Looking ahead to the next 40 years, what do we see? Local seed programs in communities all across Canada!
We started 40 years ago saving seeds and exchanging them through the mail. We joined and created networks to boost the work of seed savers. We created our central seed collection to preserve back-up samples of our members' seeds.
What has emerged in the past decade are a multitude of community-scale projects doing all of those things. That's where seed diversity really matters - in communities, not just in seed banks - so we want to support seed collections where you are too.
In the summer of 2024, in connection with the Community Seed Network, we held two online group discussions with about 40 people who operate seed collections and seed libraries in their communities. There is so much energy in community seed saving, but so many challenges too.
If we could predict Seeds of Diversity's role during the next 40 years, it would be to help support those community projects: to help them overcome the same challenges that we've known, and help them find ways to support each other too.
We're excited to see what comes next - and we hope you'll be part of it too!