Ketchum, Idaho, USA
July 22, 2014
The Rocky Mountain Seed Alliance (RMSA) announces Seed School in a Day, an innovative workshop that will offer a comprehensive overview of the history, science, business and craft of seeds in an engaging format appropriate for all skill levels and backgrounds.
This one-day course will be presented in Mancos, Colorado Springs, and Boulder, Colorado as well as Boise, Idaho. Other Seed Schools in a Day will be planned throughout the Rocky Mountain West.
Seed School in a Day is a condensed version of the popular six-day Seed School program developed in 2010 by longtime seed educators and RMSA co-founders Bill McDorman and Belle Starr. As former co-directors of the notable seed conservation organization Native Seeds/SEARCH, McDorman and Starr produced nearly two-dozen Seed School courses nationwide and graduated over 525 students from around the world. The acclaimed course has been featured in the Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, and in two documentary films (Open Sesame: The Story of Seeds and the forthcoming SEED: The Untold Story).
In less than a century of industrial agriculture, our once abundant seed diversity—painstakingly created by ancient farmers and gardeners over countless millennia—has been drastically winnowed down to a handful of mass-produced varieties. As the renowned naturalist and author Gary Paul Nabhan puts it, “Many of our seeds today are as endangered as a panda or polar bear.”
The speed and scope of this loss is staggering, and its implications for our future are stark. An article in National Geographic reported that up to 96% of the vegetable seeds available in 1903 have disappeared. In an era of climate uncertainty, this dearth of diversity is a recipe for catastrophic crop failure and human suffering.
Now under the mantle of their newly formed Rocky Mountain Seed Alliance nonprofit, Seed School in a Day will instill participants with the knowledge, resources, and inspiration to develop more sovereign and secure seed systems where they live. The workshops will also help RMSA identify and connect with potential “Seed Stewards” and community seed growers and educators who will collaborate with the Alliance to assess the needs, available resources, and seed management strategies in their communities.
Seed School in a Day workshops are scheduled in the following locations: Mancos, Colorado (August 9th); Colorado Springs, Colorado (August 16th); and Boulder, Colorado (August 23rd). More dates and locations will be announced in the coming weeks. For more information please contact Belle Starr: belle(at)rockymountainseeds(dot)org, Tel: +928.300.7989.
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