicine.’ One senses that the couple have reached a junction in their life and life’s work, are
MISSING
passing from actors to elders, and with this they begin to share their wisdom:
Get planting ‘Just plant something,’ says Michel. ‘We’ve planted stuff from all over the country. If it survives, it adapts. If you send seeds from Byron to a frost-prone area, only the early-flowering varieties will survive. The first year you may get a poor crop, but if you continue to collect the seeds, next year more of your plants will flower early, and soon you have something different: a locally adapted variety. The vital step is to harvest the seed, or you lose nature’s work. ‘I haven’t spent time worrying about [biotech GM corporation] Monsanto. Yes, there is room for political activism, especially against
laws restricting the right to save seeds, but if you keep planting and swapping and showing others how, the rest
LETTERS continued from page 10
ity, which the Abbott government presumably does not contest, it nevertheless threatens to cut funding to anyone who merely expresses support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign and to penalise those who support boycotts of unethical companies. Community groups like Byron Friends of Palestine and academics like Professors Jake Lynch and Stuart Rees will no doubt run foul of Abbott’s new laws for urging consumer boycotts of Israeli companies like Max Brenner, Soda Stream and Ahava Dead Sea Minerals.
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Perhaps the Abbott government suffers from Orwellian Doublethink, which is ‘the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them’. Gareth W R Smith Byron Bay
Park plans A new Board and Trust has taken up management of Brunswick Heads Caravan Parks. Appointed by minister for planning Andrew Stoner in June, the NSW Crown Reserve Holiday Park Trust and Board is now responsible for 23 north coast parks, three south coast and seven inland parks.
The new Board will be considering plans of management for all three caravan parks in Brunswick Heads this month before placing the plans on public exhibition, inevitably over the hectic holiday season! After a decade of contentious dispute over encroached lands, non-compliance, public access and amenity, Byron Council endorsed new caravan park boundaries and conditions in new licence agreements adopted in August 2012. However, Jim Bolger, now administrator of the NSW Crown Reserve Holiday Park Trust, seems intransicontinued on page 12
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‘Our palate is no longer in tune with what is good for us,’ he says, as Jude serves a flavour-bomb of garden-fresh black sapote with raw cacao. No wonder these people have energy. In fact, Michel is starting to bounce around in his seat. It’s time for a walk in their garden. Vegies, spices, mushrooms, shampoo ginger.
Asian, South American and African food forests. Staples and rarities. An object lesson in global nutrition and a scented delight. ‘You want the best food, the greatest variety, walk up a narrow track in a third-world country. That is where you find it,’ the couple say. It’s an astounding comment on modernisation. For all our travel, export and influence, our diet is blander than a remote village. The couple has just returned from a five-month tour of 13 countries, including a seed exchange with 5,000 participants in Greece and assisting an embryonic seed network in Senegal, west Africa. ‘The longest-lasting, most effective organisations are those that start without a budget and are light on their feet,’ says Michel.
Saturday 26 October at the Civic Centre $10 entry per day. 15 and under FREE. Members FREE. Membership $10/year. Join at Mullumbimby Newsagency or Mullumbimby Rural Co-op. Sponsored by Mullumbimby Rural Co-op and Uncle Tom’s Pies.
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The Byron Shire Echo October 22, 2013 11